The Making of the Atomic Bomb: 25th Anniversary Edition

A quick note for anyone deciding which edition to buy: The "25th Anniversary Edition" removes the book's final chapter completely, which feels utterly disingenuous and revisionist to me. While Rhodes' "Dark Sun" covers the same ground as the omitted epilogue, this edition ends so abruptly I'm amazed there wasn't an advertisement for the other books in his "nuclear anthology" on the final page. The Kindle version is somewhat flawed; there are quite a few typos and dropped punctuation, and it's not always obvious when direct quotations begin and end. I'd recommend buying one of the older physical editions if you want to read this book as it was meant to be read. "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" is a richly detailed epic, a table-shaking beast of a book that frequently sent me on evening walks to ponder and process the last few chapters I'd read. This is more than just a book about Hiroshima, Oppenheimer, and the Manhattan Project. We get an in-depth look at the early history of atomic physics, the personalities of key scientists, politicians, and military leaders, the complex political and military issues surrounding the bomb's development and use, and the historic and social events that shaped its creation. This is NOT a beach read - better put aside two weeks and plenty of undivided attention before tackling it! I first read this book back in 2001, and I was totally enthralled by it, devouring it from cover to cover in four days. Having read it four times since then, some cracks have formed in its facade. Namely, it feels like two books grafted together - a decent one on the early history of nuclear physics, and an enthralling one on the actual making of the atomic bomb. The first 250 pages, while perhaps essential, tend to get bogged down by Rhodes' occasionally self-indulgent scene-setting (do we really need to know what shape the windows were?) and somewhat heavy philosophizing. Things pick up immensely with the actual discovery that the Uranium atom can be split, but I can see why some people give up early on. The "making of" is told with a remarkable lack of sensationalizing and sermonizing, and as horrific as the accounts of the actual bombings are, Rhodes is remarkably nonjudgmental about the bomb's use. People looking for pointed criticisms or historical revisionism will probably be disappointed; although Rhodes clearly abhors war, he seems to view Hiroshima and Nagasaki as the inevitable climax of an increasingly savage conflict against an enemy which refused to surrender. Considering how emotionally charged most books on nuclear weapons are, I actually admired Rhodes' somewhat pragmatic approach. Then again, it might leave others cold and confused. Although it's not the flawless masterpiece I once held it as, "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" is still a pretty solid tome. It's big, multi-layered, thought-provoking, darkly funny, disturbing, richly detailed, philosophical... and just a tad over-rated. The first third is somewhat rough going, and, in retrospect, could have used some careful editing. The last 500 pages, however, are among the best history writing I've ever read. If the early history of nuclear weapons and nuclear physics fascinates you, give it a shot. You just need some patience going in.

The Making of the Atomic Bomb – Richard Rhodes Title: Scientifically Accurate – Overly Wordy Richard Rhodes tome deserves its acclaim as the most comprehensive history of the development of the atomic bomb. As a scientist with advanced degrees in quantum physics I can attest to its scientific accuracy. Mr. Rhodes’s has a gift for explaining complex technical details to a lay audience. I found his lengthily discourse on the lives of scientists enlightening but non-scientists might find these sidebars distracting. There is one question on the development of atomic weapons that has haunted me. What would have happened if Otto Hahn’s paper on the discovery of nuclear fission had not been published six months before the Nazi invasion of Poland? Would the major powers have invested so much talent and money on the urgent development of an atomic bomb? It is unlikely this question will ever be answered

The story of the building of the atomic bomb is probably the single most important piece of science and history of the 20th century and perhaps all of human history. The atomic bomb gave humanity a weapon by which it could achieve its own destruction, something unparalleled in history. Since the test at Trinity in 1945, the entire world has lived in the shadow of annihilation by mass suicide. Now, as nuclear proliferation becomes a greater reality than ever, the threat of superpowers destroying each other in a geopolitical contest has been replaced by the idea of ideological dictators (like North Korea) or terrorist organizations (like ISIS) destroying cities and nations, and in so doing, becoming the cause of such a world-ending world war. But how the atomic bomb was created is a story that many people do not know, and in itself, is a rich and fascinating tale. It combines basic scientific curiosity with the terrible geopolitics of the 1930s, the horrifying tableaux of the world's ghastliest war in the 1940s, the backdrop of Nazi racism, the incredible engineering power of the United States' economy and its military establishment, the growing paranoia and fears of the burgeoning Cold War, and some of the most interesting and intriguing characters in scientific, political, and military history...familiar names like Einstein and Fermi, somewhat less familiar names like Oppenheimer, Groves, and Bohr, and people who should be better remembered, like Kistiakowsky, Feynman, and Alvarez. The scientific and engineering struggle to create the world's first "atomic device" is told with immense writing ability, great research, and rich detail -- an entire chapter focuses on anti-Semitism and how it worked in Europe, hindering Hitler's plans to build an atomic bomb and aiding America's. Later chapters depict in detail the engineering and scientific processes to create atomic piles, nuclear reactors, and finally, "The Gadget," to its first test on July 16, 1945. After that, the pace continues to quicken, as "Little Boy" and "Fat Man" make well-documented voyages to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, respectively, and the atomic attacks are rendered from both points of view: American and Japanese -- victory and the shortening of the war for the Americans, an unbelievable horror for the Japanese. At the end, one feels cognizant of Albert Einstein's warnings about how nuclear weaponry would lead to "general annihilation." This is a book that will fascinate, educate, and make you aware of the ghastly reality we face: we must live together as a species or die by mutual suicide.

I first read this book when it was originally published. I loaned it to a number of friends over the years so many times that a few years ago I bought a new physical copy. I decided to re-read in hard copy but I've been on a Kindle so long I gave up after a chapter and bought the Kindle version that is an updated book. I had forgotten how inept most of the government officials were that were put in charge of various parts of the Manhattan Project. Most people look back at the US WWII effort with rose colored glasses thinking that we had these omniscient people that guided us to victory. Nothing could be farther from the truth. We were just damn lucky that some brilliant civilians never gave up and overcame the impediments of people like Lyman Briggs, Jimmy Byrnes and other pols. It was much the same in the military. If you start with Rick Atkinson's trilogy about the war and then dig deeper, you'll see that the main reasons we won were our industrial production capacity and the GI's who fought bravely. While the generals who were venerated largely turned out to be a bunch inept knuckleheads who were more worried about their image and settling petty scores with other generals. The background of how a largely Jewish group of Europeans were driven into our laps by anti Semitism is fascinating. Moreover, it paints a picture with disturbing parallels to today's nationalism, racism and intolerance stoked by Trump, Bannon, Miller and others.

“The Making of the Atomic Bomb” is Richard Rhodes’s altogether masterful history of the advent of the nuclear age. This book won the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for general non-fiction. It is highly deserving of this award. I found many things most impressive about “The Making of the Atomic Bomb.” It takes a comprehensive look at not only the two years leading up to the “Trinity” test at Alamogordo, New Mexico and atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It also traces the history of nuclear science back to the late nineteenth century when many of the most important foundational discoveries in the fields of physics and chemistry were made. Rhodes highlights the works of many of the most prominent scientists of the age, including Ernest Rutherford, Marie Curie, Albert Einstein, James Chadwick, Leo Szilard, Edward Teller, J. Robert Oppenheimer, and others. Most of these scientists won Nobel Prizes in Physics or Chemistry for their discoveries. Rhodes includes plenty of science in this book, but he does so in a manner that most readers will understand with little difficulty. (On occasion, it does help for readers to have some familiarity with some concepts of physics and chemistry.) However, ‘The Making of the Atomic Bomb” is obviously intended for anyone generally interested in science, history, and biography. “The Making of the Atomic Bomb.” Is a long book, weighing in at nearly 900 pages (including end notes, bibliography, and index.) However, Richard Rhodes writes in such a clear, precise, and engaging style that I was able to finish it in only ten days. It is a thoroughly enjoyable and fascinating read. Highly recommended.

This is a truly fascinating journey from the identification of different components of the atom to the world changing creation and use of the atomic bomb to end WWII. This demonstrates in the strongest possible terms the importance of man's mind and its capabilities. The scientists described are truly heroic and the author describes the progression of events in an exciting and clear manner. It was amazing to me that all of these scientific discoveries coincided with a time when evil men like Hitler and Mussolini were rising to power. It is also unbelievable how rudimentary the experiments were considering the precision required to detect what they were trying to prove. This demonstrates how strong their theoretical aptitude had to be. It is unfortunate that some of the scientists had such reservations regarding the morality of dropping the bomb. It was an either/ or situation and dropping the bomb saved tens of thousands of lives who were fighting for the proper side...fighting for freedom against the evil forces of totalitarianism, collectivism and racism. The biographical portions of this book alone are well worth read- from Einstein to Bohr to Oppenheimer. Rhodes does a great job explaining highly technical subjects that allows the reader to understand the basics behind the monumental discoveries that were occurring. He also colorfully describes the various characters involved in the discoveries. It is difficult to think of a subject with more gravity than the creation of the atomic bomb and the subsequent conclusion of WWII and the author definitely does justice to the subject. Highly recommend!

This was a hard read for a preacher. There was a lot of science and math, but that author does an excellent job of making it understandable. The book is dense and long but goes into needed detail about the background and some of the major players in this pursuit. The book starts from the beginning in talking about some of the early experiments and the famous letter from Einstein to the President. You have Oppenheimer and Teller. In reading the book, you are amazed what was accomplished really in a short amount of time. You are also impressed with the amount of power that the bomb created, but even more about what humans can do today in power. The old bombs are like a firecracker compared to the power of the bombs today. The end of the book is super sad. Hearing all of the eyewitness accounts of the suffering broke my heart. It is my prayer that humanity never drops another bomb. This is a book full of details, it is long and packed full of stuff about the Atomic bomb, and you have to be pretty motived to finish it, but it is the classic text on the topic.

When I bought this book I expected to read a dry account of the activities at Fermi Labs and at Los Alamos resulting in the development of Little Boy. I was greatly surprised. The author covers, beginning at the end of the 19th century, with amazing technical understanding and clarity not only the radiochemistry and physics leading to the assembly of the first bomb, he takes the reader into the lives of the cast of characters involved in those developments. We are invited into the saga that involves the personality quirks of some of the giants of nuclear physics in the 20th century, and we can’t help but be awed by their brilliance and their perseverance in pursuit of their science. The upheaval events of WWII that caused the exodus of so many Jewish scientists to the West not only changed the course of the war, but it changed the tilt of intellectual power to the United States for years to come. If you want a rich chronicle of the events of the first half of the 20th century and its cast of characters leading to the development of the most powerful weapon on earth, this is your book. If you are looking for a short treatise on the last stages of the assembly of the first atomic bomb in New Mexico in the 1940s, look elsewhere. Love this book!

It's a fascinating, long, and detailed history from before WWI until the end of WWII of the science, the scientists, the chance events and brilliant discoveries that ushered in the new field of nuclear physics, and that eventually led to the race to make a super-bomb before the Axis powers succeeded in doing so. It reads like a novel, a thriller, a horror story; sad, funny, inspirational and heartbreaking. Many characters we already know (Einstein, Bohr, Fermi) but many of the most historically influential in this narrative are unknown to most (like the first guy to conceive of the notion of a chain reaction, who then later worked so hard to prevent the creation and use of an atomic weapon). There are very detailed descriptions of the scientific techniques used at the time, revealing the painstaking detective work of those dedicated to the research. This contrasts with the political and military figures who, once they understood the implications and learned that other nations were also on the path, pushed for a practical implementation of the theory with extreme urgency. At the end is a gut wrenching account of the first days and the aftermath of the birth of the nuclear age. Highly recommended.

When this book was published 25 years ago it was immediately recognized as a true classic, a history that was unlikely to be ever surpassed for the sheer amount of detail in it, the amazing breadth of the narrative and the spellbinding language and almost epic style that Rhodes brought in describing an earth-shattering event in human history. 25 years later this fact still rings true and it is inconceivable that anything of this caliber can ever be written. The new anniversary edition has a poignant foreword by Rhodes in which he traces the history of the book, examines our nuclear world and makes a heartfelt and yet commonsense plea for the ultimate abolition of these weapons of mass destruction. There are three things about the book which make it a timeless classic. The first is the sheer, staggering amount of meticulous research and attention to detail that Rhodes brings to his narrative. One simply marvels at the wealth of sources he must have plumbed and the time he must have spent in making sense of them, the mountains of material he must have assimilated and sorted and the number of people he must have interviewed. This book stands as a model of exhaustive research on any topic. A related aspect is the immense breadth and sweep of events, people and places that Rhodes covers. He paints on a canvas that's expansive enough to accommodate everything from quantum mechanics to the human psyche. In this book he doesn't just give us the details of the first atomic bombs but also holds forth on, among other things: the fascinating political and military personalities of the era (FDR, Truman, LeMay), a history of physics in the first half of the twentieth century, ruminations on war and peace including accounts and interpretations of key events during both World Wars, an account of anti-Semitism in Europe, the beginnings of "Big Science" in the United States, the psychological aspects of scientific personality, the moral calculus of bombing, the political history of Europe between the wars and the detailed engineering that went into building weapons of war. There are sections on each of these topics and more, and even the digressions are deep and riveting enough to temporarily immerse the reader into an alternative topic (for instance, a six page account on Jewish history and persecution transports the reader). Long paragraphs of direct quotation allow the characters to speak in their own words. What is remarkable is that Rhodes makes the material utterly gripping in spite of the extraordinarily broad coverage and the level of detail and holds the reader's attention from beginning to end through an 800 page work. This is an achievement in itself. The second aspect of this book that makes it such a fantastic read is the elegant, clear explanation of the science. It is no easy feat to describe the work of Rutherford and Oppenheimer on nuclear physics while at the same time dissecting the political manipulations of Churchill and Roosevelt. Yet Rhodes accomplishes a beautifully simplified (but not oversimplified) version of the momentous scientific ideas developed during the early twentieth century. He seems to have read the original papers on the neutron, radioactive transformations and nuclear fission and these sources are thoroughly documented in the extensive bibliography; key experiments and theories unravel into clear explanations supported by quotes from the original participants. In fact the first half of the book would be a first-rate introduction to the development of atomic physics and the life and times of brilliant scientists like Fermi, Heisenberg, Rutherford, Bohr, Chadwick, Einstein and the Curies who contributed to this discipline. These remarkable scientists are really at the center of Rhodes's account and their personalities and work come alive under his pen. This was physics during its most glorious age of discovery and nobody knew just how enormously it would impact politics and society; indeed, one of Rhodes's goals is to demonstrate how even the purest of science can have the most far-reaching practical and social ramifications. The work of all these scientists is set in revealing detail against the backdrop of growing anti-Semitism and political turmoil in Europe, and their subsequent emigration to the United States and England constitutes a very important chapter in this story. But the introduction of nuclear energy was primarily an act of science, and Rhodes excels in describing this science in patient and marvelous detail. Finally, what ensures this book's place in history is Rhodes's mesmerizing prose, of the kind employed by the select few historians and novelists like Shakespeare, Tolstoy and Herodotus who opened our eyes to world-changing historical events and to the human condition. In Rhodes's hands the making of the atomic bomb turns into an epic tale of triumph and tragedy akin to the Greek tragedies or the Mahabharata. He brings a novelist's eye to his characters and portrays them as actors in a heroic drama of victory and woe; a great example is the unforgettable opening paragraph of the book in which the physicist Leo Szilard first thinks of a chain reaction while waiting for a traffic light in London. The leading lights of the narrative are Niels Bohr and Robert Oppenheimer, brilliant men who also saw deep into the future. And there are many others, human beings laid bare in all their glorious folly, frailty and greatness, struggling to comprehend both natural and human forces. There are no saints and sinners here, only complex humans struggling to understand and control forces that are sometimes beyond their immediate comprehension, often with unintended consequences. Rhodes relentlessly drives home the point that man's greatest gifts can also be the cause of his greatest evils. He makes it clear that science, politics and human nature are inextricably linked and you cannot perturb one without perturbing the other. Taming this combustible mix will be a struggle that we will always grapple with. I first read "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" about fifteen years ago and consider it the most influential book I have ever come across. I am a scientist and the book completely changed my understanding of the inextricable relationship between science and society. Since then at any given moment I have about three copies of the book on my shelf, ready to be lent or gifted to anyone I feel might be interested. I consider it one of the best chronicles ever written about what human beings are capable of, both as creators and destroyers. In the making of the atomic bomb are lessons for all of humanity.

A quick note for anyone deciding which edition to buy: The "25th Anniversary Edition" removes the book's final chapter completely, which feels utterly disingenuous and revisionist to me. While Rhodes' "Dark Sun" covers the same ground as the omitted epilogue, this edition ends so abruptly I'm amazed there wasn't an advertisement for the other books in his "nuclear anthology" on the final page. The Kindle version is somewhat flawed; there are quite a few typos and dropped punctuation, and it's not always obvious when direct quotations begin and end. I'd recommend buying one of the older physical editions if you want to read this book as it was meant to be read. "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" is a richly detailed epic, a table-shaking beast of a book that frequently sent me on evening walks to ponder and process the last few chapters I'd read. This is more than just a book about Hiroshima, Oppenheimer, and the Manhattan Project. We get an in-depth look at the early history of atomic physics, the personalities of key scientists, politicians, and military leaders, the complex political and military issues surrounding the bomb's development and use, and the historic and social events that shaped its creation. This is NOT a beach read - better put aside two weeks and plenty of undivided attention before tackling it! I first read this book back in 2001, and I was totally enthralled by it, devouring it from cover to cover in four days. Having read it four times since then, some cracks have formed in its facade. Namely, it feels like two books grafted together - a decent one on the early history of nuclear physics, and an enthralling one on the actual making of the atomic bomb. The first 250 pages, while perhaps essential, tend to get bogged down by Rhodes' occasionally self-indulgent scene-setting (do we really need to know what shape the windows were?) and somewhat heavy philosophizing. Things pick up immensely with the actual discovery that the Uranium atom can be split, but I can see why some people give up early on. The "making of" is told with a remarkable lack of sensationalizing and sermonizing, and as horrific as the accounts of the actual bombings are, Rhodes is remarkably nonjudgmental about the bomb's use. People looking for pointed criticisms or historical revisionism will probably be disappointed; although Rhodes clearly abhors war, he seems to view Hiroshima and Nagasaki as the inevitable climax of an increasingly savage conflict against an enemy which refused to surrender. Considering how emotionally charged most books on nuclear weapons are, I actually admired Rhodes' somewhat pragmatic approach. Then again, it might leave others cold and confused. Although it's not the flawless masterpiece I once held it as, "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" is still a pretty solid tome. It's big, multi-layered, thought-provoking, darkly funny, disturbing, richly detailed, philosophical... and just a tad over-rated. The first third is somewhat rough going, and, in retrospect, could have used some careful editing. The last 500 pages, however, are among the best history writing I've ever read. If the early history of nuclear weapons and nuclear physics fascinates you, give it a shot. You just need some patience going in.

The Making of the Atomic Bomb – Richard Rhodes Title: Scientifically Accurate – Overly Wordy Richard Rhodes tome deserves its acclaim as the most comprehensive history of the development of the atomic bomb. As a scientist with advanced degrees in quantum physics I can attest to its scientific accuracy. Mr. Rhodes’s has a gift for explaining complex technical details to a lay audience. I found his lengthily discourse on the lives of scientists enlightening but non-scientists might find these sidebars distracting. There is one question on the development of atomic weapons that has haunted me. What would have happened if Otto Hahn’s paper on the discovery of nuclear fission had not been published six months before the Nazi invasion of Poland? Would the major powers have invested so much talent and money on the urgent development of an atomic bomb? It is unlikely this question will ever be answered

The story of the building of the atomic bomb is probably the single most important piece of science and history of the 20th century and perhaps all of human history. The atomic bomb gave humanity a weapon by which it could achieve its own destruction, something unparalleled in history. Since the test at Trinity in 1945, the entire world has lived in the shadow of annihilation by mass suicide. Now, as nuclear proliferation becomes a greater reality than ever, the threat of superpowers destroying each other in a geopolitical contest has been replaced by the idea of ideological dictators (like North Korea) or terrorist organizations (like ISIS) destroying cities and nations, and in so doing, becoming the cause of such a world-ending world war. But how the atomic bomb was created is a story that many people do not know, and in itself, is a rich and fascinating tale. It combines basic scientific curiosity with the terrible geopolitics of the 1930s, the horrifying tableaux of the world's ghastliest war in the 1940s, the backdrop of Nazi racism, the incredible engineering power of the United States' economy and its military establishment, the growing paranoia and fears of the burgeoning Cold War, and some of the most interesting and intriguing characters in scientific, political, and military history...familiar names like Einstein and Fermi, somewhat less familiar names like Oppenheimer, Groves, and Bohr, and people who should be better remembered, like Kistiakowsky, Feynman, and Alvarez. The scientific and engineering struggle to create the world's first "atomic device" is told with immense writing ability, great research, and rich detail -- an entire chapter focuses on anti-Semitism and how it worked in Europe, hindering Hitler's plans to build an atomic bomb and aiding America's. Later chapters depict in detail the engineering and scientific processes to create atomic piles, nuclear reactors, and finally, "The Gadget," to its first test on July 16, 1945. After that, the pace continues to quicken, as "Little Boy" and "Fat Man" make well-documented voyages to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, respectively, and the atomic attacks are rendered from both points of view: American and Japanese -- victory and the shortening of the war for the Americans, an unbelievable horror for the Japanese. At the end, one feels cognizant of Albert Einstein's warnings about how nuclear weaponry would lead to "general annihilation." This is a book that will fascinate, educate, and make you aware of the ghastly reality we face: we must live together as a species or die by mutual suicide.

I first read this book when it was originally published. I loaned it to a number of friends over the years so many times that a few years ago I bought a new physical copy. I decided to re-read in hard copy but I've been on a Kindle so long I gave up after a chapter and bought the Kindle version that is an updated book. I had forgotten how inept most of the government officials were that were put in charge of various parts of the Manhattan Project. Most people look back at the US WWII effort with rose colored glasses thinking that we had these omniscient people that guided us to victory. Nothing could be farther from the truth. We were just damn lucky that some brilliant civilians never gave up and overcame the impediments of people like Lyman Briggs, Jimmy Byrnes and other pols. It was much the same in the military. If you start with Rick Atkinson's trilogy about the war and then dig deeper, you'll see that the main reasons we won were our industrial production capacity and the GI's who fought bravely. While the generals who were venerated largely turned out to be a bunch inept knuckleheads who were more worried about their image and settling petty scores with other generals. The background of how a largely Jewish group of Europeans were driven into our laps by anti Semitism is fascinating. Moreover, it paints a picture with disturbing parallels to today's nationalism, racism and intolerance stoked by Trump, Bannon, Miller and others.

“The Making of the Atomic Bomb” is Richard Rhodes’s altogether masterful history of the advent of the nuclear age. This book won the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for general non-fiction. It is highly deserving of this award. I found many things most impressive about “The Making of the Atomic Bomb.” It takes a comprehensive look at not only the two years leading up to the “Trinity” test at Alamogordo, New Mexico and atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It also traces the history of nuclear science back to the late nineteenth century when many of the most important foundational discoveries in the fields of physics and chemistry were made. Rhodes highlights the works of many of the most prominent scientists of the age, including Ernest Rutherford, Marie Curie, Albert Einstein, James Chadwick, Leo Szilard, Edward Teller, J. Robert Oppenheimer, and others. Most of these scientists won Nobel Prizes in Physics or Chemistry for their discoveries. Rhodes includes plenty of science in this book, but he does so in a manner that most readers will understand with little difficulty. (On occasion, it does help for readers to have some familiarity with some concepts of physics and chemistry.) However, ‘The Making of the Atomic Bomb” is obviously intended for anyone generally interested in science, history, and biography. “The Making of the Atomic Bomb.” Is a long book, weighing in at nearly 900 pages (including end notes, bibliography, and index.) However, Richard Rhodes writes in such a clear, precise, and engaging style that I was able to finish it in only ten days. It is a thoroughly enjoyable and fascinating read. Highly recommended.

This is a truly fascinating journey from the identification of different components of the atom to the world changing creation and use of the atomic bomb to end WWII. This demonstrates in the strongest possible terms the importance of man's mind and its capabilities. The scientists described are truly heroic and the author describes the progression of events in an exciting and clear manner. It was amazing to me that all of these scientific discoveries coincided with a time when evil men like Hitler and Mussolini were rising to power. It is also unbelievable how rudimentary the experiments were considering the precision required to detect what they were trying to prove. This demonstrates how strong their theoretical aptitude had to be. It is unfortunate that some of the scientists had such reservations regarding the morality of dropping the bomb. It was an either/ or situation and dropping the bomb saved tens of thousands of lives who were fighting for the proper side...fighting for freedom against the evil forces of totalitarianism, collectivism and racism. The biographical portions of this book alone are well worth read- from Einstein to Bohr to Oppenheimer. Rhodes does a great job explaining highly technical subjects that allows the reader to understand the basics behind the monumental discoveries that were occurring. He also colorfully describes the various characters involved in the discoveries. It is difficult to think of a subject with more gravity than the creation of the atomic bomb and the subsequent conclusion of WWII and the author definitely does justice to the subject. Highly recommend!

This was a hard read for a preacher. There was a lot of science and math, but that author does an excellent job of making it understandable. The book is dense and long but goes into needed detail about the background and some of the major players in this pursuit. The book starts from the beginning in talking about some of the early experiments and the famous letter from Einstein to the President. You have Oppenheimer and Teller. In reading the book, you are amazed what was accomplished really in a short amount of time. You are also impressed with the amount of power that the bomb created, but even more about what humans can do today in power. The old bombs are like a firecracker compared to the power of the bombs today. The end of the book is super sad. Hearing all of the eyewitness accounts of the suffering broke my heart. It is my prayer that humanity never drops another bomb. This is a book full of details, it is long and packed full of stuff about the Atomic bomb, and you have to be pretty motived to finish it, but it is the classic text on the topic.

When I bought this book I expected to read a dry account of the activities at Fermi Labs and at Los Alamos resulting in the development of Little Boy. I was greatly surprised. The author covers, beginning at the end of the 19th century, with amazing technical understanding and clarity not only the radiochemistry and physics leading to the assembly of the first bomb, he takes the reader into the lives of the cast of characters involved in those developments. We are invited into the saga that involves the personality quirks of some of the giants of nuclear physics in the 20th century, and we can’t help but be awed by their brilliance and their perseverance in pursuit of their science. The upheaval events of WWII that caused the exodus of so many Jewish scientists to the West not only changed the course of the war, but it changed the tilt of intellectual power to the United States for years to come. If you want a rich chronicle of the events of the first half of the 20th century and its cast of characters leading to the development of the most powerful weapon on earth, this is your book. If you are looking for a short treatise on the last stages of the assembly of the first atomic bomb in New Mexico in the 1940s, look elsewhere. Love this book!

It's a fascinating, long, and detailed history from before WWI until the end of WWII of the science, the scientists, the chance events and brilliant discoveries that ushered in the new field of nuclear physics, and that eventually led to the race to make a super-bomb before the Axis powers succeeded in doing so. It reads like a novel, a thriller, a horror story; sad, funny, inspirational and heartbreaking. Many characters we already know (Einstein, Bohr, Fermi) but many of the most historically influential in this narrative are unknown to most (like the first guy to conceive of the notion of a chain reaction, who then later worked so hard to prevent the creation and use of an atomic weapon). There are very detailed descriptions of the scientific techniques used at the time, revealing the painstaking detective work of those dedicated to the research. This contrasts with the political and military figures who, once they understood the implications and learned that other nations were also on the path, pushed for a practical implementation of the theory with extreme urgency. At the end is a gut wrenching account of the first days and the aftermath of the birth of the nuclear age. Highly recommended.

When this book was published 25 years ago it was immediately recognized as a true classic, a history that was unlikely to be ever surpassed for the sheer amount of detail in it, the amazing breadth of the narrative and the spellbinding language and almost epic style that Rhodes brought in describing an earth-shattering event in human history. 25 years later this fact still rings true and it is inconceivable that anything of this caliber can ever be written. The new anniversary edition has a poignant foreword by Rhodes in which he traces the history of the book, examines our nuclear world and makes a heartfelt and yet commonsense plea for the ultimate abolition of these weapons of mass destruction. There are three things about the book which make it a timeless classic. The first is the sheer, staggering amount of meticulous research and attention to detail that Rhodes brings to his narrative. One simply marvels at the wealth of sources he must have plumbed and the time he must have spent in making sense of them, the mountains of material he must have assimilated and sorted and the number of people he must have interviewed. This book stands as a model of exhaustive research on any topic. A related aspect is the immense breadth and sweep of events, people and places that Rhodes covers. He paints on a canvas that's expansive enough to accommodate everything from quantum mechanics to the human psyche. In this book he doesn't just give us the details of the first atomic bombs but also holds forth on, among other things: the fascinating political and military personalities of the era (FDR, Truman, LeMay), a history of physics in the first half of the twentieth century, ruminations on war and peace including accounts and interpretations of key events during both World Wars, an account of anti-Semitism in Europe, the beginnings of "Big Science" in the United States, the psychological aspects of scientific personality, the moral calculus of bombing, the political history of Europe between the wars and the detailed engineering that went into building weapons of war. There are sections on each of these topics and more, and even the digressions are deep and riveting enough to temporarily immerse the reader into an alternative topic (for instance, a six page account on Jewish history and persecution transports the reader). Long paragraphs of direct quotation allow the characters to speak in their own words. What is remarkable is that Rhodes makes the material utterly gripping in spite of the extraordinarily broad coverage and the level of detail and holds the reader's attention from beginning to end through an 800 page work. This is an achievement in itself. The second aspect of this book that makes it such a fantastic read is the elegant, clear explanation of the science. It is no easy feat to describe the work of Rutherford and Oppenheimer on nuclear physics while at the same time dissecting the political manipulations of Churchill and Roosevelt. Yet Rhodes accomplishes a beautifully simplified (but not oversimplified) version of the momentous scientific ideas developed during the early twentieth century. He seems to have read the original papers on the neutron, radioactive transformations and nuclear fission and these sources are thoroughly documented in the extensive bibliography; key experiments and theories unravel into clear explanations supported by quotes from the original participants. In fact the first half of the book would be a first-rate introduction to the development of atomic physics and the life and times of brilliant scientists like Fermi, Heisenberg, Rutherford, Bohr, Chadwick, Einstein and the Curies who contributed to this discipline. These remarkable scientists are really at the center of Rhodes's account and their personalities and work come alive under his pen. This was physics during its most glorious age of discovery and nobody knew just how enormously it would impact politics and society; indeed, one of Rhodes's goals is to demonstrate how even the purest of science can have the most far-reaching practical and social ramifications. The work of all these scientists is set in revealing detail against the backdrop of growing anti-Semitism and political turmoil in Europe, and their subsequent emigration to the United States and England constitutes a very important chapter in this story. But the introduction of nuclear energy was primarily an act of science, and Rhodes excels in describing this science in patient and marvelous detail. Finally, what ensures this book's place in history is Rhodes's mesmerizing prose, of the kind employed by the select few historians and novelists like Shakespeare, Tolstoy and Herodotus who opened our eyes to world-changing historical events and to the human condition. In Rhodes's hands the making of the atomic bomb turns into an epic tale of triumph and tragedy akin to the Greek tragedies or the Mahabharata. He brings a novelist's eye to his characters and portrays them as actors in a heroic drama of victory and woe; a great example is the unforgettable opening paragraph of the book in which the physicist Leo Szilard first thinks of a chain reaction while waiting for a traffic light in London. The leading lights of the narrative are Niels Bohr and Robert Oppenheimer, brilliant men who also saw deep into the future. And there are many others, human beings laid bare in all their glorious folly, frailty and greatness, struggling to comprehend both natural and human forces. There are no saints and sinners here, only complex humans struggling to understand and control forces that are sometimes beyond their immediate comprehension, often with unintended consequences. Rhodes relentlessly drives home the point that man's greatest gifts can also be the cause of his greatest evils. He makes it clear that science, politics and human nature are inextricably linked and you cannot perturb one without perturbing the other. Taming this combustible mix will be a struggle that we will always grapple with. I first read "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" about fifteen years ago and consider it the most influential book I have ever come across. I am a scientist and the book completely changed my understanding of the inextricable relationship between science and society. Since then at any given moment I have about three copies of the book on my shelf, ready to be lent or gifted to anyone I feel might be interested. I consider it one of the best chronicles ever written about what human beings are capable of, both as creators and destroyers. In the making of the atomic bomb are lessons for all of humanity.

This is the fourth or fifth time I have reached out for this book. It is the 25th Anniversary Edition, so this will be new to delve into for me. As an educator, if ever called on to purchase a general chemistry book, I would select this at the high school or associate level. Also a great intro to physics. Perhaps as an additional book to text? I found topic scary.. terrifying even. Yet author is excellent at explaining history of things. This has led me to purchase this book in print previous editions, as well as through books for the blind and handicapped in my state and on my Kindle. Would give as gifts to science lover. I adore the way author explains everything in simple terms. At this point, I use as a reference. But it is good enough to re-read if I have the inclination to in these crazy quarantine times we are now in with the virus. I have gone on to read many more books by this author. Many lighter, but all science related. Even his fiction works are great!

This is just an amazing book. I am quite picky about the books I read. I take a while to get through a book and so I am careful about what I start. At over 700 pages this was a big project for me. And I loved it. I am a computer programmer and general 'techie' kind of guy. I am interested in the history of science and energy in particular. I loved the way Rhodes brought in the social side of the story (the Jewish scientists being forced to leave Europe). I learned a lot about the history of WWII. And about the scientific history of the discovery of the neutron. This book is the best kind of history. Rhodes devotes many pages near the end for eye-witness accounts of the destruction and misery caused by the bombs - which were kind of hard to take but I appreciate the fact that he wanted to discuss that aspect of the effect of using this technology.

This book cannot be topped as far as history and in-depth material. Mr. Rhodes has spent countless hours on end researching every detail. I had checked this book out at the library. It's a slow read because there is so much pertinent information in each and every sentence, that I don't want to miss anything. And everything is built on the previous sentence. I extended my library check-out time and still was reading the book. So I decided to buy it so that I could take my time reading it. At present, I'm on chapter 8 where Hitler has just announced his manifestos to the world. I cannot stress enough how the information in this book will help you understand our past and where we are today.

The Manhattan project is an epic event in human history so it needs to be documented for future generations. I would describe this book as a very thorough and detailed history of the entire event. I suspect the intended audience is future historians who need an accurate description of what happened. Translation: It's not a light read. Don't get me wrong; it's a great book but it is pedantically thorough and dense. Rhodes even discusses how one scientist cared for his front lawn! It starts in the 1890's and goes through EVERY scientific experiment that lead up to the first chain reaction. So, yes, you do get hard core scientific discussions, but if you can put up with reading all of them, you can understand it without a physics degree. Oddly, about 70% of the book takes place before 1940. I was sort of disappointed that the actual Manhattan project was only a small part of the book. I would have liked more discussion of that era. But the science aside, Rhodes also discusses the political climate and moral discussions that led to such a project. And he does it in an apolitical way of what was happening at the time, not giving 20-20 hindsight observations or biases. You tend to think of people in past times as being naive, but he illustrated that they understood the ramifications of what they were doing - nuclear proliferation, radioactive fallout, cold wars, arms races, the destruction of humankind. So if you want to read a thorough, academic, historical account, this is the book for you. But for an easier read, try "The girls of atomic city" by Denise Kiernan.

A lot of potential but not very good. I stuck with it since other reviewers implied that it gets better the further you get into it. It didn't. I was surprised that the espionage surrounding the "making" got only one sentence. The biggest part of the Manhattan Project was the massive construction and operation of the separation plants, which employed more people than the entire US auto industry. But the author was so busy drooling over Leo Szilard that he failed to cover the biggest issue.

I witnessed the Bikini tests and worked on the bomb at Albuquerque as a navy Warrant Officer followed up by maintaining them in the fleet and travelling over the world checking out safety wherever they were stationed. Met many of the men written about in this book and often wished I knew more. This book told me much more about the background and thinking of these men. I particularly wanted to know more about the thinking of Teller and Oppenheimer, both of whom I had met. Very revealing details of how they thought are covered here. One important thing that one notices is that if it weren't for Hitler kicking the Jewish scientists out of Hungary, Austria and Germany, we would not have the bomb today. He would have it!. The U.S. had little knowledge in the field of theoretical nuclear physics until those men came here. Thank God for that. There are long, long parts of the book that are rather boring but necessary to the understanding of how things developed over the years. This is a must read book for anyone interested in knowing how we managed to developed this awesome device.

I’m a huge geek for the history of nuclear physics, and this book does a great job explaining the origins of this field (or at least those relevant to the fission chain reaction). I am also a student of dense plasma physics, which is a field funded by a not-always-distinguishable convolution of energy, weapons, and basic sciences. The Making of the Atomic Bomb gave me a foundational understanding of why my field is funded and structured the way it is. And there were moments of this book that were so powerful, I had to put it down to stop and process what I just read. If you’re a lover of history or science, I cannot recommend this book more.

This is an excellent book. Rhodes covers every aspect of the history, politics, people, etc. that went into the making of the bomb. He even gets into some technical aspects of Fermi's atomic reactor (first in the world) and the structure of the bomb itself, without getting too technical for the non-scientist reader to understand. Even though I studied science in college (biology major, chemistry minor, physics classes) none of this was covered in any of my classes! It really should have been. I got interested in reading his book because I'd seen Rhodes interviewed in a number of videos related to the bomb, Nat'l Geographic, Discovery Channel, etc. After I read the book, I understood why, he is the expert on the subject, hands down! A very good writer too, It's a lengthy book, a lot of details, but it's so engaging, you don't get bogged down in them. He really deserved the Pullitzer. If you need to read about this subject, for a school project, or just because you're interested in the history, this is the book to get.

The book is a detailed account of the scientific history, and was a page turner to a non-science reader such as me. Thanks to the author, I was able to grasp the the discoveries and their significance leading to the bomb. The author provides plenty of background on the relevant historic events, and provides insightful biographies on each of the characters. I read primarily history and this book (despite its length) I read through quickly since the topic captured me and I was unable to put it down at times. The storyline is thorough for the topic, but it felt like it ended abruptly since It doesn’t cover the nuclear history after Nagasaki. The Cold War and overall energy questions I had been asking myself throughout the book were not touched upon (understandably since the book is already covering a lot). Looks like I have to get the next book(s) to learn about nuclear power and weapons beyond 1945 which I will gladly do.

I bought this book for the first time around 25 years ago. I loved it. I just got a new copy, because my old one got ruined in a move. Richard Rhodes delivers an exhaustive, yet entertaining, history of the development of the amazing weapon that prevented the communists from enslaving mankind. He tells us about the superhuman geniuses who worked on it. He tells us about the political, strategic, and practical sides of the bomb's creation. Nothing is left out. He even includes a diagram of a "uranium gun"-type bomb, in case you want to make your own. This book was very inspiring to me when I decided to pursue a career in physics. Sadly, it wasn't inspiring enough to prevent me from quitting, but I suppose that's my fault, not the books. If you're in physics or engineering, this is a must-read.

This book is not for the light reader. It is a massive history from first inceptions of nuclear fission to the actual making of the bomb. One must know that without a fairly strong understanding of physics going in, you will be confused and frankly somewhat bored. This goes on for at least half of the work, and then begins to lighten up as the author gets more to the years when the bomb was actually manufactured and dropped. Having said of of this, for me it was a labor of love. I couldn’t....more like wouldn’t....put it down until I conquered it. Not the way most of us like to read but I can certainly understand why it won a Pulitzer Prize. Not a book for the beach and it will put your noggin to the test.

This is much more than simply a history of how the first atomic bombs were developed. Richard Rhodes begins with what he calls the 'prehistory' of the Manhattan Project, starting with the discovery of radioactivity and continuing through the steps by which physicists, chemists and other scientists came to understand the structure of the atom, the existence of protons, neutrons and electrons, as well as the various particles that may be emitted through radioactive decay or as a result of processes such as bombardment or, eventually, nuclear fission. It is a fascinating look at how scientists, working in laboratories and with tools we would consider very primitive today, were able to slowly understand the structure of the atom, something that could not be seen or directly measured but had to be understood by applying theories and logic to the experimental results they were able to obtain. As the story reaches the time when Hitler began to take power in Germany, the scientists who were the leading researchers in physics in Europe begin to migrate to England and then to the United States. Early developments at the Max Planck Institute for Physics started Germany on the road to developing its own nuclear weapon, an effort thwarted by the Allies throughout the war and severely handicapped by the loss of scientists who had fled Germany and joined the efforts in the United States. Japan also had its own nascent effort to develop a nuclear weapon but was unable to make much progress, lacking the necessary resources and industrial infrastructure. Ultimately, only the United States had the scientists (many from Europe) and industrial capability to develop nuclear weapons, and by the end of the war the various facilities that had been constructed to enrich uranium, produce plutonium and support these efforts was altogether equivalent to the size of the american automobile industry at the time. The scientists who had developed the atomic bomb were not certain it would work, or what the effects would be, until the first bomb was tested on July 16, 1945, in the New Mexico desert. This 'Trinity' test took place just one day before President Truman met with Churchill and Stalin at the Potsdam Conference. The war in Europe against Germany had concluded on May 8, 1945, but the war in the Pacific against Japan continued. President Truman now knew that he had the atomic bomb available for use against Japan, which had so far refused to agree to an unconditional surrender. The book concludes with an accounting of the bombs effects on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, recounting stories of survivors and describing what it was like on the ground for those who survived the initial blast, some with lingering effects that led to death soon thereafter, and some with longer term suffering. It is a very sobering reminder of the terrible power of these devices (John Hersey's classic account

The Making of the Atomic Bomb is one of the best books that I have ever read. This historical journey starts around 1890 and works its way through World War I and many discoveries in chemistry and physics before getting to World War II, the University of Chicago and Los Alamos. I majored in chemistry and fully enjoyed reading about the history of the discovery of protons, electrons and finally neutrons and also the development of the periodic table. But you don't need to be a chemistry major to appreciate this book. Richard Rhodes provides so much scientific, biographical and political detail that you feel like you are in the minds of people like Enrico Fermi, Robert Oppenheimer and tons of other great scientific, military and political figures. I'm looking forward to reading another Richard Rhodes book - Dark Sun:The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb.

Perhaps the seminal work in the last 50 years. Rhodes packs an amazing amount of highly complex science into a readable, highly entertaining book. Having grown up under the shadow of the Cold War, and my family involved in the nuclear industry both for peace and for weapons, this book is priceless in understanding the years of the atomic age. You have to come away from this book with a certain sense of bewilderment as to how the immense scale of the financial and scientific resources brought together for this project. One of the few books I pick up ever four or five years and read again. If I taught literature in high school or college, or foreign affairs, or military history, this book would be in the top three of must reads.

I am a former nuclear physicist. I started in 1959 when a good number of the famous physicists were still around. In the early '60s I worked directly with three people that had worked on the Manhattan Project, so this book brought back a lot of good memories. I very much liked the fact that this books starts out in the mid 1800s, before the structure of the atom was completely understood, and before the neutron had been discovered. In the early days the leading physics research was taking place in England, Germany, Sweden and Italy. As it turns out, Hitler did the US and England an enormous favor when he started persecuting the Jews. At that time many of the leading nuclear researchers were Jewish or very sympathetic with their Jewish friends and associates.Thus,Hitler caused 70% to 80% of the top scientists to flee to the US and England. Had this not happened, I believe, Germany would have been the leader in atomic and nuclear research. Fortunately this book details exactly what took place in the 1930s and early 1940s. This book also covers both sides of the doubt or guilt feelings some of these scientists had in regards to their participation in this project. Almost all, continued their work because they all had a great fear that Germany might be ahead of us in developing the atomic bomb. Fortunately, some of the leading nuclear scientists who remained in Germany "drug their feet," because they, too, were concerned about what Hitler might do if he had this horrible and destructive weapon. I am very happy that I read this book. It does an excellent job of covering the history of atomic and nuclear understanding and development. I strongly recommend this book to anyone who has the slightest curiosity about atomic and nuclear research and the making of the first nuclear weapons. To people with nuclear experience, like me, this book is a "must read."

Richard Rhodes's "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" is a comprehensive (800 page) history of the scientists and their research that culminated in the dropping of Little Boy and Fat Man on Japan in August 1945. This detailed, all-encompassing work covers the research, the scientists, the engineering, the politics, and the ethic dilemmas surrounding the creation of the first atomic bombs. Rhodes sets the scene with descriptions of the research done in small labs and universities throughout Europe around the turn of the century as the "big names" (Curies, Bohr, Fermi, and others tackled the questions of atomic research). He describes how the rise of the Nazis pushed much of the research to America, how the government was slow to realize the potential of atomic research, and finally how the bureaucratic and industrial might of America was thrown into the mix. His descriptions of the scientific problems and theories are easily understood by the lay reader. But Rhodes does more than just describe the research: he humanizes it. This is just as much a book about the scientists involved in all of this research. He describes their personal struggles and how their personalities shaped their work and their relations with each other. He describes their personal moral struggles with the unleashing of atomic power. The reader gets to know all of these scientists as people and not just as names. Rhodes also recounts the atomic research going on in Germany, Soviet Russia, and Japan during World War II. He keeps the reader apprised of events going on in the world that impacted the science and scientists. He describes military missions (such as the sabotage of the Norsk Hydro Plant in Norway that the Germans used for the production of heavy water). He weaves all of these threads into an excellent stand-alone narrative. There are a few weaknesses in the book. One is that sometimes he includes way too many extraneous details, such as a long history of anti-Semitism as a prelude to Nazi anti-Semitism, a detailed description of the attack on Pearl Harbor, and a couple pages on the Battle of Tinian Island in the Pacific. These details detracted from the overall story and unnecessarily added to the length of an already-long book. Rhodes also gets some of the details wrong, such as one picture caption about General Eisenhower visiting the front lines (this famous picture was taken in England before the D-Day assault), or his claim that FDR declared war on Germany and Italy at the same time that he declared war against Japan. One other weakness is that he seems to rush through the last year or so of the development as if, after all of the detailed history of the previous years, he realized that he was working against a deadline and had to get to the actual test and uses of the atomic bombs. He describes in some detail the founding of Los Alamos, then suddenly (relatively speaking, in a book of this length) the scientists are setting up for the Trinity tests, with only a cursory recounting of the work done in that last year at Los Alamos, Oak Ridge, and Hanford, Washington. Rhodes also tells the story of Neils Bohr's and Leo Szilard's visions of a post-atomic world and their early desires for arms controls. Rhodes's vivid description of the bombing of Hiroshima leads to his personal conclusion, adopting Bohr's belief in the "complementarity of the bomb," that atomic and nuclear weapons must be controlled by institutions outside of the nation-states. Interestingly, he reached this conclusion in the mid-1980s, just a couple of years before the nation-states themselves willingly backed down from Cold War.

This is a wonderful and detailed history of the making of the bomb, but it's not only about the bomb -- it covers history of modern physics leading to the making of the bomb, starting with Faraday and Maxwell, through Einstein, Rutherford, Chadwick, Bohr, Curie, Joliot-Curie, Hahn, Frisch, Meitner, Fermi, Oppenheimer and every other of the great physicists of the first half of the 20th century. It covers the influence of political events, including the Great War, the pogroms, the Nazi racial laws. The childhood influences of many of the scientists is discussed as. for example, much is made of the philosophical influence of Kierkegaard on Niels Bohr, how it shaped his thinking and his great scientific discoveries.

Richard Rhodes' The Making Of The Atomic Bomb chronicles the heights and the depths of mankind. Our ability to unlock the very elemental forces of nature is stirringly chronicled in the first half of the book which serves as a dazzling primer on physics. The reader is introduced to science's giants of the 20th Century--Einstein, Rutherford, Bohr, Heisenberg, Fermi, Oppenheimer and Szilard to name just a few. A score of others serve as Greek chorus and supporting cast in an epic story of invention and destruction. I was astonished to realize a mere 20-25 years before Hiroshima, physicists did not understand the structure of the atom--two of its three fundamental component parts--the proton and the neutron were as yet unknown. A brilliant, international clan led by Britain and Germany inspired themselves and others with discoveries that exponentially added to our knowledge, their achievements and ironically to mutual destruction. The Making of the Atomic Bomb is a forthright defense of science. The author rightly disdains those who would keep knowledge under wraps because their fellow humans aren't to be trusted with its uses. But he also takes a hard look to at the compromises and self-delusion that seem to go hand in hand with discovery. Among his multitude of accomplishments Rhodes makes physics and the scientific process of those devoted to it, understandable to non-scientific minds. I will not pretend The Making of the Atomic Bomb is without its challenges. On many occasions I had to circle back to fully understand the discoveries, which after 1930 seem to explode like the nuclei they mapped. Occasionally I felt as though I were back in a college classroom. And yes, some things I only partially grasp. That however, is on me, not the author, who respects his readers enough not to dumb it down. If my understanding is imperfect, it is sufficient to be in absolute awe of the intelligence and talent that adorned the fields of chemistry and physics from the 1920s-1940s. The scientists herein are almost as riveting as their revelations. Some familiar (Einstein, Bohr, Fermi and Oppenheimer) are colorfully and admiringly portrayed. Others I had never heard of but also fascinating grace these pages. Rutherford, Meitner, Chadwick, Szilard and Seaborg are names I never heard of before but will now long remember. Throughout its pages they come alive as generous, covetous, egotistical, humble, brash, hard-nosed and idealistic. Their ambitions, successes and near-misses are wonderfully well told making their theories and discoveries more amazing still. While theories and discoveries are nurtured in labs and weaned in professional discussion, science is practiced in the real world. Those scientific ideals clashed with the reality of nations ravaged by German fascism and the imperialism of Japan. Even the most stout-hearted determination of the Bohrs or Szilards never stand a chance against the resolute determination of a public, military and government bent upon revenge. However, to be not guilty is not the same as to be innocent. Rhodes makes clear more then a few who participated in the perfection of weapons and nuclear bombs are guilty of deluding themselves, caught up in the 'casus belli' that swept the nation. Following the elation of success at Alamogordo is the "success" of Hiroshima that is chronicled in descriptions of the horror told by its survivors. The nightmare of destruction unfolds in snippets of reminiscence that are among the most gut-wrenching passages I have ever read. Rhodes interrupts our admiration of intellectual discovery to witness its uglier consequence. The dirty side of a coin only half pristine. He brings readers down from the clouds where planes drop bombs to see what is wrought on the ground. In doing so he makes science and mankind both amazing and awful. A tremendous book.

I wanted to read about the making of the atomic bomb. I never got there. I stopped reading. Surely some of this could have been condensed. This is a most gratuitously detailed book. Filled with irrelevant detail and and tangential stories. It is very well written, but uninteresting and feels more like a history of the early 20th century in Europe with occasional mentions of scientific advances.

This was well researched and dives very deep, although the pace of the book is not commensurate with the material depth. There is a vast amount of philosophizing and enough physics to earn some college credits for the first half of the book, yet once you finally plow through hundreds of pages of ramping up to the atomic bomb it almost turns into a pamphlet. There is little after action analysis of what all the scientists thought about what they had created, although the book covers their upbringing and education in exhaustive detail. I believe the author just ran out of gas once the dropping of the bomb was finally reached. I was literally riveted to this book for the last fifty pages and then it just ended.

A book more riveting than any drama, because it tells the story of the most stupendous and most terrifying scientific accomplishment of the human race. Because it isn't really just about the atomic bomb; not even primarily that. It is the story of physics, chemistry, politics and personalities in the late 19th-mid-20th centuries. As someone who had trouble deciding whether to major in chemistry or history in my university years, and who ended focusing on the history of science, this book was literally a page-turner for me. Now, most of the story I knew, and knew well. I have been to the labs at Los Alamos, Livermore and Berkeley. I had read Nuell Pharr Davis's marvelous "Lawrence and Oppenheimer," which I recommend highly to those who enjoyed this book. But I had never seen the history, the personalities and the science so fully, intricately and clearly explained, and I am sure I never will see better. There is much that is poignant in the book, more that is human. It is an essential story of our civilization. And should be required reading for all of us, to understand not only the power of science and the human mind, but the importance of choices and consequences. It also definitely helps if you have a decent background in chemistry/physics, though not essential. If you do, you will appreciate even more, and understand even more, the significance of the detailed science Mr. Rhodes presents. To me, it was gripping. This is probably the best book I have read in ten years, maybe more. As a citizen of any country, you owe it to yourself and your fellow citizens to read this marvelous work.

This book provides deep background on the earliest work with the science that helped bring about nuclear technology, leading to the building of The Bomb. The first portion of the book provides insight into various scientists that played key roles in the development of atomic science. Patience. This background is essential to put the entire book into perspective. It is well written and it is a good story.

I have the kindle edition. There is a fair amount of physics in this book. If you have not studied some physics much of that will be lost on you. The history will still be very worthwhile. The book details what was an amazing scientific and industrial accomplishment. More illustrations would have helped a great deal (perhaps they are present in the hard copy . Kindle always seems to suffer from poorly rendered illustrations. ) I would recommend the book.

The only real problem with this book is that probably back then when it was first published, it was decided that a title pointing at the atomic bomb was far more catchier than 'the scientific and political the story of sub-atomic physics in the first half of the 20th century'. Nevertheless, this is really what this book is all about, as it starts very early in the 1900's with the first significant discoveries in atomic physics, and ends with a glimpse into the post-WWII atomic race and fusion-bomb development. The author managed to pack tons of information in a fascinating epic story with continuos and catching narrative. This is an eminently scientific book, and you will need some basic understanding of atomic and sub-atomic physics and chemistry to fully understand it, but it could have not been done any differently without leaving out some of the most important facts. Without these the events that unfold in 1944 and 1945 cannot be explained. Seldom we have been privileged enough to get a view into this very secretive science world, the motivations of the many scientists, and even less into the Pentagon-White House-World Leaders political interactions. Mr. Rhodes has done some terrific and in-depth research (just have a look at the bibliography section in the book), which enables him to takes us along this fascinating journey of scientific discoveries, political games and terrifying death by the hundreds of thousands. Particularly commendable was his choice of allowing the victims of the two atomic bombs to voice their horrible experience, putting into perspective the work of many thousand scientists and the many billions of dollars spent into building these bombs. Let us just hope that the mushroom clouds become a curiosity of the past and that we will never ever again have to witness an atomic explosion. Highly recommended.

Fascinating story of the developments in atomic physics during the first part of the 20th century leading to the widespread recognition among scientists that an atomic bomb was feasible. The second part of the book describes in detail the decision making process leading to a full commitment on the part of the US to actually make one followed by the implementation. This required enormous resources the development of new technologies for both the separation of U235 and the manufacture of plutonium followed by how to use them in a bomb. The final section described the development of planes that could drop them and considerable thought as to how to best utilizing them to end the war. This is a very enjoyable and informative book and gives confidence to what Americans can accomplish if they really want to. It doesn't matter at all that the book was written 25 years ago.

I'm only giving it four stars because it IS very technical for the first half. I was fortunate in being married to an engineer who could simply it for me. But even without understanding all the science of the first half, I could still understand the enormity of the discoveries and how it was all waiting for the perfect storm to bring together all the individual findings. The life at Los Alamos, the coming together of the military forces responsible for delivering the bomb, the President's advisors' roles all are well covered. The descriptions from the Japanese survivors in the first few days after the bombing are gut wrenching. It made my heart literally ache. I can't even think of another analogy. A good follow up to this book is "The Atomic Times" by Harris. He was a soldier in 1955-56 sent to Eniwetok Atoll during Operation Redwing (H bomb testing). His account of his time there reinforces Rhodes' book and gives another "man on the ground" perspective. Highly recommend this book. It is scientific, but it is worth the work of getting through it. If you just can't take anything technical you might not like it. But the second half is awesome.

This book is perhaps the most comprehensive and scholarly review of the history of the Manhattan Project and the evolution of the science and history which came to be reality. Rhodes spares few details and has done extensive research with the facts well referenced and documented. Starting with the scientists and the progress of physics and chemistry in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the contributions of the combined works of many famous people like the Curies, Niels Bohr, Rutherford, Otto Frisch, Oppenheimer, etc. progress to the ultimate destructive result. The writing also shows how the work of many distinguished Jewish intellectuals who were harassed and forced to flee Europe due to Hitler's Antisemitism eventually led to the program's success. The crises of conscience over the bomb's use is also well explored. Much detailed information is contained here that I never read anywhere else. For a single reference of the events of this time period, this book should remain a core text for current and future generations. A must have for anyone interested in the title topic.

There are certain aspects of human history that every single person should have keen awareness of - certain defining moments in our history which draw a line in the sand beyond which the whole game changes. The invention of nuclear technology and the Atomic Bomb qualifies as one of those defining moments. With the A-bomb (not to mention much more powerful weapons subsequently developed upon that foundation) human beings achieved the ability to literally annihilate not only ourselves but the whole earth, essentially at the push of a button. When one reflects on the idea that humanity has never invented a weapon or technology that we haven't used...in gross excess...that's a very sobering thought. The invention of nuclear technology marks a turning point in our history, and despite the boldness of my saying so, anybody that doesn't learn of and reflect seriously on this particular aspect and period of our history is not educated despite whatever degrees, accolades, or achievements they may have. In short, this represents part of our history that every reasonable person simply must know of, and Rhodes does a fantastic job in contributing significantly to that history. This book very eloquently and in detail provides a much needed context to the invention of nuclear technology. One of the biggest strengths of the book highlights Rhodes' ability to show relevant context that doesn't necessarily involve the technical aspects of the bomb's development. In other words, Rhodes doesn't simply regurgitate the technical processes involved (nor does he succumb to the temptation to reach beyond what any reasonably educated reader is capable of at least superficially understanding) but rather puts those processes in the bigger picture of the political and cultural reality of the times. Rhodes absolutely deserves the Pulitzer for this work. If this was the only book in a person's library related to the subject, they would have many of the nuts and bolts they needed for a basic understanding of the bomb and its surrounding context. However, for those interested I would also highly recommend David McCullough's magnificent biography of

Purchased this digitally as my copy was falling apart. The period up to the end of WW2 appears to be the same, but the post war section has been deleted. In many ways the effects of finally achieving success in actually building the atomic bomb were one of the most interesting parts of the full original book. Very disappointing it was butchered.

I originally bought this book because I was interested in learning more about the Manhattan Project that led to the development of the atomic bomb. However, as I started reading, I realized that this book, and the development of the bomb, was really so much more. The long and complicated history of the scientific discoveries and developments that led to the atomic bomb are exhaustively researched and told in this book. Starting out in the later nineteenth century when scientists first began to discover the very nature of the atom and radiation. There were numerous discoveries and people involved. Eventually, as the atom became better understood scientists began to wonder the potential of it. Some speculated the idea of fission, that is splitting atoms apart in order to release a great amount energy. During World War II, the development of the atomic bomb would greatly accelerate especially with government support after the United States entered the war. After the first successful test in a New Mexican desert, the U.S. would use two nuclear weapons against Japan to end WWII. Not only are the discoveries and events of this long timeline discussed, but so are the many people involved. Almost every person, mostly scientists, involved in these various projects are profiled with a short biography at one point or another in the book. These include names such as Enrico Fermi, Niels Bohr, Ernest Rutherford, Lise Meitner, Albert Einstein, Robert Oppenheimer, and so many others. While the subject of physics in the book may be difficult for some to grasp, a knowledge of some background is helpful to read this, the book still offers the many interesting stories along the way. I would highly recommend this book to those interested in science history or nuclear physics.

Full disclosure: I'm a (computer) nerd, but I got a D in my 2nd quarter college physics course (electricity & magnetism), so my core understanding of chemistry and physics is a bit weak. But I loved this book: it would have been a welcome addition to my 1979 college Physics course. A friend recommended this book, and I plowed through it steadily on my Kindle app on my iPad 3. The author managed to create a sense of tension and forward motion while at the same time taking the reader through each of the many key steps on the road from understanding the structure of the atom in the late 1800s to the explosion of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs and their aftermath in 1945. For example: we learn about simple experiments conducted in Europe between 1917 and 1938 with (almost) every-day materials over the course of a few days that separately proved the existence of the proton, neutron, and nuclear fission. How much simpler physics was back then, compared with the Large Hadron Collider that took 10+ years and more than US$9 billion to construct. The LHC began testing in 2008. Rhodes tries to bring to life the character and personality of the many men (and some women) who devoted their lives to advancing our understanding of chemistry and physics, so we gain some sense of the personal interactions -- and ego clashes -- that occurred between so many accomplished and distinguished scientists. Perhaps the most fascinating part of the book was the explanation of the scope, cost, and details of the Manhattan Project. By far the most expensive effort ($2B, about 1% of US GDP) was building the vast physical plant -- in Illinois, Tennessee, and Washington State -- and purifying and producing Uranium 238 and Plutonium 239. If Rhodes were around to ask for my suggestions for how to improve this book, I would give these: a) Don't go on and on with how horrid the Hiroshima and Nagasaka bombings were. He includes page after page of first-person accounts. Five pages would have been plenty. By his own admission, the firebombing of Japan and Germany created much more carnage. b) Be consistent. His motivation in writing the book is clearly to get humanity to renounce (and destroy) nuclear weapons. Yet he quotes clear thinkers -- scientists and politicians -- who make it clear that is impossible. You cannot put the Genie back into the bottle. c) He makes almost no mention of the damage that handling all that radioactive material inflicted on the scientists, 130,000 workers, and soldiers who were involved with the Manhattan project. Overall, highly recommended!

I loved this book and almost couldn't put it down. Rhodes does an excellent job of building tension and capturing the excitement and anticipation of the people involved. He also delves a bit into the ethical issues involved (less so on this topic, however). First part of the book is spent on the physics, explaining what was happening at the turn of the 19th century to the 1940's that led to the development of fission and then the atom bomb. Concurrently, Rhodes explores the various international events that were occurring that led to WWII and that led to so many Jewish scientists leaving German and nearby countries, an amazing exodus. The next part of the book details the attempts to get Roosevelt to buy into an Atom bomb program and the physicists attempts to figure out how to construct such a bomb in a timely manner. It seems amazing that the bomb was built in so short a time from conception of the idea to completion of Trinity. Rhodes also delves briefly into the progression of Russia, Japan and Germany in their attempts to develop a nuclear bomb (largely unsuccessful, not surprisingly, given how new the knowledge was). This was the least engaging part to me, but it's necessary to progress in the bomb's development. The third part is the building of the bomb at Los Alamos and in Tennessee, the development of bombing techniques and practice to drop the bomb and the selection of targets. Here, we start to get a sense of the personalities involved, the disagreements among scientists and the difficulties inherent in attempting to do something so enormous. But, Rhodes, overall, spends little time on the personalities of the scientists. We get some of Bohr, Teller and Oppenheimer. But, for most of the participants, Rhodes introduces them and gives a brief background. This is not a weakness of the book because its focus is not on the scientists. He gives just enough information to understand their role and position in the project. The last part is the dropping of the bomb, the ethical discussion and fallout and the development of the cold war. These topics are only briefly touched on, but Rhodes does provide extensive, dramatic and traumatic quotes from the bomb survivors to capture the power and damage of the bomb. Clearly, some of the scientists struggled with their role in creating something so destructive and sciences' role in such endeavors. Rhodes appears to stand on the side of open scientific discovery and that science is not responsible for the bomb or fission. I have no physics background and found the discussion of the bomb's development very accessible.

This is an amazing book. It includes the history of atomic physics, the discovery of fission (unbelievably only in 1939), how so many of the world's physicists came to the U.S., the story of how the atom bomb was conceived and then created during the second World War, as well as descriptions of what was going on in the war while the bomb was being built. Some--perhaps much--of the physics was over my head, and it was difficult or me to keep up with all the characters and their contributions, but the book reads like a thriller in the best sense of that word. It is a very long book, but well worth the time spent reading it.

This book is a must read for anyone interested in science, especially physics, and how major developments in science impact ordinary people. Rhodes gets at times pretty heavy into the confusion of quantum detail, but with a bit of effort I was able to follow how men and some women were able to expand our understanding of the atom during the first half of the 20th century. What was of equal importance to me was how our understanding of how the atom works fits into the lives of ordinary people, especially in the area of politics. I now fully comprehend how the nuclear weapons we fear today resulted as much from anti-semitism and Hitler coming to power in Germany than from our understanding of how protons, neutrons and electrons function. In other words scientific advancement in the understanding of the material world and how it functions always becomes a part of ordinary people's lives. Rhodes, in great detail, tells the story of how this happened to us.

Few schooled in 1950-60s can fail to remember clumsy `duck-and-cover' squats choreographed in lockered hallways or under classroom desks. The nuclear age, born at Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, bestowed omnipresent dread (and an appreciation of farcical drills) in children who (ironically) might never have been born had their fathers died invading Japan with `conventional' weapons. The Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962 saw the apogee of prefab `home' bomb shelter sales and nonperishable family food storage guidelines. Meanwhile airborne B-52s armed with weapons worthy of Armageddon raked the northern skies 24/7. Kubrick's `Dr. Strangelove' brought comic relief (and a warning) in 1964, but major adversaries remained preoccupied with enhancing weapons that could already easily destroy mankind several times over. How did it happen? This is a lucid, masterful history of the physics, chemistry, and inevitability of atomic weapon development (including the contemporary efforts of Germany, England, the United States, USSR, and Japan). Basic principals are outlined so skillfully even I derived a general understanding (I only wish my physics and chemistry professors possessed Rhode's skill - maybe I'd have gotten better marks). Portraits of major figures (scientific, technical, military, political) are skillfully set in their times. The events (theory, engineering, development, testing, industrialization, manufacturing, deployment, application, etc) are fully depicted. They end in victim descriptions of bomb-destroyed Hiroshima - a sobering primer on the ruinous effects of human-induced natural forces that continue to be available for exploitation. Bohr's assertion that conventional state craft was obsolete given atomic technology/weapons was accurate - but postponed by Teller's Faustian desire for a Hydrogen `Superbomb.' The dilemma continues. Rhodes, in his epilogue, fully explores the dual-edged sword forged by the Manhattan Project. This work explains much of what I, a child who obediently squatted in `duck-and-cover' pantomimes, waited fifty years to discover.

I loved the review of the of physics in the 19th century. The WWI chapters left me in tears. I didn't realize how many physicists (slash chemists) where involved with chemical warfare in WWI. The creeping up of anti-semitism in the 1920's was foreboding. When the physicists begin to figure out fission (the story of how it was named tht was cool!) is when things begin to take off. What an epic story, and the tragic end it comes to. The testimonials from Hiroshima should give everyone pause about nuclear warfare. This is a book every human should read.

As a scientist, I've been familiar with the basic science of the atomic bomb for decades, as has just about anyone who's studied college-level science in the last forty years or so. What Rhodes has done with his book is to show us not just the technical side of this project, but the human side of the project as well. I loved the fact that he went all the way back to the early years of the twentieth century, explained each of the major discoveries about the structure and nature of the atom (and told us about the people who made these discoveries), and brought us both gently and thoroughly forward to the development and testing of the bomb itself. There were thorny moral questions asked, debated, and fought over here, as well as technical questions that took the best minds in the world to solve. The level of scholarship in this book is impressive! It's not just a fine read, it's a fine reference book. It brings into a single volume both the basic science of atomic structure and the bomb, and the human side of those who developed it, fought battles of conscience and right-and-wrong, and finally delivered the bomb for use against Japan. However one feels about the fact that the bomb was used in anger twice, it would seem that in a larger way, it worked. In the 70-or-so years since Hiroshima and Nagasaki, not a single nuclear shot has been fired in anger. The bomb certainly didn't end war, but it has stopped generations since from using nuclear weapons as anything other than deterrents. Mutually-Assured-Destruction (MAD), strange as the concept seems, worked in its way. Rhodes did a beautiful job with this book. I'm ordering the next book, Dark Star, today. Rhodes has me hooked. All history books should be so engaging and informative.

A great read, although it took me a long time (it's a long book!) Somebody recommended this on a Quora article as being a book that includes history, spying, espionage, love, science and mystery. They were absolutely right! Sometimes I bogged down a little on the science side of things (I should have read a little every night, and not other books distract me for weeks at a time) but it's worth reading. A great objective perspective on the atomic bomb and all the players involved. Some of the revelation of how certain decisions were made were chilling.

Any reader of factual intrigue and drama intertwined with raw patriotism, treason, politics and national secrets will love THE MAKING OF THE ATOMIC BOMB by Richard Rhodes.What a read!! The sheer adrenaline within groups of scientists in front of a blackboard with chalk sketching diagrams that would incorporate the unleashing of Dr. Einstein's Energy is equal to Mass times light's speed squard, can only be understood by the people directly involved. Imagine a whole city built in the desert of New Mexico where thousands of its inhabitants were working in large groups 24/7, where no one group knew what the other was doing. Secret, top secret..loose lips sink ships. Secrets kept from German, Japanese and Soviet spies..secrets underground at a major American university, secrets. The reader will be ingulfed with the sense that highly secret projects were being concentrated during World War Two far away in a hot desert. Amazing true story, especially, I felt, of the betrayals and rendevous with enemy agents. Then you feel the horror of the end results of E=MC^2, ending the War and the subtle rise of the Cold War.

Richard Rhodes has produced a remarkably detailed account of the people and processes that led to the atomic bomb and nuclear power. Anyone interested in the physics, history, or political climate before and during WW2 would be well served by reading this book. That said, the writing style is detailed to the point of extreme tedium. Rhodes also has a style that often makes it unclear which person he is referring to and wanders off point for full paragraphs at a time. "Bob met Charlie, whose father was a minister at the Abby of Devonshire, which was miraculously spared by the German Bombs. Devonshire was established in 462 AD by sheperds......" and so on. Certainly chock full of meticulously researched details, The Making of the Atomic Bomb is a book that I couldn't pass up because I'm fascinated by nuclear physics, but it sometimes feels like work to read.

A classic and essential history from the moment it was originally published 27 years ago and winner of three major prizers including the Pulitzer, this 25th anniversary edition published in 2012 is the riveting story of the science, the scientists, the geopolitics ,and military strategies of World War II which led to what was then the most destructive and awful weapon mankind and ever produced. The new forward by the author is a very reasoned plea for nuclear disarmament. Lest we forget what nuclear warfare really means, we have only to read the chapters on the unimaginable terror and searing destruction that the bomb wrought on the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki . The writing, research and annotation of this book are outstanding. This should be required racing for the whole world.

Rhodes amply deserves his Pulitzer Prize for this book. It weaves the stories of scientific discoveries, fear, espionage and ethical principles around a very real and earth changing event. The reader learns how scientific method works to advance human potential, but also learns that pure science can destroy without ethical guidance. The historical research is full and rich, and I was gratified at the treasure trove Rhodes discovered inside the former Soviet Union. His saga is made human by his empathy for the characters mixed with his sometimes brutal frankness regarding their actions and motives. A worthy addition to any library devoted to a realistic appraisal of human nature and achievement.

That's a pity as it's about 800 pages long and so it turned my life upside down for several days. The author boasts in his new forward that this has become the standard reference for this important slice of history - that can easily be believed. This authoratative account of this overwhelmingly important event goes to great lengths in tracing the backgrounds of the personnel involved and the times they lived in. That is in addition to a clear and detailed account of the Manhattan project itself and the interactions of the personalities involved, from lab technicians, through scientific geniuses to Presidents, Prime Ministers and Kings. It leaves novels for dead. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

For anyone interested in the fascinating theoretical and experimental nuclear physics leading to the development of the atomic bomb: this is THE BOOK. Comprehensive and profoundly well written, this account covers in fascinating detail the physicists throughout Europe and the US and their interaction as they pursued the quest to understand the physics of the atom. The detail provided by the author is amazing and stunning, and the development of the story so detailed the reader would think he/she was actually there witnessing the events. I highly recommend this book.

It is clearly a great book on the making of the atom bomb. But it is much more than that, as it traces the history of nuclear physics and delves into the many lives of all who contributed to the research that got us to the point of creating nuclear fission. There is a tremendous amount of detail in this book and as such it is tough going trying to understand the scientific concepts explained. It is often tedious to get through these passages. But at the same time there is a lot of time spent empathizing with those who suffered greatly from the results of the bombings. In these, the latter stages of the book, Rhodes does try to balance out the narrative by introducing the implications to mankind of unleashing such unimaginative destructive power. These passages are very moving and a fitting conclusion to such an in depth scientific exposition.

Its hard to add anything substantial when reviewing a book with 137 five star reviews, but I'll try any way. For a few years I've been interested in learning more of the history and science of the atomic bomb and this was the first book I read that specifically focused on that subject. I will say that the book was not a disappointment. I knew very little of the time or circumstances that surrounded the building of the bomb other then watching the movie Fat Man and Little Boy, yet I did not feel I was at a disadvantage in understanding the material. Mr. Rhodes provides enough of a historical and scientific background for the uninformed to enjoy and learn from the book. As with any book dealing with such a technical topic there was a great deal of science. Although I have degrees in Math and Computer Science I understood very little of the scientific material, but I would not let that deter anybody from reading the book. Mr. Rhodes mixes the historical, biographical and technical material in such a way that the reader never really gets bogged down in any one category. Also the technical info is presented in such a way that one does really have to understand it to enjoy it. You come way amazed that some men can actually understand this stuff, and even more so because others actually discovered it. In addition I also gained a deep appreciation for the engineering, manufacturing and management feat it was to develop the atomic bomb. I also enjoyed the biographical information that Mr. Rhodes added. The characters are very colorful men and women and the main ones are not just dropped from the sky into the narrative but are introduced at the proper time with the necessary background information to make them come alive in the story. Two other points I would like to make. The book really made me appreciate the freedom America offered the world in the 20th century. Many (if not most) of the scientists who contributed, either directly or indirectly, to allied effort in developing the bomb did so because the were seeking refuge from the tolitarianism of Nazi Germany or Soviet Russia. Scientist such as Einstein, Bohr, Teller, Enrico Fermi, Meinter, Szilard, and Wigner contributed to the allied effort because they fled their former countries out of a hatred for the racism and governments who had taken over their homelands. A final note is on Mr. Rhodes description of the destruction of the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This was by far the most moving part of the book. The author does not have a blame America attitude that indicates we were wrong in dropping the bomb. He is neither an apologist nor critic of what we did. However, his description of the human tragedy that took place was so overwhelming that often I could only read a few pages and then have to put the book down. I also appreciated his setting the bombing of the cities in the context of the rest of the bombing that we had already done to Japan. Let me close by saying this was a great book.

Powerful, masterful narrative about 20th century nuclear physics--who discovered what, where and when--as prelude to a gripping account of how (in wartime) a group of scientists in the UK and US came to propose the Manhattan project, sold it to FDR, then assembled a star-studded cast of physicists, other scientists, and engineers from many nations (many of them Jewish refugees from Hitler) led by Robert Oppenheimer in the labs and Gen. Leslie Groves in the Army, to bring it all off in time for the two (different) bombs to be used to persuade Emperor Hirohito to compel his government to surrender unconditionally. The seeming miracle--born of hard work, towering intellect, and desperate determination to beat the Nazis to an operational bomb, plus some luck (or being ready to exploit good fortune)--saved the Allies from having to invade Japan, which would likely have cost many more lives and much more treasure than the two A-bombs. A morally nasty enterprise, to be sure, but when was the last morally non-nasty war? In a real sense, the militarists in Japan asked for it, and got it (along with all those innocents).

This is a well written chronicle of the making of the atomic bomb, in language we can all understand. Richard Rhodes does an amazing job describing in detail the underlying politics, the scientific process and the world's desire for this powerful creation. This book is not a gathering of scientific articles, it is an exciting and well thought through story that deals with the entire world all circling around this one important project. I am by no means a history buff but still greatly enjoyed this book. What amazed me the most was the author's inclusion of so many people that had a hand in the creation of the atomic bomb. In this regard it is a who's who of science. The exciting part in this respect is that we get to follow some of these scientist from their perilous escape in Germany to universities in the U.S. working for the good of mankind. We then follow them (or their ideas) to Los Alamos to the final creation process. Once here we see the struggle of both the scientific community and the political forces of the world struggling to determine whether to actually use this power. Most of us know the final results of this struggle, but the journey there as told by Richard Rhodes, is just as impacting.

This turned out to be one of the best books I've ever read, fiction or non-fiction. I was expecting a dry biographical account of the Manhattan Project, but the book read more like a novel. I couldn't put it down. The scientific descriptions were captivating and easy to understand. The backdrop of the early physicists of the 20th century, followed by their escape from Nazi-occupied Germany, and then by World War II itself made the stories even more compelling. I liked it well enough that I plan on purchasing a print version for my book-case. I probably would never have read this book if it hadn't won the Pulitzer Prize. And even that didn't sway me. I ended up reading it based on the Amazon reviews. And I'm glad I did. It's now on my short-list of books I think that everyone should read. I am an engineer, so the subject matter has always fascinated me--but this is a book that really transcends your education discipline. Two-thousand years from now I would hope that this book survives and is available to our successors the way the ancient greek and roman historians are available to us. Because I don't think there will ever be a better account of the atomic bomb development written and I think it captures the era.

If you are interested in how the Atomic Bomb came to be, this is your book. The author goes beyond describing the Manhatten Project, taking the reader into the lives and thoughts of those physicists and chemists whose discoveries made unleashing nuclear power possible. It is fascinating to watch the progress in science from just before Einstein's world changing thought to the discovery of the nature of the atom and it's forces. The ambivalence of those involved in developing this terrible weapon is highlighted. The politics and course of WW II which led to the decision to use the bomb against Japan are fully described. Rhodes does a good job making the science intelligible to non-scientists. My only negative comment is that at times he gives too much scientific detail for those of us not in the field of physics.

This book takes you from very early discoveries of the atom and its sub-atomic particles all the way to scientists figuring out that this power could be unleashed into a terrible bomb. It is at a level that non-scientists can understand, although there is enough detail that a science student would also appreciate. Actually, I skimmed past some of the detail that was a bit much more than I needed. There is also a lot of biographical background about each of the scientists that contributed to this final discovery, especially how much WWII and the Nazis sent many German scientists to the US and other countries. Thank God they didn't stay in Germany, or many countries could have been toast! I recommend this book to anyone who has any curiosity about the history of this discovery.

If you are the kind of person interested in the history and backgrounds of not only the project itself, but the discoveries leading up to it and the scientists and their beliefs, this book will not disappoint you. It also delves somewhat into the political developments that evolved out of this. Speaking as a person who has been working with nuclear power for three decades, the layman's descriptions of the engineering and technical aspects are about as good as it gets, too. Richard Rhodes also wrote "Dark Sun, The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb", another excellent book on the subject.

Having been in the weapons field this was a must read for me. And I was not disappointed. The books is really divided into two parts. The latter portion concentrates on the enormous challenges faced by the Manhattan Project, what they did, how they did it, etc. It is fascinating stuff! The first half is about the men, and women, who would eventually be involved. Since most came from Europe it is essentially a history of Europe from the late 1800s thru the first half of the 20th century. It is an important history well told. But Mr. Rhodes sometimes gets bogged down minutia. For example do I really care what color Robert Oppenheimer's genitals were painted? And how does that influence his performance in the Manhattan Project? Never-the-less Mr. Rhodes documents a huge and successful endeavor.

This should be required reading for every college student, especially Americans & those studying physics, politics, history, war, engineering, ethics. Eminently accessible and scrupulously documented, this book filled in with discerning detail not only the science behind so many accepted truisms in the general public's understanding of the lead-up to and use of the first atomic weapons, but the people involved, their motives and understandings of the events before and unfolding around them.

This is a very thick book, about 800 pages in total, but it's so interesting and exciting that it captivated me from the first to the last page. The story starts at about 1900 with the breakthroughs in understanding the structure and working of the atom with the main contributions coming from Ernest Rutherford and Niels Bohr; and then evolves through the different scientific discoveries, World War I, World War II, the Manhattan Project, the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and finally the H-Bomb. It ends with insightful reflection on science, politics as well as the nature and future of Mankind. The book is extremely well researched and well written - it's a mixture of drama and thriller, all describing real facts - and it blends beautifully history, politics, science and war. I look forward to a world without nuclear weapons.

Awesome book. This book provides a unique blend of science, politics, people, history, warfare and interpersonal relationships. I am a mathematician with a minor in physics and a former US Air Force officer. I recall most of the names of key players (scientists, military, political) in this book but I never had a concept of how they were all related. This is quite a tome but I just had to sit down and continue reading several times a day. I still cannot believe how Rhodes was able to do the research required for this book and then make it so readable. My high school chemistry teacher took a group of us to hear a lecture by Niels Bohr in the 1950s but I never realized what a genius he was not only in science but in predicting the political consequences of building and using the atomic bomb until I read Rhodes work. The epilogue chapter is a must read and contains many very fundamental and philosophical thoughts that must still be addressed today.

Simply a masterpiece. My faculty had been urging this book on me for a long time. But I was reluctant to read anything about this "old stuff" now. What a shock. I couldn't stop reading this book. The cameos of the scientists who created the bomb are absolutely mesmerizing. From first page to last, you'll learn things you never knew about the project or the quirks and brilliance of the scientists from every corner of the earth. . Since the Golden Age of Greece and the Italian Renaissance, there has never been such an assemblage of intelligence and sheer brain power. Also, much tragedy in their lives. And the bomb itself was the most complicated invention of mankind.

There is a reason this won the Pulitzer prize. Very well done. From the title it sounds like the focus would be on Los Alamos, but this book went into the background of all the key players in physics of the era. Little things like when the Nazi's were over-running Denmark, Neils Bohr took several Nobel Prize gold medallions and put them in acid - making a black liquid that he left in jars on his shelf. After the war, he extracted the gold from the acid and had them re-minted. In the 1920's these European physicists were a close knit group, then the rise of fascism brought divisions among them. I always find it remarkable when a writer can put so much research into a book and keep it lively. Mr. Rhodes is not only an excellent historian, he is an excellent writer.

I got what I wanted from this book--a thorough recounting of the discoveries in physics and the people who made them that led up to the atomic bomb. Nuclear weapons have haunted me all my life, and many times I have decried their development. However, now I see that they were perhaps inevitable, that wise men worried about their effects on the future of the earth, that questionable choices were made--but who can say how other choices would have worked out. This was a disturbing read, but seemed thorough in its treatment, as I think it should be. On the negative side, there were numerous run-together words in the Kindle version that imposed unnecessary challenges in a read that was quite sufficiently inherently challenging.

This book was referenced in one of my favorites, "The Disappearing Spoon" It gives a first rate, extremely thorough and intimate perspective of the personalities behind the development of atomic and nuclear physics and chemistry in the late 19th and early-mid 20th century. Although I have been a student of physics and chemistry, this book has given me a fantastic perspective on the development of the science and the personal lives of those involved. It is far from a dry and boring book; quite the contrary. Anyone who has enjoyed "The Disappearing Spoon" will also appreciate this book. My only gripe about both books are their titles; they are a bit off-putting and seem to not properly represent the interesting content of the volumes. IMHO

For anyone interested in the history of the atomic bomb and how it came to be - this is the book. The Manhattan Project gave rise to the fusion of research for applied purposes. Obviously this book could not go into the specific parts of how the bomb was assembled and created, but what it has is already revealing enough.

This is a modestly science-heavy but moving history of the development of and use of the first atomic weapons. It caters to all people: scientists, politicians, and citizens of planet Earth. I believe I’ve read this 50 times and will try to read it 50 more. The section at the end should be mandatory reading for those who seem to feel that a nuclear arsenal should be a useful tool of diplomacy and war-making. They are not. They are inhuman.

The author spends hundreds of pages on unrelated historical events and irrelevant biographical info. Random chronology. I am skipping page after page. I might finish the end someday. Probably not.

This book is a great primer on the history of how we got to the end of WWII. Notably, it also includes the history of the Jewish People and how they ended up being the premiere scientists on the project. Fascinating, insightful, everyone should read this book if they are at all interested in public policy or history.

Good book for physics geeks. Traces the history of all the major players in the Manhattan Project including some of their contributions in WWI. Goes a little bit into the morality of building the bomb and tries to put most of the scientists in a sympathetic light - they start out "racing" the Axis powers to build the first bomb knowing that the science was out there and would be exploited but later felt hesitant about what was accomplished and wanted to put the genie back in the bottle. The book starts with vivid descriptions of the chemical warfare in WWI designed by scientists and ends with the vivid descriptions of the fire and carpet bombing and, of course, the effects of the bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Also, just under half the book is references, footnotes, and additional material so when your Kindle says you are only 50% through, you are nearing the end.

Rhodes has made a stellar contribution to history by bringing scientific facts, personalities and events together in one highly-readable volume. The tale of the bomb development is traced through sixty years of parallel threads, culminating in the final 2-year effort at Los Alamos. Rhodes has done a fabulous job of writing a book that pulls the reader to the last page. Everyone should enjoy the tale. Historians should not fear this book: as I recall, the mathematics doesn't go deeper than e=mc2. Techies will find the giants of early 20th-century science to be readily accessible personalities. Mystery buffs will enjoy the telling - investigators follow clues, and small teasers are dropped in the readers' path to presage future events. The curious will find themselves informed. In short, this book is what a National Book Award winner should be: absorbing, readable and informative.

Let me begin my brief review thusly: This book is most definitely NOT for everybody. Now that I've gotten that out of the way, let me say this: This is most definitely one of the very best books I have ever read. What's not to like? History, sociology, geology, chemistry, sub-atomic particle theory, relativity, nuclear reactor theory... this book has all of this and much, much more. Real food for the mind. I think that the act of reading this historical work defines its readers as a certain "type" of person. What does that mean? It means less than 1% of the U.S, adult population would ever attempt reading at this level, and even fewer would care to try.

I first read this 20 years ago and at the time felt I'd never read as compelling a work of history as this. I still think so. It is also the best history of atomic physics for the layperson ever written. Rhodes examines the many threads of dogged discovery through the 20th century. The grumpy creative agitation of Szilard in which he intuited the nuclear chain reaction while crossing a London street is a priceless and chilling anecdote. I have never before or after been gripped by high tension reading a book, but the build up to the first explosion had my heart racing. That the fate of the world rested on the foresight of a small group of expatriate Hungarian physicists had me in awe. I was most struck by the gathering momentum, the rapid industrialization and bureaucratization of the American atomic effort and the ultimately inevitable use of the weapon on civilians. Rhodes' chapter on the firsthand witnesses of Hiroshima left me ill to the depths of my soul.

Richard Rhodes's provides a masterful account of the science, personalities and WWII in this extraordinary book. The science of the half century leading up to the bomb, the truly enormous effort that went into its creation, and the fascinating personalities of the people who worked on it are presented in a way that makes history come alive. The considerable detail offered is well integrated into the telling of this historical epic. Highly recommended.

This is still the best book about the development of atomic energy from 19th C. notions regarding 'radioactivity' to the eventual development of the field from the atomic pile to 'the Bomb'. This book avoids the once-over-lightly approach and includes the history of scientific experiment and discoveries in sufficient detail to reward close reading without intimidating any careful reader. Highly recommended.

Being a geek in love with our history makes me biased towards this story of how our immigrants unraveled the mysteries of matter and gave America the mixed blessing/curse of being first with nuclear weapons. Richard Rhodes wrote this highly detailed account soon after many of the facts of the Manhattan projects were declassified, so while nothing is new, it is thoughtfully researched and written. The book is long but to me it was hard to put down. He brings together so many parts of the story that I believe it is the best one book to read about the making of the Bomb.

Although not the longest book I've eve read (that "honor" goes to King's unabridged version of The Stand) it did take the longest time to actually read. Part of that is due to the difficult subject matter but mainly due to the absolutely incredible level of detail/research that the author provides. It is a masterwork of non-fiction and the only book about the atomic bomb you'll ever need to read. May the history contained within never be forgotten.

Myself not being a scientist there were parts of this book that were hard to understand theoretically speaking, but the historical story the book brings forth is hard not to understand. Between the people making blind discoveries to educated guesses to scientific brilliance it's all here. Leading up to the climatic climax. This book is long and could be hard to read at times but the important historical facts leave nothing to wonder. A fantastic account of the making of the atomic bomb from around the world to then center on two cities in Japan was a page turner through and through. A giant collection a names, dates and ego's that ethics aside did stop a war cold in it's tracts. A weapon with hopefully will never see the light of day again.

One of my favorite books of all time! This scope is enormous and the story is so fascinating on so many levels: - The science: it takes you on a journey from the discovery of the nucleus, through quantum physics, all the way up to the dropping of the bomb. - The people: everyone involved in the project was extraordinary in their own right. The back stories of the scientists involved are incredible and you get to know them as people and not just historical figures. You also learn a lot about the military personnel involved - The project: the Manhattan project itself was astounding. You find out that it was not this ultra-organized, highly planned endeavor -- they were figuring it out as the went along - The war: I love learning about World War Two and this book doesn't disappoint. The strategy of the bomb, the top-secret operations, the Germans' parallel atomic project -- all of this is covered in great detail and makes you appreciate just how high the stakes were.

I thought I was pretty well informed about the development of the atomic bomb, but I was amazed to find out how much I didn't know. This book is extremely well researched, and the incremental discoveries and the personalities of the scientists who made them are fascinating. I don't have the background to fully understand the scientific explanations of the breakthroughs in research that made the bomb possible, but the author avoids becoming too technical and makes at least a rudimentary understanding possible for the reader who is lacking in scientific education.

"The Making of the Atomic Bomb" is the greatest modern work of science history. The Manhattan Project kicked-off the era of the American military/industrial/academic complex's dominance and Rhodes' masterpiece is the definitive chronicle. No other book even comes close. It's hard to overstate the significance of the Manhattan Project and therefore hard to overstate the significance of this book. The creation of atomic bombs has been the single most influential development in the history of the modern world. It's like the discovery of fire or the invention of the wheel. It's ubiquitous. It has such a deep impact upon our society and our consciousness that we just take it for granted. The power to destroy shapes our geopolitical reality (and therefore our daily lives) more than any other. Through a deep understanding of the science, study of all the relevant materials, and personal relationships with many of those involved, Rhodes has been lucky enough, diligent enough, intelligent enough, and skillful enough to bring us this monolithic work. It is understood. At this point, in our collective consciousness, the Project and the book are one. The book is what became of the Project. There is not two ways about it. If one wants to understand the basis of our daily realities, one must understand the Manhattan Project and Rhodes' book is how one does that.

Although it is certainly a history of the making and use of the atomic bomb through 1945, it is so much more a history of the exponential expansion of knowledge in chemistry and physics during the first half of the 20th Century. While the tale leads inevitably to the destruction of two cities and over 200,000 lives, the scientific insights that were unlocked along this path have illuminated virtually every other intellectual and technological accomplishment ever since. It is as gripping a series of personal profiles and lay explanations of intricate scientific facts as I have ever read.

If you are up on physics you will love this book. If not, there is enough to keep you going while bypassing the nuts and bolts. This is a long book and is technical enough that you will take your time reading it. I liked the physics because it gave me a better understanding of the process and experiments necessary to make the bomb work. There is way too much personal background on the players and alot of redundancy and I ended up skipping much of that. Skipping didn't take away from the story of the bomb, so the amount there was extraneous. The book ends with the bomb explosions over Japan. After following the story for about 750 pages I would have liked to read more than the wham, bam, thank you mam that the ending was. More than limited coverage of Oak Ridge would have added much to the story but there are other books on Oak Ridge that are pretty interesting. If you want to read more on Oak Ridge find something that starts with the muddy fields pre-construction and goes on from there. I would have liked to read something about the espionage that occurred but that wasn't covered. Still, this was an extremely well researched book and I recommend it.

Everything you might have wanted to know about the bomb and much of what you would like to know about its creators. Rhodes dwells more than I cared for on the bomb's effects on the victims without telling the stories of any American lives spared - one of whom was my father. And those killed & maimed by the fire bombings of Tokyo were not somehow better off than the victims in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Those are minor quibbles - this is a great book.

It's a work of literature, it's a work of history, it's a work of engineering; Richard Rhodes wraps everything into one superb narrative. From Rutherford's canny experiments rigged with chewing gum and string, to Ernest Lawrence lighting a cigarette off an atomic test, nothing is beyond the author's grasp. This is a work of physics in action, the business end. From the very top, Mr. Rhodes' book details the decisions made by FDR and Truman, and goes right on down the chain of command to General Groves, the powerhouse behind the Pentagon's construction who was given stewardship over a bunch of fractious geeks who were attempting to unleash the power of the sun. Every conceivable type of personality is represented in "The Making of the Atomic Bomb", the ebullient and lovable Dick Feynman, the prickly genius Ed Teller, and the not-so-lovable Klaus Fuchs, executed for spying. One book covers it all, and remarkably, is followed by another excellent work, "Dark Sun" the making of the hydrogen bomb.

This book (along with the author's book on the development of the thermonuclear weapon by Teller, et.al.) is the single most comprehensive accounting of the process leading from the earliest fission experiments through the beginning of the cold war conflict. I purchased the 25th anniversary printing - having read it originally several years ago. It loses nothing in the re-telling, and it may take someone like me several readings of certain passages before I can begin to understand the "science" involved. You can't go wrong by investing the time to read any of Mr. Rhodes' efforts.

Richard Rhodes has created a masterpiece. I was enthralled throughout. The science is explained so clearly, that even I, a scientist by profession, felt my mind had been improved by the simplicity of his explanations. This is clearly a work of great importance since it is the first of four on the history of our fascination with atomic weaponry, by the same author. This book shows us why it is so obsessive and yet so dangerous. Clear, simple and beautifully crafted. I recommend it to my students, as a scientific piece, as an historical piece and as a philosophical exploration of what it is to be human.

I wanted to learn about the Manhattan Project and indeed I did. Comprehensive analysis of all the players and their personal feelings about their work. I have a degree in chemistry and I still had some difficulty in understanding the science involved. Nevertheless, if you want to know the story, it is here.

This is an amazing and interesting book. I thought I knew about the history and development of the atomic bomb, but was simply wrong. It tells the story of the individual scientists and then intertwines them skillfully until the bombs were complete. Its accounts of the bombs' aftermath is detailed and heartwrenching.

I found the history of science leading up to the actual production of the Atomic Bomb very informative. I enjoyed greatly the mini biographies of all the important scientist. The actual description of he development of the bomb, the Trinity Test, and the B29 bombing mission to Hiroshima was excellent and accurate. And then came eyewitness accounts of the terrible casualties of the citizens of that city. It also details very well the lack of vision that Boer had, but the American government did not. A great book, read it, it will be long and informative. Worth your time.

While this book goes through every almost aspect of the development of the atomic bomb, there simply was "too much" information packed into its nearly 900 pages. Some of the stories reminded me of reading classic literature, where the writers were literally paid per word, and would therefore they would launch into endless background stories on relatively minor characters. On a very positive note, I learned integral/fascinating historical facts in this book that I had not read elsewhere. The writing, at times, reached masterful heights. If you find yourself absolutely obsessed by every minute detail of the Manhattan Project, you will read this book from cover to cover. If not, a shorter book is certainly recommended. Trim by ~300 pages & you have a must-own?

America's go-for-broke Manhattan Project is one of the most spellbinding stories of intrigue ever told, and Richard Rhodes has done the best job by far of bringing it all together. As always, the fascination is in the humanity involved, and Rhodes charms us with needle-sharp insight into the lives of some of history's most brilliant personalities. This book showcases what is right with America...namely, our rich history of cultural and religious tolerance. The ironic twist that Hitler helped make the Manhattan Project successful by driving some of the most brilliant minds out of their homes in Europe will not be lost on the reader. Simply a magnificent book.

My original intent in purchasing this book was to learn more about the nuts and bolts side of the development of the atomic bomb, but I was treated so much more. While the book really didn't get into the detail of the Manhattan project as I had hoped, the history of the nuclear physics was enlightening.

This has to be about the best book I read in the last 5 years. It gives you a complete history of physics from the beginning of the 20th century until WWII. Then it goes into the second half with the building of the bomb and why it was such a big project. It was interesting to find out how competative these guys were with each other. The stories of Curtis LeMay were interesting and the comparison of the bomb destruction to conventional bombing. The pictures are interesting in the center of the book. This book more than any other got me interested in atomic power. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the history of the 20th century.

This is an excellent, very well researched historical account of the the key scientists that unveiled the atom's secrets. What makes this book unique is that it presents the science in the context of the social and political backdrop that shaped these scientists decision to ultimately apply and unleash the atomic genie for military defense purposes. It helps one understand why and how these brilliant and moral people chose to change our world for better and for worse. It is a must-read.

My nuclear engineer son stole my copy, so I had to get another one. Rhodes tells a great story.

Really liked it. In November 2015, I had a two week trip to India, and this book brought back great memories. I think it captures much of India, as much as a book can capture a country of 1.2 billion people. I also recently read the classic, Passage to India. Sacred River is the superior book, certainly for understanding modern India.

This is a well written account of the developments in physics and the physics community that lead to developing the atom bomb. The reader learns some physics and something about how the scientific community operated in the years after World War I. This is in addition to the challenges faced in the US trying to develop critical capabilities before the Nazis. A useful discussion of the ethics/strategy/tactics of actually using the bomb for the first time. Rhodes never loses the broader context.

The first half of this book brings together the history of quantum physics in the 20th century. It is a must-read for any science geek. The development of the bomb and the analysis of its effectiveness are fascinating reading. This is a fairly easy read, accessible for most people. Worth your time.

seems like all great physicists of the late 19th and 20th centuries are mentioned here, and everyone leading up to the bomb got a nobel prize. i learned so much from this book. i am definitely a more informed man having read this book. i have retained more of what i read as compared to other books. time well worrh spent.

This book is a must read for those interested in the topic. It contains insights into the lives and personalities of the atomic physicists and chemists that unlocked the secrets to accessing the atomic nucleus. Richard has grasped the physics well enough that those who know little about atomic physics will be comfortable and yet scientists and engineers will stand to learn something new here and there. The next book in the series regarding the hydrogen bomb is also very good. Also recommend Command and Control.

The first quarter of the book is a well written account of the history of modern nuclear physics and then followed by the story of the application of that knowledge to create the bomb. It reads like a mystery story with the reader discovering new ideas along with a description of the persons who conceived them. Atomic energy is arguably the seminal scientific discovery of the 20th century and certainly the one with the most threat of disaster if misused. Those of us who have enjoyed science fiction will enjoy this book of "science reality." It is one of the few books I have read several times, each reading revealing more interesting detail.

The physics here is sometimes dense for the non-scientist, but as a journey through the development of 20th century atomic physics, there is none better than this work by Richard Rhodes. Though the journey resulted in the "Bomb", how we got to that point is both fascinating and instructive not only for physics, but for politics as well.

This book weaves the physics, the nuts and bolts, and the stories of the people that led to the making of the atomic bomb. If the author had actually written three separate books each would be hard to put down, especially the one on the evolution of ideas in physics and chemistry. The inclusion of the stories of the personalities diluted the book. On the other hand, I can see how the literati would confer the Pulitzer Prize to it. It is a total, comprehensive, incredibly detailed, authoritative and magisterial work. It obviously took extraordinary scholarship to bring it to fruition. I am on my third reading of it. It's tough, and not a pleasure to read, but paradoxically I have to admit each reading is worth the effort. The making of the atomic bomb was a tremendous undertaking; I mean of course, the book.

I read this book in my senior year of college, while I was taking fewer classes than in past semesters. This books required every last brain cell that remained, but it was deeper than any textbook or class material I had ever read. I kept a notebook with me every time I opened this book, to keep track of all the players. It took me a month or two to get through, but I still consider it one of the best books I've ever read. The author weaves years of history together in a seemingly effortless and seamless way. This book in a must-read.

A meticulous, scholarly book which gives us the whole story of the bomb, from the earliest days of physics to the explosions at Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the first explosion of the "super bomb," or hydrogen bomb. Rhodes is a wonderful writer, but the book has two serious flaws: (1) There is no glossary. This puts the lay reader right out of the running. The arcane vocabulary of isotopes, neutrons etc. without a glossary is maddening. There should have been a glossary, as in Ed Hooper's THE RIVER, a much longer book with a copious glossary of genetic terms. (2) When all is said and done, Rhodes does not really comprehend the ultimate meaning of the bomb. He deplores the existence of nation states and calls for an open international community, ostensibly to be somehow abetted by nuclear terror. He forgets one crucial thing: the two atomic bombs killed 350,000 people, but the human race has devised countless ways to slaughter its own using conventional weapons: napalm, Zyklon B gas in the concentration camps, B-52s dropping countless bombs on Vietnam, not to mention what Stalin, Mao, Idi Amin and many others did to millions of people with simple firing squads, machine guns, gallows, flame throwers, starvation, and so on. The atomic and hydrogen bombs are meaningless deterrents in a world that has found ways to achieve what Rhodes calls the "nation of the dead." He overrates their importance politically. This is unfortunate, given the enormous effort he put into the book as a historian and an expert on physics. In one final intellectual way, he was out of his depth.

This book is filled with all the stories leading up to the making, testing, and first use of the atomic bomb. The author did some amazing research in order to completely describe all of the participants, discoveries, and tests necessary to develop and use the atom bomb. I couldn't wait to continue reading the book once I put it down. A great and fascinating read.

I bought this before my trip to China last summer. The flight from Chicago to Beijing is about 13 hours; most normal people sleep some, but I spent the entire flight reading this book. I really enjoyed the detailed account of the scientific progress leading up to the actual Manhattan project; previously I never realized the monumental role played by Bohr in the scientific community at the time.

Fascinating book. I learned so much. It starts in the early 20th century and explains the history of nuclear physics with all the major players and what they contributed to the development of nuclear physics. It then covers the Manhattan project and what was accomplished there. I bored my wife silly with the many facts gleaned from this book. It really was an education as well as a fascinating historical document. Couldn't recommend it more.

I thought the book will just update my shaky and disparate knowledge on the subject which I have accumulated since high-school, university and other anecdotal sources - such as TV, newspapers, web, etc. I was surprised to find myself unable to let this (huge) book down. It is a real page turner! Rhodes has succeeded in blending the physics, chemistry, bibliography and history in a manner that is accessible to any layperson and he did it in a way that is captivating as well as informative and full of suspense - like a detective story... HIGHLY recommended !

Truly one of the finest books I've ever read. I read it about 10 years ago and am now reading it again. Richard Rhodes had to spend a bunch of years researching this book, so much detail. If you like history and science this a must read. Every physicist, chemist, military guy and politician involved in the Great War, WW2 and the discovery of nuclear physics is discussed in this book. Buy the book on Kindle so you can easily look up definitions cause this guy has the vocabulary of Noah Webster.

After reading this book one carries away a deep appreciation of what it takes to produce works of such high quality. The writing style and historical overview are superb, and even though the topic of the book will instigate feelings of sadness because of the dangerous forces that a large group of individuals released upon innocent people, it also is an example of how a government/military program can succeed if its participants remain focused and respect scientific protocol. This book not only gives insight into the physics and technology behind nuclear weapons, it also assists in the understanding of the personalities idolized (and ridiculed) by popular culture and Hollywood that were involved in the Manhattan project. One should always be cautious in imputing too much to the individuals that found their way to popularity, either through their own intent or via the eagerness of the press to inflate a story. One must also not forget the contributions of those individuals who worked in the trenches to make the Manhattan project successful. Their contributions have not been popularized, but they are real and the project would not have been able to be completed without them. Thankfully the author was not content to just give an historical account of the actual beginning of the Manhattan project, but also the decades that preceded it with emphasis on the physics of radioactivity and the early speculations on atomic fission that will be familiar to those readers, such as the reviewer, who have a strong physics background. Such readers can't help be feel excited when reading of the methodologies and patterns of thought that went into developing the first particle accelerator and fission pile. Monte Carlo simulations, now done on a massive scale worldwide in financial engineering, radiology, and many other areas, have their origin in the Manhattan project with the goal of understanding neutron diffusion. At the same time, one feels a moral ambivalence about these developments and the eventual Trinity event, due to the frightening consequences that resulted in the years after it. And it is apparent that many of the participants of the Manhattan project had themselves these feelings of moral ambivalence and doubt, even during the early stages of the project. It is interesting to read for example that Edward Teller, who Hollywood has ridiculed beyond measurable levels, expressed reservations about working on weapon's research. One can respect his moral ambiguity since his life was disrupted twice by European conflicts, and this no doubt played a role in his decision to continue with the project, and with the eventual development of thermonuclear weapons. Readers can also walk away with an appreciation of the fact the physicists are fundamentally just a human as everyone else, and have interests beyond just science. It is surprising to learn for example of the soccer playing interests of Niels Bohr, and the everyday amusements of the scientists as they tried to lower their stress levels in Los Alamos. Perhaps one can conclude from these anecdotes that one should not describe people as scientists except from a purely statistical perspective. Sometimes they engage in the rational behavior that scientific research requires, and sometimes they do not. There is ample evidence for such a conclusion in this book. It is amazing that the individuals who participated in the Manhattan project were able to complete this mission in so short a time. That brings out what in the reviewers opinion is the most important conclusion to be drawn from the study of this book, namely that if a group of people remain focused on the science and the problem solving that it requires, they will achieve success, in spite of the inevitable clashing of personalities and conflicts of personal interest.

The author delves into the difficult topic of particle physics and makes it easy for the reader to understand. It is not too deep for the casual reader to understand yet detailed enough to make it interesting and portray just what a monumental feat this was. The way Rhodes weaves the history of particle physics and world history at the time leading up to the first and second World Wars is incredible and made this one of the most enjoyable books I've ever read. Couldn't recommend this book more.

The United States did not declare war on Germany and Italy until 11 December 1941 which is not what the book said here. That President Roosevelt asked for a declaration of war against Japan, German, and Italy on 8 December 1941. The other two Axis powers declared war first on the United States before shooting at us first. Unlike the Empire of Japan.

I first encountered this book when writing a paper for school about the atomic bomb. I blame it for giving me a fascination with the development of the A-bomb. (I now go to all the great atomic tourist sites!) It really gives good background of the discoveries that led up to the nuclear bomb, as well as the first tests, and the subsequent deployment.

Very good, detailed book, especially good a explaining the science behind the politics and history and personal stories. Generally good a weaving it all together, but occasionally will just be understanding how the chain reaction might work when a lengthy bio of one of the scientists interrupts the explanation and I have trouble later getting the thread back.

This is an outstanding work. The author has put an amazing amount of work into it, and the quality is first rate throughout. One of the best books I've ever read.

An excellent and complete study of U.S. atomic bomb development with a detailed examination of the technical issues--- the nuclear physics issues and the mechanical implementation issues. For this subject, there are no better treatments available on the open market.

Very detailed chronology of discoveries in 20th century and before of physics principles needed to develop the atomic bomb. Highly detailed account of infrastructure built to acquire plutonium and uranium isotope needed for two types of atomic bombs. Detailed reports from those who survived Hiroshima atomic blast about what they saw and experienced. Interesting that there was no description of espionage activities that led to Russian development of bomb many years before they otherwise would have. Lots of stuff here about the physics of the bomb and the considerations leading up to its use as authorized first by Roosevelt and then by Truman.

This is for anyone who wonders the who and how of the atomic age. While not too much (or enough?) of this time, it characterises the players, technology, politics and atmosphere of the beginnings of the atomic age clearly and directly. I would like to have a complainant but absolutely do not. Thanks for the book.

It doesn't get any more detailed that this! There is a ton of history of chemistry and physics included in the story of how the U.S. was ultimately successful in building the atomic bomb, which can make it difficult to get through. The beginning especially can be slow as the author describes discoveries and experiments in great detail and introduces numerous individuals involved throughout the world. Stick with it - it's worth it.

This is a long book but it tells you all you'd want to know about the genesis of A Bomb, starting with the theories of the Ancient Greeks and ending with the effects of the blast and radiation on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It discusses each successive major contribution made toward science's understanding the structure and characteristics of the atom and its components. Along the way you get a lesson in atomic physics that is sort of comprehensible.

There is a lot of science to plow through, but once into the fact of the bomb development and politics of decision-making, this turns into a quick read. The description of the bombing and it's after-effects is compelling and chilling. This is a must-read for anyone interested in American history and WWII. I will start looking for another Rhodes book as soon as I hit "submit'," which is right now. . .

I have read a lot of history books and I don't think I have ever read one that weaves together such a complex story with the contemporary first person and official documentation as does this book. Richard Rhodes manages to take the reader through the development of scientific thought that lead to the understanding that energy could be derived from the splitting of the atom and follows that with the monumental effort to make it happen. The insights into the moral dilemma that this put so many bright and talented people adds a human dimension to the story that I suspect many people today are unaware of.

This is my second time getting this book.. I loaned the first one out and it never found its way back home. Great stories and it makes the past come alive.

Despite its being a tome, a page turning read about the genesis of The Bomb as set against the background of WWII. As an added benefit it teaches the reader a bit about nuclear physics, information that is relevant today regarding (i.e.) nuclear power plants. A great read.

This is a wonderful book, covering the field of physics from the late 19th through the middle of the 20th century. The author goes to extraordinary lengths to explain the process of discovery that revealed the atom's secrets. Bohr the father of the modern atom ranking next to Einstein in brilliance and importance, Rutherford, Oppenhimer, Teller, Gamow and many many more. They are all here. Each making important contributions to the evolution of nuclear physics.

I loved that this book covered the discoveries in chemistry and physics that took place well before WWII, along with detailing the communal history of the scientists in Europe leading up to the creation of the first atomic bombs. However, the book seems to end rather abruptly. I had expected rather more in the way of follow up after describing the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Not for the casual nor undisciplined reader. A book of facts so troubling that fiction might be more palatible. A book that will cause, and should cause, all people to reflect on the period, the great minds, and the world leaders that came together to create wonderment and horror the world had never seen. I'm appreciate the truth behind the history.

excellent product and service

This was an outstanding book when it was written, and it has aged well. While few of us would declare a full understanding of nuclear physics, the book makes you feel that you could be almost competent in the field. At the end of the book you feel as though the scientists involved were people you have known, and that you have a good understanding of their motivations and their fears. It was a long book, but worth every page.

Gets a bit heavy on the science but still good read on the history of nuclear science and the world during the early years of development.

The discovery of atoms leading to the development of the Atomic bomb is explained in terms I still have difficulty comprehending even though read twice, as after watching Manhattan on WGN. The physics may be hard to explain, but the horror detailed in the final chapter is all too real. I have been to Hiroshima & visited the museum. Briefly not an easy read but an important one.

Thoroughly interesting history of bomb development, but as interesting is the review of the discovery of the constituents and construction of the atom

Not a casual read. As a PHD there is a LOT of research in there. The detailed history back to the infancy of radiation, chemicals, etc. was a bit much for me. I really liked the last 20% of the book when the bomb experimenting and planning were detailed.

I began reading this book after reading the book "Bomb: The Race to Build—and Steal—the World's Most Dangerous Weapon", which I purchased for my 4th grade, history-buff son. From that book, I learned that the majority of the facts had come from this book. It has been a long 2 month read, but very much worth it. There is a plethora of physics at the beginning, which brought back memories of high school. Good memories. From a non-scientist standpoint, it became too detailed occasionally, but that didn't make it any less fascinating. What I loved most about the book were the snippets of real conversations or real bits of diaries and memoirs of the people that made all of this happen. To "hear" what the politics of the day were like, what the atrocities of the war meant to people in a personal way. It was all very moving and enlightening. My biggest negative, and this is hard to write, was at the end, I felt that there were almost too many of these anecdotes from the Japanese perspective post-bomb Hiroshima. I think that the number and terribleness of them eventually made me numb to them and almost lead me to see them as being hyperbolic, when I know they weren't. And, after seeing the many specials on WWII during the Memorial Day weekend on History Channel, National Geographic Channel, etc, I kind of wish more print could have also been dedicated to the sailors and soldiers or their families that had to live through the kamikaze attacks, in this book, as I know there are most likely plenty of books out there with that point of view. There is no "excuse" for the kamikaze or the atomic bomb attacks though, war is hell no matter who, what, or how. I just felt that the American military--the actual soldiers on the ground or the sailors on the ships in this case--I felt that their voice was underrepresented by the end of the book. Still, this is a spectacular read, well worth the length and complexity of the topics covered and I highly recommend it.

I was hooked right away. This was a fascinating story of one of the biggest kept secrets in American history. The only reason I didn't give this book five stars is sometimes the science stuff got a bit too overwhelming. I have a science background so I was able to understand most of it. I also loved the challenge of learning new things in science. For people who are WW II enthusiasts this is a must read.

The author sets the background, historically, on the science of radioactivity, radiochemistry, physics and the development of quantum mechanics. A lot of effort went into the making of the 'gadget'. However little is known in popular history about the people and the science that led to splitting the atom. The author does a superb job introducing us to the players on both sides of the Atlantic, and the history behind discoveries leading to the splitting of the atom. I loved this book.

Excellent read even for a layman. It does present the 'non-scientist' with a difficult chore of deciphering physics terminology. One can not expect to 'breeze through' this work. It is a challenge but well worth the effort. It certainly gives the reader a thorough overview of the processes that many brilliant individuals brought to their work. I think that most of the early physicists had little idea of where their work was taking them. A very dangerous world was made even more precarious. We were within a whisker of destroying over world. Still are actually!!

A comprehensive look at how physics developed in the twentieth century. So many people in the story it's sometimes hard to keep everyone straight but the book is very readable. Some of the math and equations are beyond me but I read it for the story not for the science. I would recommend this to anyone who has an interest in science and the brilliant men who developed atomic theory.

This is a thorough and enjoyable history of its subject matter. It neither glorifies nor condemns its use and development... but rather offers a satisfying explanation of the science behind it, the technology needed to build it, the motives that compelled the builders... as well as the dilemmas posed by its use. There is no shirking of the grim results inflicted on thousands of innocents... while recognizing the impossible balancing act faced by decision makers looking to shorten the war at such a tragic cost. It can always be argued that it could have been done differently. But whatever your view... this book will give a strong factual background of how it came to be.

I am still reading it, but it is an invaluable resource on the subject.

An excellent well researched book that covers the origins of the bomb from laboratory experiments through the dropping of the bomb on Japan.

This very detailed and comprehensive book is simply the best history and scientific explanation of the Manhattan Project and the development of the Atomic bomb available!

A bit of a surprise as I started reading. I did not realize it began so early in the development of atomic power/bomb. I would highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in the development of the bomb. Also an excellent read for anyone who has an interest in science/history/atomic energy. It traces the development from the earliest days of research to the actual bomb. A great book.

Easy to read Very good quality and information

An incredibly comprehensive look at the Manhattan Project, but also much more: we learn the state of physics research from the late 19th century onwards, meet the experimentalists and theorists across Europe and America (and to a lesser degree, Japan) tackling understanding of the atom, watch the slow migration of this knowledge from the scientific community into politics and military, and understand the rationalizations that freed those involved to create the most destructive device ever seen. The story arcs from a small group of collegial scientists haphazardly devising experiments probing the atom to a multi-billion dollar industrial enterprise. The reader is reminded how slowly information travelled in the pre-internet era; researchers eagerly await journals to hear about progress abroad. As the science becomes more complex and rigorous, it’s also harder to follow. Even though the technical details are at a relatively high level, I eventually found myself skimming through these passages; I couldn’t understand each breakthrough deeply enough to justify intensive reading. Likewise, the wider world also mostly ignored atomic research until World War 2 was in full swing, but the scientists were very aware of politics. The horrors of chemical warfare in the first World War were driven by scientific innovation, with a German researcher saying: “a scientist belongs to the world in times of peace but to his country in times of war”. Mustard gas attacks were cruel, but the author’s extensive descriptions of injuries from conventional weaponry prevent the reader from making simplistic judgments about right and wrong in war. It sometimes seems like the bomb won’t be developed at all. Despite accelerating research progress, it took a long time before government fully committed to funding. Efforts like the development of radar sucked up resources because they were more readily understandable and less risky. Even after the project gains full steam, the president and other top leadership seemly oddly unaware of the implications of the weapon. Ironically, Nazi discrimination against Jews forced many prominent minds to migrate from Germany to the USA, handicapping the regime’s ability to compete in the nuclear race. Politics fueled the motivation of many scientists, but in very different ways: some simply wanted to defeat the German war machine while others idealistically hoped to build a weapon that would end all war. There’s an extensive cast of characters in the book, but the closest to a lead is Leo Szilard, the Hungarian physicist who first conceived of the nuclear chain reaction. He convinced Einstein to lobby President Roosevelt to fund development of the weapon and later became politically active when control of the technology was moved from the researchers to the military. Other scientists move in and out of the story, with Fermi, Bohr, and Oppenheimer playing particularly large roles. There are many interesting subplots following the friendships and rivalries of scientists, Fermi’s eager Americanization, competition for Nobel prizes, etc. The completion of the bomb is quickly followed by the euphoria of a successful test, and then detonation at Hiroshima. The operation is run soberly and with precision. Page after page describing the aftermath follow. I have read about the effects of the bomb before, but the author is rightly unrelenting providing extensive gruesome details. As if speaking for the reader, the author quotes a 5 year old Japanese girl “The more you hear the sadder the stories get”. This is a long book and certainly not quick-reading; I definitely can’t recommend it to everyone. I learned a lot and was reminded of other cases of technology slowly moving from an idea into mainstream application. The project shaped the modern world, and success is ultimately sobering and depressing.

If you like history this is a great read. I had no concept of the progress of the science from the first proof of "fission" until the first bomb or any idea that it all happened in just a few years. And the insight of some of the scientists questioning the very development and subsequent use of the bomb amazing.

This is the kind of book that all people should read. The science behind it teaches a great deal about how the things around us operate, as a history lesson it is finely crafted from the earliest days of nuclear science to its first uses, and as a moral story it is something important that we should never be allowed to forget. Fantastic book.

Picked this book up as part of a class requirement for college. Easy to read, understand and very much taught me more than I ever knew prior. If you are interested in the topic I highly recommend the book. It's one of the few books I kept from my recent college completion.

I read this book years ago and was very impressed - so impressed that when I saw it on sale on Kindle I had to buy it again to have on my Surface Pro. As I'm rereading it I remember why it was so compelling before. What an amazing story! I learned so much about how science operates at the edges, and what it's like to drive down a road at night with no lights.

The read was riveting in its portrayal of these giants of science, industry, military, and political leaders and their unlikely cooperation and overcoming of friction to achieve a common goal.

This book was a great read! Mr. Rhodes made this book feel like a thriller (almost)! The amount of history and science packed into this volume astounds. I've read it once but I can certainly see myself going through it again. The only fault I can find is the end. The pages up on pages of eyewitness accounts seem a tragic, if necessary, end to one of the greatest achievements in our history. I understand that the goal of the manhattan project was the production of a functional nuclear weapon but so much more came from that research then just a boom and a mushroom cloud. In any case, if you're a bit of a science-history nerd then this is a book for you.

I really enjoyed reading this book, which was just as described.

Very interesting book that many history people should read

This book is a wonderful read and also an encyclopedic examination of history that should be a first read for academic historians wishing to examine the period of WWII.

Fantastic read that takes the reader from the birth of subatomic physics to the conclusion of WWII. The book is divided up into three main sections (atomic level scientific discoveries, Los Alamos, and finally WWII). The reader should be prepared that section one is not for the faint of heart. It has a lot of detailed scientific information that I found fascinating as an engineer but I think it could get a tad dull for some. Once you power through the first section though it becomes a fascination read learning about Oppenheimer, Fermi, Groves, etc.

I found this book very informative on the discoveries and the people behind them which led the atomic bomb. Mr. Rhodes has done an outstanding job researching, as well as documenting this historic adventure. I had wished there was more detail on the inner workings of the Manhattan Project and the dynamics of the project teams.

A thorough overview of the science, the politics and the primary personalities involved in one of mankind's greatest journeys of discovery. Well written and full of detail, Rhodes gives us an insider's view of the scientific discoveries. Covering both the steps and missteps you can follow the chase for fission with only a basic understanding of fundamental ideas like atoms, protons & neutrons. One take away from witnessing this development of over 40+ years echoes down to us today: the experts - physicists, chemists & engineers - were many times sure they had a good bead on things only to discover their understanding was basically flawed through some new amazing twist. This happened numerous times as many different players struggled to use their limited insight to understand the contradiction of experimental results. Imagine what that means to us today for supposedly solved science topics like climate change. All the major players are covered here from Neils Bohr, to Einstein, Fermi, Bethe, Teller, Szilard, Oppenheimer, et al. We read about their personalities, strengths and foibles, as well as their successes and notable failures. We also read about the politics behind the Manhattan Project which eventually leads to the decision to use the weapons on the Japanese. We follow the moral and ethical discussion without spin as seen through the eyes of some of the experts developing these devices, most notably Bohr & Oppenheimer. For me, there were two parts of this book that will stay with me for some time. First is the description of the Trinity test as told by the experts on hand. As an engineer I stand in awe of the destructive power of one of these devices, even small ones. The films from Trinity are out on the web. They are instructive to watch. The second item is the chilling descriptions of the damage & horror inflicted upon those in the target areas of Hiroshima & Nagasaki. We do not ever want to see this occur again if it can be helped. This picture provides me a very good reason for wanting to make sure fanatical state players like Iran and North Korea do not get to play with these toys. All in all, two thumbs way up.

I have owned a paperback copy for yeas so this edition will be on display for my collection.

Only 10% way thru the book. Well written and very interesting development. Recently read Michael Hiltzik's Big Science with the point of view of Ernst Lawrence of "Lawrence Livermore" fame who also was a major contributor of the A-Bomb. One of man's greatest achievements.