The Making of the Atomic Bomb

Great book for science lovers..

It's pointless for me to endorse something that has already been highly praised by a bunch of Physics Nobel Laurates, Carl Sagan, and so more... This book can't be recommended to any specific group of readers. Almost anybody can get mesmerized by looking at the thing from owns angle. Scientists, engineers, military leaders, and political leaders everyone's role is recorded in this masterpiece. It captures in great detail how science, military & politics merged to one point in time at 5.30 am on 16 July 1945. There is lot to learn from it history, science, engineering, planning, execution, strategy, morality and ethics.... I wonder what if everything that got into this destruction would have channelized to creation! I find it necessary read. At a rate of .5 chapter per day, I took 34 days to engulf the whole thing.

Richard Rhodes's classic on the history of the "Atomic Bomb" should get five stars, were it not for the undue length. This monumental books starts with the gifted Hungarian scientist Leo Slizard and ends with the horrors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Bookended between these are the various technical aspects of Uranium bomb and the Plutonium bomb developed in places like Los Alamos, NM, Oakridge, TN and Hanford, WA otherwise called the Manhattan project headed by Oppenheimer and Groves. It also discusses the awful bloodymindedness that control the psyche of the leaders, the scientists, the defence personnel and the population during war and the short shrift given to long term consequences of developing such programmes in secret. It is a tragedy of epic proportions that in the USA and in Great Britain the leaders and policy makers fail to heed the sage advice of Nobel laureate Niels Bohr and Leo Slizard, who warned that keeping this programme a secret and dropping bombs in Japan will have disastrous results for the protection of humanity in future. What followed was the costly cold war between USA and USSR (which soon developeda bomb of its own) and the wasting of enormous resources that still plagues our times with no security in sight. It also presents the hollowness of the moral argument that dropping of the atomic bombs in Japan saved American lives, which is the same justification that Fritz Haber used in World War - I to justify chemical warfare to save German lives. The Japanese teenager who was a victim of the Hiroshima said it best that "War is a torture on the innocents".

One of best books ever read.. Must read for anyone who have passionate love in Physics,Nuclear physics Book starts from basics of nuclear physics and ends in hiroshima/nagasaki. If you have watched recent film "Oppenheimer" You can co-relate multiple scenes from film with contents in this book. Some chapters deal with physics, nuclear physics, protons, neutrons from 1930's.. Story associated with first nuclear reactor in 1942, various design prototypes for bomb making & associated discussions between scientists in Los Alamos are also written well Few chapters deal with geopolitics associated with the bomb, Role of Truman, Stimson, Byrnes, Roosevelt, Col Leslie Groves are touched upon Some testimonials of the victims of Hiroshima and their sufferings well documented Another interesting aspect which found from book is the grit of many scientists involved in the bomb & their anxiety for bomb's collateral damage, nuclear arms race(which is shown in oppenheimer film also) Neils Bohr, Leo Szilard and few scientist's resistance for the N bomb are documented well After reading this book only, i felt the real danger associated with N bomb for human civilization. Aug 6/Aug 9 would have been real hell for whoever suffered from this bomb.. Nuclear disarmament one of important areas humans should be involved as always

I have not in my entire reading experience until now, come across such a well-researched and eloquently written book. The final chapter, describing the effects of the atomic bomb, struck terror and awe in me. Any person glorifying war should be made to read this one chapter at least. Apart from that, I found the political influence that scientists had to be very interesting. It is also very interesting to learn about their personalities and characters. The great American war machine gave birth to a new era of forced neutrality that continues to exist to date. It was fascinating to know what actually went in to create this.

Covers development of nuclear physics beginning from the discovery atom. Also gives space to politics and international relations. Sufficient Illustrations and photographs are provided as well. Familiarity with highschool physics is a pre requisite.

Excellent reading!!! The book is quite voluminous in ~750 pages. The politics and science behind the invention and development of atomic bomb are explained lucidly, even a layman can g though the book without getting deep into the science of the same. The characters come to life in this Rhodes' masterpiece. I was amazed to find how much little say scientists had in determining the fate of their invention, contrary to popular belief. I would recommend this book highly to everyone. Worth the money and time spent on it.

An excellent account of one of the greatest scientific discoveries of mankind...