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The Manhattan Project
- The Making of the Atomic Bomb
- Narrated by: Eric Meyers
- Length: 5 hrs and 22 mins
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The Manhattan Project
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Publisher's summary
The ramifications of the Manhattan Project are with us to this day. The atomic bombs that came out of it brought an end to the war in the Pacific, but at a heavy loss of life in Japan and the opening of a Pandora's box that has tested international relations.
This book traces the history of the Manhattan Project, from the first glimmerings of the possibility of such a catastrophic weapon to the aftermath of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It profiles the architects of the bomb, including J. Robert Oppenheimer, and how they tried to reconcile their personal feelings with their ambition as scientists. It looks at the role of the politicians and it includes first-hand accounts of those who experienced the effects of the bombings.
For fans of Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer (2023), this book gives an astonishing account of this bold scientific project and its tragic outcomes.
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- Narrated by: Mark Ashby
- Length: 17 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 85
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 78
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 75
An epic story of science and technology at the very limits of human understanding: the monumental race to build the first atomic weapons.
Rich in personality, action, confrontation, and deception, The First War of Physics is the first fully realized popular account of the race to build humankind's most destructive weapon. The book draws on declassified material, such as MI6's Farm Hall transcripts, coded Soviet messages cracked by American cryptographers in the Venona project, and interpretations by Russian scholars of documents from the Soviet archives.
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4 out of 5 stars
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For all atom bomb and physics nerds
- By Jodie Swafford on 11-30-18
By: Jim Baggott
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The Age of Radiance
- The Epic Rise and Dramatic Fall of the Atomic Era
- By: Craig Nelson
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 14 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 88
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 79
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 79
From the New York Times best-selling author of Rocket Men and the award-winning biographer of Thomas Paine comes the first complete history of the Atomic Age, a brilliant, magisterial account of the men and women who uncovered the secrets of the nucleus, brought its power to America, and ignited the 20th century.
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4 out of 5 stars
-
Strong finish
- By David's Opinions and Reviews on 05-04-14
By: Craig Nelson
-
Command and Control
- Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety
- By: Eric Schlosser
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 20 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 3,111
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,815
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,805
Famed investigative journalist Eric Schlosser digs deep to uncover secrets about the management of America's nuclear arsenal. A groundbreaking account of accidents, near misses, extraordinary heroism, and technological breakthroughs, Command and Control explores the dilemma that has existed since the dawn of the nuclear age: How do you deploy weapons of mass destruction without being destroyed by them? That question has never been resolved - and Schlosser reveals how the combination of human fallibility and technological complexity still poses a grave risk to mankind.
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4 out of 5 stars
-
A miracle that we escaped the Cold War alive....
- By A reader on 02-16-14
By: Eric Schlosser
-
A Fiery Peace in a Cold War
- Bernard Schriever and the Ultimate Weapon
- By: Neil Sheehan
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 19 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 114
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 82
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 83
From Neil Sheehan, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning classic A Bright Shining Lie, comes this long-awaited, magnificent epic. Here is the never-before-told story of the nuclear arms race that changed history - and of the visionary American Air Force officer Bernard Schriever, who led the high-stakes effort. A Fiery Peace in a Cold War is a masterly work about Schriever’s quests to prevent the Soviet Union from acquiring nuclear superiority, to penetrate and exploit space for America, and to build the first weapons meant to deter an atomic holocaust.
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3 out of 5 stars
-
Schriever rhymes with beaver.
- By John Gardner on 11-13-09
By: Neil Sheehan
-
The Apocalypse Factory
- Plutonium and the Making of the Atomic Age
- By: Steve Olson
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 11 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 94
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 82
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 83
It began with plutonium, the first element ever manufactured in quantity by humans. Fearing that the Germans would be the first to weaponize the atom, the United States marshaled brilliant minds and seemingly inexhaustible bodies to find a way to create a nuclear chain reaction of inconceivable explosive power. In a matter of months, the Hanford nuclear facility was built to produce and weaponize the enigmatic and deadly new material that would fuel atomic bombs.
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2 out of 5 stars
-
Lacking in many aspects
- By ATM on 08-27-20
By: Steve Olson
-
Burning the Sky
- Operation Argus and the Untold Story of the Cold War Nuclear Tests in Outer Space
- By: Mark Wolverton
- Narrated by: John Lescault
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 391
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 341
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 338
After the Soviet Union proved to the United States that it possessed an operational intercontinental ballistic missile with the launch of Sputnik in October 1957, the world watched anxiously as the two superpowers engaged in a game of nuclear one-upmanship. Amid this rising tension, eccentric physicist Nicholas Christofilos brought forth an outlandish, albeit ingenious, idea to defend the US from a Soviet attack: detonating nuclear warheads in space to create an artificial radiation belt that would fry incoming ICBMs. Known as Operation Argus, this plan is the most secret and riskiest experiment in history, and classified details of these nuclear tests have been long obscured.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Extraordinary interesting history
- By Magnus Almgren on 10-23-20
By: Mark Wolverton
-
Blackett's War
- The Men Who Defeated the Nazi U-boats and Brought Science to the Art of Warfare
- By: Stephen Budiansky
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 11 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 124
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 113
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 112
In March 1941, after a year of unbroken and devastating U-boat onslaughts, the British War Cabinet decided to try a new strategy in the foundering naval campaign. To do so, they hired an intensely private, bohemian physicist who was also an ardent socialist. Patrick Blackett was a former navy officer and future winner of the Nobel Prize; he is little remembered today, but he and his fellow scientists did as much to win the war against Nazi Germany as almost anyone else.
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4 out of 5 stars
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First time science used to fight a war
- By Jean on 08-20-14
-
Midnight in Chernobyl
- By: Adam Higginbotham
- Narrated by: Jacques Roy
- Length: 13 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 7,534
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 6,593
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 6,554
April 25, 1986 in Chernobyl was a turning point in world history. The disaster not only changed the world’s perception of nuclear power and the science that spawned it, but also our understanding of the planet’s delicate ecology. With the images of the abandoned homes and playgrounds beyond the barbed wire of the 30-kilometer Exclusion Zone, the rusting graveyards of contaminated trucks and helicopters, the farmland lashed with black rain, the event fixed for all time the notion of radiation as an invisible killer.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Midnight in Chernobyl is the book to listen to.
- By NH on 03-21-19
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Big Science
- Ernest Lawrence and the Invention That Launched the Military-Industrial Complex
- By: Michael Hiltzik
- Narrated by: Bob Saouer
- Length: 14 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 115
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 100
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 99
Since the 1930s, the scale of scientific endeavors has grown exponentially. The birth of Big Science can be traced to Berkeley, California, nearly nine decades ago, when a resourceful young scientist pondered his new invention and declared, "I'm going to be famous!" Ernest Orlando Lawrence's cyclotron would revolutionize nuclear physics, but that was only the beginning of its impact.This is the incredible story of how one invention changed the world and of the man principally responsible for it all. Michael Hiltzik tells the riveting full story here for the first time.
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4 out of 5 stars
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An informative and thought-provoking book
- By Jean on 08-23-15
By: Michael Hiltzik
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Hitler's Scientists
- Science, War, and the Devil's Pact
- By: John Cornwell
- Narrated by: Simon Prebble
- Length: 6 hrs and 28 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 134
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 62
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 63
When Hitler came to power in the 1930s, Germany had led the world in science, mathematics, and technology for nearly four decades. But while the fact that Hitler swiftly pressed Germany's scientific prowess into the service of a brutal, racist, xenophobic ideology is well known, few realize that German scientists had knowingly broken international agreements and basic codes of morality to fashion deadly weapons even before World War I.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Excellent due to great content and reader
- By Dave on 04-12-04
By: John Cornwell
-
Hiroshima Nagasaki
- By: Paul Ham
- Narrated by: Robert Meldrum
- Length: 20 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 111
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 96
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 97
The atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki killed more than 100,000 instantly, mostly women, children, and the elderly. Many hundreds of thousands more succumbed to their horrific injuries later, or slowly perished of radiation-related sickness. Yet the bombs were "our least abhorrent choice", American leaders claimed at the time - and still today most people believe they ended the Pacific War and saved millions of American and Japanese lives. Ham challenges this view, arguing that the bombings, when Japan was on its knees, were the culmination of a strategic Allied air war on enemy civilians that began in Germany.
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3 out of 5 stars
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While extraordinary, I can only give it 3 stars
- By Gillian on 12-17-14
By: Paul Ham
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Racing for the Bomb
- The True Story of General Leslie R. Groves, the Man Behind the Birth of the Atomic Age
- By: Robert S. Norris
- Narrated by: Peter Johnson
- Length: 23 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 92
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 80
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 78
Revealed for the first time in Racing for the Bomb, Groves played a crucial and decisive role in the planning, timing, and targeting of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki missions. Norris offers new insights into the complex and controversial questions surrounding the decision to drop the bomb in Japan and Groves' actions during World War II, which had a lasting imprint on the nuclear age and the Cold War that followed.
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4 out of 5 stars
-
Fascinating
- By Jean on 04-22-15
By: Robert S. Norris
-
Tuxedo Park
- A Wall Street Tycoon and the Secret Palace of Science That Changed the Course of World War II
- By: Jennet Conant
- Narrated by: John Kroft
- Length: 13 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 97
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 91
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 91
In the late 1930s, legendary financier, philanthropist, and society figure Alfred Lee Loomis gathered the most visionary scientific minds of the 20th century at his state-of-the-art laboratory in Tuxedo Park, New York. He established a top-secret defense laboratory at MIT and personally bankrolled pioneering research into new, high-powered radar detection systems that helped defeat the German Air Force and U-boats. With Ernest Lawrence, he pushed Franklin Delano Roosevelt to fund research in nuclear fission, which led to the development of the atomic bomb.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Fantastic book, weak technical execution
- By Paul on 10-13-18
By: Jennet Conant
-
Chernobyl 01:23:40
- The Incredible True Story of the World's Worst Nuclear Disaster
- By: Andrew Leatherbarrow
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 6 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 989
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 874
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 873
At 01:23:40 on April 26th 1986, Alexander Akimov pressed the emergency shutdown button at Chernobyl's fourth nuclear reactor. It was an act that forced the permanent evacuation of a city, killed thousands, and crippled the Soviet Union. The event spawned decades of conflicting, exaggerated, and inaccurate stories.
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2 out of 5 stars
-
Lost in his own navel
- By Christopher on 10-17-16
-
The Alchemy of Air
- A Jewish Genius, a Doomed Tycoon, and the Scientific Discovery That Fed the World but Fueled the Rise of Hitler
- By: Thomas Hager
- Narrated by: Adam Verner
- Length: 10 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,556
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,328
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,324
At the dawn of the 20th century, humanity was facing global disaster. Mass starvation, long predicted for the fast-growing population, was about to become a reality. A call went out to the worlds scientists to find a solution. This is the story of the two enormously gifted, fatally flawed men who found it: the brilliant, self-important Fritz Haber and the reclusive, alcoholic Carl Bosch. Together they discovered a way to make bread out of air, built city-sized factories, controlled world markets, and saved millions of lives.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Great Book Thoroughly Researched
- By Terry A. Gray on 10-21-11
By: Thomas Hager
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Here for the first time, in rich human, political, and scientific detail, is 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. Few great discoveries have evolved so swiftly - or have been so misunderstood. From the theoretical discussions of nuclear energy to the bright glare of Trinity, there was a span of hardly more than 25 years.
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April 12, 1945: After years of bloody conflict in Europe and the Pacific, America is stunned by news of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s death. In an instant, Vice President Harry Truman, who has been kept out of war planning and knows nothing of the top-secret Manhattan Project to develop the world’s first atomic bomb, must assume command of a nation at war on multiple continents—and confront one of the most consequential decisions in history. Countdown 1945 tells the gripping true story of the turbulent days, weeks, and months to follow.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Chris Wallace killed it!
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By: Chris Wallace, and others
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Robert Oppenheimer
- A Life Inside the Center
- By: Ray Monk
- Narrated by: Michael Goldstrom
- Length: 35 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 348
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 295
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 292
Robert Oppenheimer was among the most brilliant and divisive of men. As head of the Los Alamos Laboratory, he oversaw the successful effort to beat the Nazis in the race to develop the first atomic bomb – a breakthrough that was to have eternal ramifications for mankind and that made Oppenheimer the “Father of the Atomic Bomb.” But with his actions leading up to that great achievement, he also set himself on a dangerous collision course with Senator Joseph McCarthy and his witch-hunters. In Robert Oppenheimer: A Life Inside the Center, Ray Monk, author of peerless biographies of Ludwig Wittgenstein and Bertrand Russell, goes deeper than any previous biographer in the quest to solve the enigma of Oppenheimer’s motivations and his complex personality.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A comprehensive biography
- By Jean on 10-17-14
By: Ray Monk
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The General and the Genius
- Groves and Oppenheimer - The Unlikely Partnership That Built the Atom Bomb
- By: James Kunetka
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 712
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 629
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Two ambitious men. One historic mission. With a blinding flash in the New Mexico desert in the summer of 1945, the world was changed forever. The bomb that ushered in the atomic age was the product of one of history's most improbable partnerships. The General and the Genius reveals how two extraordinary men pulled off the greatest scientific feat of the 20th century.
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4 out of 5 stars
-
Not exactly about the General and the Genius
- By FidlrJiffy on 01-28-16
By: James Kunetka
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The Apocalypse Factory
- Plutonium and the Making of the Atomic Age
- By: Steve Olson
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 94
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 82
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It began with plutonium, the first element ever manufactured in quantity by humans. Fearing that the Germans would be the first to weaponize the atom, the United States marshaled brilliant minds and seemingly inexhaustible bodies to find a way to create a nuclear chain reaction of inconceivable explosive power. In a matter of months, the Hanford nuclear facility was built to produce and weaponize the enigmatic and deadly new material that would fuel atomic bombs.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Lacking in many aspects
- By ATM on 08-27-20
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Dark Sun
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 460
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Richard Rhodes' landmark history of the atomic bomb won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award and the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. Now, in this majestic new masterpiece of history, science, and politics, he tells for the first time the secret story of how and why the hydrogen bomb was made, and traces the path by which this supreme artifact of 20th-century technology became the defining issue of the Cold War.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Abridged??
- By Delano on 04-17-13
By: Richard Rhodes
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The Making of the Atomic Bomb
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 3,960
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Here for the first time, in rich human, political, and scientific detail, is 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. Few great discoveries have evolved so swiftly - or have been so misunderstood. From the theoretical discussions of nuclear energy to the bright glare of Trinity, there was a span of hardly more than 25 years.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Beware limitations of the reader
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April 12, 1945: After years of bloody conflict in Europe and the Pacific, America is stunned by news of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s death. In an instant, Vice President Harry Truman, who has been kept out of war planning and knows nothing of the top-secret Manhattan Project to develop the world’s first atomic bomb, must assume command of a nation at war on multiple continents—and confront one of the most consequential decisions in history. Countdown 1945 tells the gripping true story of the turbulent days, weeks, and months to follow.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Chris Wallace killed it!
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 348
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 295
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 292
Robert Oppenheimer was among the most brilliant and divisive of men. As head of the Los Alamos Laboratory, he oversaw the successful effort to beat the Nazis in the race to develop the first atomic bomb – a breakthrough that was to have eternal ramifications for mankind and that made Oppenheimer the “Father of the Atomic Bomb.” But with his actions leading up to that great achievement, he also set himself on a dangerous collision course with Senator Joseph McCarthy and his witch-hunters. In Robert Oppenheimer: A Life Inside the Center, Ray Monk, author of peerless biographies of Ludwig Wittgenstein and Bertrand Russell, goes deeper than any previous biographer in the quest to solve the enigma of Oppenheimer’s motivations and his complex personality.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A comprehensive biography
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The General and the Genius
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 629
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Two ambitious men. One historic mission. With a blinding flash in the New Mexico desert in the summer of 1945, the world was changed forever. The bomb that ushered in the atomic age was the product of one of history's most improbable partnerships. The General and the Genius reveals how two extraordinary men pulled off the greatest scientific feat of the 20th century.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Not exactly about the General and the Genius
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The Apocalypse Factory
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 82
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 83
It began with plutonium, the first element ever manufactured in quantity by humans. Fearing that the Germans would be the first to weaponize the atom, the United States marshaled brilliant minds and seemingly inexhaustible bodies to find a way to create a nuclear chain reaction of inconceivable explosive power. In a matter of months, the Hanford nuclear facility was built to produce and weaponize the enigmatic and deadly new material that would fuel atomic bombs.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Lacking in many aspects
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Dark Sun
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3 out of 5 stars
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Abridged??
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Generals and Geniuses: A History of the Manhattan Project
- By: Edward G. Lengel, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Edward G. Lengel
- Length: 4 hrs and 46 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 442
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 384
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 382
In 10 riveting episodes that feel like a fast-paced thriller, acclaimed World War II historian Edward G. Lengel’s Generals and Geniuses: A History of the Manhattan Project brings the origin of the atomic bomb - and the scientific minds behind it - to vivid life. Did the Manhattan Project, and the remarkable weapon it produced, save millions of lives at the expense of the tens of thousands who died in Hiroshima and Nagasaki? And was there any way to prevent this technology from unleashing the horrors that still hang over us today?
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Excellent lecture
- By AmazonTop on 09-28-20
By: Edward G. Lengel, and others
-
Oppenheimer
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- By: Hourglass History, Julian Pembroke
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- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 14
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 14
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 14
A timely reflection in the midst of an increasingly nuclear age, this book offers a sobering look at the implications of scientific advancement and our shared future. It is an essential listen for anyone interested in the complexities of history, science, or the delicate dance between human achievement and moral introspection.
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1 out of 5 stars
-
Lack of facts. Poor story. Author loved to hear himself write
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By: Hourglass History, and others
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Energy
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 752
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 639
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Through an unforgettable cast of characters, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Rhodes explains how wood gave way to coal and coal made room for oil, as we now turn to natural gas, nuclear power, and renewable energy. Rhodes looks back on five centuries of progress, through such influential figures as Queen Elizabeth I, King James I, Benjamin Franklin, Herman Melville, John D. Rockefeller, and Henry Ford.
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4 out of 5 stars
-
No more accents, please!
- By Ned Gulley on 08-30-18
By: Richard Rhodes
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Restricted Data
- The History of Nuclear Secrecy in the United States
- By: Alex Wellerstein
- Narrated by: John McLain
- Length: 17 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 42
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 38
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 37
Drawing on troves of declassified files, including records released by the government for the first time through the author's efforts, Restricted Data traces the complex evolution of the US nuclear secrecy regime from the first whisper of the atomic bomb through the mounting tensions of the Cold War and into the early 21st century. A compelling history of powerful ideas at war, it tells a story that feels distinctly American: rich, sprawling, and built on the conflict between high-minded idealism and ugly, fearful power.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Great book, just one minor complaint…
- By Michael Evans-Layng on 09-18-23
By: Alex Wellerstein
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American Prometheus
- The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer
- By: Kai Bird, Martin J. Sherwin
- Narrated by: Jeff Cummings
- Length: 26 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 4,320
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 3,454
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 3,466
J. Robert Oppenheimer was one of the iconic figures of the 20th century, a brilliant physicist who led the effort to build the atomic bomb but later confronted the moral consequences of scientific progress. When he proposed international controls over atomic materials, opposed the development of the hydrogen bomb, and criticized plans for a nuclear war, his ideas were anathema to powerful advocates of a massive nuclear buildup during the anti-Communist hysteria of the early 1950s.
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5 out of 5 stars
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An American Tragedy
- By Edith on 12-13-07
By: Kai Bird, and others
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Idaho Falls
- The Untold Story of America's First Nuclear Accident
- By: William McKeown
- Narrated by: Bob Dunsworth
- Length: 7 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 345
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 321
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 321
When asked to name the world’s first major nuclear accident, most people cite the Three Mile Island incident or the Chernobyl disaster. Revealed in this book is one of American history’s best-kept secrets: the world’s first nuclear reactor accident to claim fatalities happened on United States soil. Chronicled here for the first time is the strange tale of SL-1, a military test reactor located in Idaho’s Lost River Desert that exploded on the night of January 3, 1961, killing the three-man maintenance crew on duty.
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3 out of 5 stars
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A Really Good, but Dreadfully Written Book
- By Matthew on 03-08-17
By: William McKeown
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Atoms and Ashes
- A Global History of Nuclear Disasters
- By: Serhii Plokhy
- Narrated by: Leighton Pugh
- Length: 12 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 81
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 71
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 70
Atoms and Ashes recounts the dramatic history of nuclear accidents that have dogged the industry in its military and civil incarnations since the 1950s. Through the stories of six terrifying major incidents—Bikini Atoll, Kyshtym, Windscale, Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima—Cold War expert Serhii Plokhy explores the risks of nuclear power, both for military and peaceful purposes, while offering a vivid account of how individuals and governments make decisions under extraordinary circumstances.
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3 out of 5 stars
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This was a pretty sensational and biased book.
- By J. Seawright on 06-11-22
By: Serhii Plokhy
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Collapse
- How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
- By: Jared Diamond
- Narrated by: Christopher Murney
- Length: 9 hrs and 31 mins
- Abridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 1,453
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 552
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Story4 out of 5 stars 560
In his million-copy best seller Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond examined how and why Western civilizations developed the technologies and immunities that allowed them to dominate much of the world. Now in this brilliant companion volume, Diamond probes the other side of the equation: what caused some of the great civilizations of the past to collapse into ruin, and what can we learn from their fates?
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3 out of 5 stars
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an fascinating book, but better on paper
- By Rebecca on 04-11-05
By: Jared Diamond
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Command and Control
- Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety
- By: Eric Schlosser
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 20 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 3,111
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,815
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,805
Famed investigative journalist Eric Schlosser digs deep to uncover secrets about the management of America's nuclear arsenal. A groundbreaking account of accidents, near misses, extraordinary heroism, and technological breakthroughs, Command and Control explores the dilemma that has existed since the dawn of the nuclear age: How do you deploy weapons of mass destruction without being destroyed by them? That question has never been resolved - and Schlosser reveals how the combination of human fallibility and technological complexity still poses a grave risk to mankind.
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4 out of 5 stars
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A miracle that we escaped the Cold War alive....
- By A reader on 02-16-14
By: Eric Schlosser
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The Girls of Atomic City
- The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II
- By: Denise Kiernan
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 12 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 2,870
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,585
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Story4 out of 5 stars 2,574
At the height of World War II, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, was home to 75,000 residents, consuming more electricity than New York City. But to most of the world, the town did not exist. Thousands of civilians - many of them young women from small towns across the South - were recruited to this secret city, enticed by solid wages and the promise of war-ending work. Kept very much in the dark, few would ever guess the true nature of the tasks they performed each day in the hulking factories in the middle of the Appalachian Mountains.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Important story of this secret city
- By CBlox on 11-14-13
By: Denise Kiernan
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Atomic Adventures
- Secret Islands, Forgotten N-Rays, and Isotopic Murder - A Journey into the Wild World of Nuclear Science
- By: James Mahaffey
- Narrated by: Keith Sellon-Wright
- Length: 13 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,012
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,826
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,826
Whether you are a scientist or a poet, pro-nuclear energy or staunch opponent, conspiracy theorist or pragmatist, James Mahaffey's books have served to open up the world of nuclear science like never before. With clear explanations of some of the most complex scientific endeavors in history, Mahaffey's new book looks back at the atom's wild, secretive past and then toward its potentially bright future.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Terrific at Times but Flawed at Others
- By David Foster on 08-14-17
By: James Mahaffey
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Einstein
- His Life and Universe
- By: Walter Isaacson
- Narrated by: Edward Herrmann
- Length: 21 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 15,191
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 11,755
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 11,779
Why we think it’s a great listen: You thought he was a stodgy scientist with funny hair, but Isaacson and Hermann reveal an eloquent, intense, and selfless human being who not only shaped science with his theories, but politics and world events in the 20th century as well. Based on the newly released personal letters of Albert Einstein, Walter Isaacson explores how an imaginative, impertinent patent clerk became the mind reader of the creator of the cosmos.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Surprise: Two books in one!
- By Henrik on 04-20-07
By: Walter Isaacson
What listeners say about The Manhattan Project
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Mike
- 03-21-24
Great supplement after seeing Oppenheimer
I got this book immediately watching the film Oppenheimer, I wanted to learn more information or cross check accuracy. This was a fun listen and I felt it was a great summation of all that happened. Highly recommend.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Laura B.
- 11-04-23
An important and interesting glimpse into our country’s past.
I listened to this book to understand more of what that time was like in our history but also to understand what my father experienced while he was at Los Alamos. I wished I could have understood more of the technical aspects of the book, but it gave me an insight into my father’s experience. He was very closed mouthed about his role, although I recently found out he was part of the elite security force there. I have his numbered souvenir of the sand blast. He always joked that he was probably still radioactive from the test.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- vincent
- 03-30-23
good book
go's into detail about the reactions and how to enrich uranium with the visuals it explains
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- JavierMiguel78
- 08-08-23
Very informative!
After recently watching Oppenheimer, I was very curious about learning more details on the Manhattan Project, and understanding the concept of nuclear weapons. This book was exactly what I was looking for. A fantastic introduction to the topic. The narrator did a great job delivering the information as well.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Yecaln
- 09-11-23
Informative and Good Narration
Really informative and I learned a lot. Parts of it were really dry and I zoned out but overall made an effort to engage and bring the story and facts to life. Would recommend
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Claire O
- 04-26-22
Chapter 1 missing
The entirety of Chapter 1 is from the wrong book - something about cocaine addiction. Hopefully they can fix this for future listeners.
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1 person found this helpful