The Making of the Atomic Bomb

I finally finished this book. Thanks Laurie!

It wont the Pulitzer Prize and deservedly so in my opinion. Very smart, very thorough. It covers the birth of nuclear weapons from E=MC² to the devlopment of the first thermo-nuclear weapon.

It's a fascinating tale of the emergence of science as a weapon in nationalist wars. And, if you buy the book's thesis, the eventual dominance of science over nationalism. Humans designed a bomb so big that it made world war impossible (though whether it worked still remains to be seen).

Fortunately, the author (Richard Rhodes), spends very little time waxing philosophic. Most of the book's 800 pages are dedicated to following the long, winding and often arduous treck from the idea that mass and energy are the same to the creation of a physical weapon utilizing that idea. The physics isn't intimidating and the story is mesmerizing.

A+

(put that on your book cover!)

ps. I forgot to mention the book does a good job sorting out explanations/motivations for the individuals involved (from Leo Szilard to Oppenheimer to General Groves to Harry Truman) and why they chose to develop, prioritize, build, weaponize and use the atomic bomb.

Apparently, there was a lot of confusion over whether the Germans might have been working on a bomb of their own. And certainly they were, but the eventual dominance of allied air power over Europe, and the ensuing bombing, shut down any hope of large-scale production. So though the Nazis were experimenting with nuclear power, they weren't very close to making a weapon when the war ended.

The book also discusses, but does not pass judgement, on the prevaling opinion amoung allied forces that an invasion of mainland Japan would cost millions of allied lives and an even greater number of civilian Japanese. Whether or not that justifies dropping WMD on two major population centers is up in the air. But it seems that the real motivation (for both the military and scientist types) was to show the world what sort of devastation this bomb could cause.