The Manhattan Project by Jeff Hughes

The Manhattan Project by Jeff Hughes

Launched in 1942, the Manhattan Project was a well-funded, secret effort by the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada to develop an atomic bomb before the Nazis. The results-the bombs named "Little Boy" and "Fat Man"-were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August of 1945. A vast state within a state, the Manhattan Project employed 130,000 people and cost the United States and its allies 2 billion dollars, but its contribution to science as a prestigious investment was invaluable. After the bombs were dropped, states began allocating unprecedented funds for scientific research, leading to the establishment of many of twentieth century's major research institutions. Yet the union of science, industry, and the military did not start with the development of the atomic bomb; World War II only deepened the relationship. This absorbing history revisits the interactions among science, the national interest, and public and private funding that was initiated in World War I and flourished in WWII. It then follows the Manhattan Project from inception to dissolution, describing the primary influences that helped execute the world's first successful plan for nuclear research and tracing the lineages of modern national nuclear agencies back to their source.

Hughes develops his thesis in interesting fashionHis essay is free of technical jargon but will be most accessible to readers familiar with the bomb's history and with huge, expansive installations such as CERN or Fermilab. Booklist Pacy and concise. The Times (London) Engrossing and information-packed. -- Marjorie C. Malley ISIS

Jeff Hughes is a senior lecturer in the history of science and technology at the University of Manchester. His research concerns the social history of the physical and chemical sciences in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and the institutional history of twentieth-century British science.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780231131520
ISBN 10	0231131526
Title	The Manhattan Project
Author	Jeff Hughes
Series	Revolutions In Science
Condition	Unavailable
Publisher	Columbia University Press
Year published	2003-10-08
Number of pages	200
Prizes	Winner of Watson Davies and Helen Miles Davis Prize 2004
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note	Unavailable