Dark Sun; The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb

Rhodes, Richard

ISBN 10: 068480400X / ISBN 13: 9780684804002

Published by Simon & Schuster, New York, NY, 1995

About this Item

731, [3] p. Illustrations. Notes. Glossary of Names. Bibliography. Index. Cover has some wear and soiling. Richard Lee Rhodes (born July 4, 1937) is an American journalist, historian, and author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Making of the Atomic Bomb, and most recently, The Twilight of the Bombs. He has been awarded grants from the Ford Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation among others. He frequently gives lectures and talks on a broad range of audiences, including testifying before the U.S. Senate on nuclear energy. Rhodes was admitted to Yale University and received a Scholarship, which awarded him full tuition, room, board, and other expenses for four years. He published 23 books and many articles for national magazines. This book is published as part of an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Program, the Sloan Technology Series. Derived from a Kirkus review: It becomes clear that the battle between J. Robert Oppenheimer and Edward Teller over the development of the hydrogen bomb and the direction national policy would take in the 1950s is a significant focus. Their battle for the soul of the American public was Oppenheimer's tragic undoing, stripped him of his security clearances, and removed him from US policy-making. Teller's semi-Pyrrhic victory left him a virtual pariah in the world of physics. Rhodes brings to that story sound judgment, a sharp eye for intrinsically fascinating detail, and a nice way with words. His down-to-earth manner also leads Rhodes to nose out little-remarked nuggets, telling us, for example, that the famous atomic spy Klaus Fuchs and mathematician John von Neumann filed a patent together for the H-bomb in 1946. Rhodes manages to fit in a wealth of interesting detail.

Seller Inventory # 66923

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Dark Sun; The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster, New York, NY
• Publication Date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 068480400X
• ISBN 13: 9780684804002
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First printing [stated].
• Condition: Very good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Very good
• Seller catalogs:
  • Atomic Bomb

About this title

Synopsis

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Making of the Atomic Bomb tells the story of the H-bomb and reveals how it created a nuclear stalemate that lasted forty years. 100,000 first printing. $100,000 ad/promo. Tour.

Reviews

Unchallenged expositor of things atomic, Rhodes delivers a megaton of science, postwar politics, espionage, and moral drama in this epic of the "Super," as physicists dubbed the fusion weapon they knew was possible early in the Manhattan Project. Appropriately, the first third of this superlative history involves American and Russian efforts to develop the fission bomb. Spying was integral to Soviet progress, and last year an NKVD assassin (Pavel Sudoplatov) alleged that Oppenheimer was a source in addition to the unmasked Klaus Fuchs; Rhodes decisively rehabilitates Oppenheimer, but his adroit reconstruction of the espionage ring's agents touches part of the nuclear weapon's moral baggage: Is it right to spread its "secrets" ? Fuchs and another as yet unidentified physicist, code-named "Perseus," had no compunctions: Fuchs also passed Teller's ideas for the H-bomb as early as 1946. The second moral problem was whether or not a weapon so awesome it could only be used to commit "omnicide," in Rhodes' foreboding coinage, should even be built. While fleshing out the debaters--politician, scientists, and generals--with the same insightful humanity he displayed in The Making of the Atomic Bomb (1987), Rhodes chains through the theoretical breakthroughs Teller and mathematician Stanislaw Ulam made, leading to the first test explosion, and concludes with the strategic paradoxes posed by an all-powerful but unusable weapon, as illustrated by the astounding risks run by SAC's Curtis LeMay. An outstanding narrative, this daunting but engrossing history seems destined for literary awards and long-standing popularity. Gilbert Taylor

Like Rhodes's earlier The Making of the Atomic Bomb (LJ 3/1/87), this meticulously documented treatise presents a gripping story as it provides parallel coverage of U.S. and Russian efforts to create the hydrogen bomb, resulting in the nuclear arms race. Using declassified U.S. material and recently released KGB espionage documents, Rhodes provides a clear picture of U.S. research efforts from the late 1940s through the early 1950s and the nearly direct transfer of these results to the major Soviet research establishments through the efforts of Klaus Fuchs, the Rosenbergs, and many others. Even more fascinating is Rhodes's treatment of the role of the Strategic Air Command in the military mentality of the 1960s. With the conclusion of the Cold War, the breakup of the Soviet Union, and the current American concern about downsizing the military, there is much in this book worth serious consideration. Recommended.
-?Hilary D. Burton, Lawrence Livermore National Lab., Livermore, Cal.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.