The Making of the Atomic Bomb

ISBN 10: 1439506868 ISBN 13: 9781439506868

Publisher: Paw Prints 2008-06-26, 2008

Synopsis

Rhodes tells, for the first time, in rich human, political and scientific detail, the complete story of how the bomb was developed, from the turn-of-the-century discovery of the vast energy locked inside the atom to the dropping of the first bombs on Japan. 128 photos.

About this title

Review

If the first 270 pages of this book had been published separately, they would have made up a lively, insightful, beautifully written history of theoretical physics and the men and women who plumbed the mysteries of the atom. Along with the following 600 pages, they become a sweeping epic, filled with terror and pity, of the ultimate scientific quest: the development of the ultimate weapon. Rhodes is a peerless explainer of difficult concepts; he is even better at chronicling the personalities who made the discoveries that led to the Bomb. Niels Bohr dominates the first half of the book as J. Robert Oppenheimer does the second; both men were gifted philosophers of science as well as brilliant physicists. The central irony of this book, which won a National Book Critics Circle Award, is that the greatest minds of the century contributed to the greatest destructive force in history.

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.

Edition details

• Publisher: Paw Prints 2008-06-26
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 1439506868
• ISBN 13: 9781439506868
• Binding: Library Binding
• Language: English