The Making of the Atomic Bomb

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Summary: World Histoy and the Atomic Bomb
Review: I have almost completed Rhodes' book on the making of the atom bomb. It is truly amazing in the wealth of detail and also the broad scope in contains. I am not a scientist or knowledgeable about physics so this content was very difficult for me to understand. I suspect readers without such knowledge will have a struggle trying to understand the description of the various experiments that led to the bomb's development. But in all it is fascinating to read about the battle between the military and the scientists as to whose authority should be paramount. How much secrecy was needed as the bomb developed is another theme of the book, as is the race against time and the Germans who were also on the brink of making the bomb. You will also see that scientists like Niels Bohr were very concerned early on about the complimentarity of nuclear energy and the bomb--their potential for good as well as evil. Mr. Rhodes has done a great service to America and humanity in writing this story. Read it and, like me, you will be mesmerized. Don't let the 780 pages intimidate you, reader, from perusing this epic book.

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Summary: A Masterpiece of Nonfiction
Review: The Making of the Atomic Bomb richly deserves all the praise and awards it has received. Rhodes tells a riveting story, astonishing in its complexity, yet he still manages to explain the concepts without talking down and to convey a sense of expectation one would expect from a spy thriller. Each contributor to this massive achievement is fully fleshed out, and the overall effect is to make the reader want more, more, more. The book holds up very well to additional readings as well, and as a non-scientist, I find that each time I read it I understand a little more. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

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Summary: Well-Rounded
Review: An intensely detailed, well rounded and incredibly researched work that holds something for everyone from political scientists to physical scientists.

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Summary: Bomb
Review: I had to read The Making of the Atomic Bomb for class. It is the longest book I have ever had to read. Excessive length is definitely a turn-off. Not only is Rhode's book too long, but the things that make it sooooo long could totally be deleted and no one would miss them. How is the crabgrass in Mrs. Fermi's front lawn in Leonia, New Jersey of any relevance to the atomic bomb? Same goes for the problem with Robert Oppenheimer's mom's right hand and the French doors at the UC Berkeley lab. Don't get me wrong, though, I got into the book; some parts definitely grabbed my attention, but there was so much superfluous stuff to get through in the meantime. Rhodes should have edited the book down to maybe 350 pages max. It would have been really good then -- compelling,attention-grabbing,and concise. This might be a good book to read if 1)it is mandatory, 2) you are retired or just have a lot of time for sitting around, or 3) you are a friend of Rhodes and he will be offended if you don't.

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Summary: This Changes Everything
Review: I will echo the other reviewers: this is one of the best, if not the best book I have read.

The book covers the subect on a number of levels. First is the factual story of the events leading up to the making of the bomb, which in themselves would be fascinating. For example, the fact that in two years the Manhattan Project built an industrial plant larger than the US automobile manufacturing base. That only in December of 1938 was the fission of Uranium first discovered, but the course of events were so rapid as to lead to the Trinity test in July of 1945. As a sometime program manager, but no General Groves, it was a fascinating account of the world's most significant projecct.

The second level is a very enjoyable history of nuclear physics as the reader is lead through the discovery process from the turn of the century to thermonuclear fusion. That discovery process is the vehicle for the third and fourth levels of the book. The stories and personalities of the scientists, around the world, who added to that knowledge, what shaped and motivated their lives and how they indiviually gained insight, brilliant insight, into the riddle that was physics. I felt I got to know people like Rutherford, Bohr, Oppenheimer, Fermi, Szilard, and Teller. The fourth level was that the insight was not really individual but collaborative. This book is one of the finest descriptions of the scientific process and how this open, collaborative and communicative process works across boundaries.

The last level, the biggest surprise and the most profoundly unsettling, was the realization of how this event, inevitable, has "changed everything" about human history - an appreciation, I believe 55 years later, we who did not participate in the Manhattan Project, have yet to fully realize. Niels Bohr realized it in an instant.

The book is superbly written. The personalies came alive, I felt I knew Niels Bohr. It was absolutely suspenseful even though you know the ending (you don't really). I was caught up in the story as though it were a novel. After reading late the night before, one evening I came home and declared to my wife "They dropped the bomb!". Such was the intensity of my participation in the book that my voice had excitement to it. She was horrified. I had to explain, "No, no. In the book. On Hiroshima". When history is that exciting it is hard to beat.

This is one of only a few books about which I can say that I will never quite view the world the same again.

A masterpiece and a must read.

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Summary: The Best Book I Ever Read
Review: The other reviewers have supplied the content of this book. I have reading for over four decades, and this was the best book I ever read.

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Summary: Definitive, important, as perfect as it gets
Review: I'm not normally a voracious consumer of non-fiction. Or at least I wasn't, until I read "The Making of the Atomic Bomb". I think I read all 800 pages in about a week and have read it twice since. It should be bought in huge quantities by the UN and distributed to people free.

Not only did Rhodes achieve wonders in synthesising the enormous amount of research needed (from history to hard physics), he also manages to tell this enormously long and complex story in what seems to me the most appropriate way. Some readers complain of the extensive backstory given to many of the players in the bomb program, but this is all part of the effect Rhodes wants to achieve (I think). We gradually accelerate from Rutherford's splitting of the atom to the Manhattan Project, and we actually find ourselves getting caught up in the excitement of developing the weapon. We find ourselves rooting for Oppenheimer and his team. The description of the Trinity test has an almost unearthly beauty (because it seemed to have such a thing at the time, to those involved). We ride aboard the "Enola Gay" and are impressed with the coolness of Tibbets and his crew.

Then Rhodes turns his attention to the effect of the Hiroshima bomb, and I hesitate to call this artistry on his part, because this is what we knew was coming all the way along. It's worth remembering that Little Boy, the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, was pretty puny by today's standards, a mere tactical nuke at 12.5 kilotons. Rhodes' selection of eyewitness testimony is gut-wrenching and horrific. On and on it goes, descriptions of people with their skin hanging off in flaps, the effects of radiation sickness, birds being vaporised in midair, people near ground zero being reduced to charred bundles in a fraction of a second. _This_ is what all the earnest and heroic scientific effort in the earlier part of the book has led to.

And it's this, in the end, that is the great virtue of the book. Rhodes embarked on the herculean task of telling the whole story of the atomic bomb, which entailed telling about what happened when it was used. In doing so, he manages to make history transcend the mere recounting of facts (even though all he does is tell the story) - the ultimate effect of the story is to force you to confront your own stance on the bomb. Surely nothing in the world is worth fighting for, if it entails this kind of destruction and this kind of suffering.

The highest compliment I can pay Richard Rhodes is that it's senseless to blandly praise his skills as a historian when you've experienced the shattering effect of this story. This book is essential to anyone who wants to gain any understanding of the worst century in human history - the twentieth.

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Summary: A Great Read!
Review: A very detailed and thorough history of the making of the atomic bomb. Everything is covered; from the science that led up to the bomb- to the lives of all the major players involved in it's making. Essential reading for anyone who wants to understand American or world history in this century.

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Summary: A bit too much
Review: I love history, math and science, and have a technical advanced degree, but still managed to have a tough time getting through this book. In an attempt to impress us, I get the idea that Rhodes sat down and included every microscopic fact that he could come up. Richard, a bit of advise...sometimes less is more. I really don't care, for example, that Szilard didn't like the bed that was offered him in Bohr's guestroom. Rhodes also wrote in much too much detail about every little physics experiment that ever went in to the eventual development of the bomb. Again, I like science and can handle technical issues, but his discriptions just went on ad nauseum.

I do give this three stars because the topic is surely important. I am very interested in WWII history as well. However, I must confess that this was a bit of a letdown.

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Summary: Excellent
Review: This book gives a very detailed description of how the atomic bomb was developed. From the work of Rutherford, J. J. Thomson and others who discovered elementary particles in the atom, this book gives every step in the development of the atomic bomb. This is an excellent book for anyone who has interest in Physics and History. Not for the faint hearted since it is very descriptive of the tragedies that took place in Hiroshima.