The Making Of The Atomic Bomb - Softcover

Rhodes, Richard

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1471111237 ISBN 13: 9781471111235

Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK, 2012

Synopsis

With a brand new introduction from the author, this is the complete story of how the bomb was developed. It is told in rich, human, political, and scientific detail, from the turn-of-the-century discovery of the vast energy locked inside the atom to the dropping of the first bombs on Japan. Few great discoveries have evolved so swiftly -- or have been so misunderstood. From the theoretical discussions of nuclear energy to the bright glare of Trinity there was a span of hardly more than twenty-five years. What began as merely an interesting speculative problem in physics grew into the Manhattan Project, and then into the Bomb with frightening rapidity, while scientists known only to their peers -- Szilard, Teller, Oppenheimer, Bohr, Meitner, Fermi, Lawrence, and yon Neumann -- stepped from their ivory towers into the limelight. Richard Rhodes takes us on that journey step by step, minute by minute, and gives us the definitive story of man's most awesome discovery and invention. The Making of the Atomic Bomb has been compared in its sweep and importance to William L. Shirer's The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. It is at once a narrative tour de forceand a document as powerful as its subject.

About this title

Review:

Tracy Kidder "The" comprehensive history of the Bomb -- and also a work of literature.

"San Francisco Chronicle" A monumental and enthralling history...Alive and vibrant in the book are all the scientists...and each human being stands vividly revealed as a man of science, of conscience, of doubts or of hubris.

Carl Sagan A stirring intellectual adventure...clear, fast-paced, and indispensable.

.".. what I read already impressed me with the author's knowledge of much of the history of the science which led to the development of nuclear energy and nuclear bombs and of the personalities which contributed in the U.S. to the development of these. I was particularly impressed by his realization of the importance of Leo Szilard's contributions which are almost always underestimated but which he fully realizes and perhaps even overestimates. I hope the book will find a wide readership."-Eugene P. Wigner, Nobel Laureate for Physics, 1963

"I found "The Making of the Atomic Bomb "well written, interesting and one of the best in the great family of books on the subject. It is fascinating as a novel, and I have learned from it many things I did not know. Mr. Rhodes has done his homework conscientiously and intelligently" Emilio Segre, Nobel Laureate for Physics, 1959"

""The Making of the Atomic Bomb "is an epic worthy of Milton. Nowhere else have I seen the whole story put down with such elegance and gusto and in such revealing detail and simple language which carries the reader through wonderful and profound scientific discoveries and their application.
The great figures of the age, scientific, military, and political, come to life when confronted with the fateful and awesome decisions which faced them in this agonizing century. This great book dealing with the most profound problems of the 20th century can help us to apprehend the opportunities and pitfalls that face the world int he 21st." I. I. Rabi, Nobel Laureate for Physics, 1944"

"The comprehensive history of the bomb--and also a work of literature." -Tracy Kidder

"A stirring intellectual adventure, and a clear, fast-paced and indispensable history of events on which our future depends."-Carl Sagan

"The best, the richest, and the deepest description of the development of physics in the first half of this century that I have yet read, and it is certainly the most enjoyable."-Isaac Asimov


"A monumental and enthralling history [...] Alive and vibrant in the book are all the scientists...and each human being stands vividly revealed as a man of science, of conscience, of doubts or of hubris."-San Francisco Chronicle

About the Author:

Richard Rhodes is the author of several books. He received the Pulitzer prize for THE MAKING OF THE ATOMIC BOMB and the History of Science Society's Watson Davis and Helen Miles Davis Prize for DARK SUN. He has received numerous fellowships for research and writing, including grants from the Ford Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation Program in International Peace and Security and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. He has been a visiting scholar at Harvard and MIT and a host and correspondent for documentaries on public television's Frontline and American Experience series. He is an affiliate of the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University.

About this edition

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1471111237
• ISBN 13: 9781471111235
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 896