The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes

The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes

**Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award**

The definitive history of nuclear weapons--from the turn-of-the-century discovery of nuclear energy to J. Robert Oppenheimer and the Manhattan Project--this epic work details the science, the people, and the sociopolitical realities that led to the development of the atomic bomb.

This sweeping account begins in the 19th century, with the discovery of nuclear fission, and continues to World War Two and the Americans' race to beat Hitler's Nazis. That competition launched the Manhattan Project and the nearly overnight construction of a vast military-industrial complex that culminated in the fateful dropping of the first bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Reading like a character-driven suspense novel, the book introduces the players in this saga of physics, politics, and human psychology--from FDR and Einstein to the visionary scientists who pioneered quantum theory and the application of thermonuclear fission, including Planck, Szilard, Bohr, Oppenheimer, Fermi, Teller, Meitner, von Neumann, and Lawrence.

From nuclear power's earliest foreshadowing in the work of H.G. Wells to the bright glare of Trinity at Alamogordo and the arms race of the Cold War, this dread invention forever changed the course of human history, and The Making of The Atomic Bomb provides a panoramic backdrop for that story.

Richard Rhodes's ability to craft compelling biographical portraits is matched only by his rigorous scholarship. Told in rich human, political, and scientific detail that any reader can follow, The Making of the Atomic Bomb is a thought-provoking and masterful work.

Richard Rhodes is the author or editor of twenty-two books, the most recent of which is The Twilight of the Bomb, the fourth and final installment of a four-volume series on nuclear history. The Creation of the Atomic Bomb earned the Pulitzer Prize, a National Book Award, and a National Book Critics Circle Award in its initial edition. He has earned multiple research and writing fellowships from organizations such as the Ford Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The Sloan Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing He has worked as a host and correspondent for films on public television's Frontline and American Experience programs, as well as a visiting scholar at Harvard and MIT. He is a frequent lecturer in the United States and internationally, and is a member of Stanford University's Center for International Security and Cooperation.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781451677614
ISBN 10	1451677618
Title	The Making of the Atomic Bomb
Author	Richard Rhodes
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Simon & Schuster
Year published	2012-06-12
Number of pages	896
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.