Making of the Atomic Bomb

25th Anniversary Edition

De: Richard Rhodes

Narrado por: Holter Graham

**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.

Captivating. Exhaustive. Insidiously triumphant.

Any additional comments?

One of the best books I have read of this type. I couldn't stop listening to all 37 hours of it. From a history of 20th century physics perspective, the book soars. The inexorable drive to producing these weapons of mass destruction is described in masterly detail. Indeed, the reason there has not been another war like WWII to date is because these weapons exist. What this holds for our future is anyone's guess. It's hard to be optimistic. But step by step the greatest scientists of any age figured out secrets of the building blocks of our universe, with certain inevitable consequences.

The narration of the book is superb. One quibble is pronunciation of names, like Feynman and Von Neumann. I just don't understand why these weren't corrected. But a compelling narration nonetheless.

Should have been rivetting...

I'm a stickler for correct pronunciation of non-English names and places. This audiobook doesn't have that, but instead, has names inconsistently mispronounced. Yes, you read that correctly: INconsistently mispronounced, as in mispronounced more than one way. I'm sure it's hard for an English speaker to learn to pronounce foreign names but, if it were me, I would settle on pronunciations that give a nod toward rectitude, without sounding like a language instructor, and then stick with them. At least paragraph-to-paragraph. Okay, enough complaining.

The book is awesome. The first half of the book, or more, could have been titled "atomic physics," as the book deftly details the fundamental scientific discoveries leading eventually to the bomb. Nice job of portraying ethical considerations as well, as it began to dawn on the scientists what their work could eventually lead to.

This is an excellent story of the atom as a source of power, from humanity's first understanding of it, to it's first use. And an excellent story of the people who first understood it and unleashed it.

Riveting

Rhodes keeps the listener engaged in the dark real-life thriller of the development and deployment of war’s ultimate weapon. To his credit, he presents both thoroughly researched scientific and historical facts, and ethical considerations.
This book was written in 1986, and Rhodes did not have access to Roosevelt’s wartime confidential files, which by law are released 50 years after their creation. If Rhodes could have read those files, he would have realized that FDR knew a great deal more about the atomic research than he revealed at the time. Rhodes also would have known that FDR committed suicide because he could not make the decision to kill Japanese civilians, especially children.
The narration was a disappointment. Mispronunciations of foreign words and names seemed unnecessary. I wish the narrator had not attempted to speak in character voices, especially because he poorly replicated voices of famous leaders whose cadences are well known to listeners.

Very Interesting

This is a really good and interesting book. It's a bit technical in areas and may put off some people. I am an engineer; the sort of person who can follow and find such thing compelling. Others may not be so enthralled.

Excellent book

And exhaustive and conclusive description of the Herculean effort to of discovery, science, industry, production and the eventual delivery an operational atomic bomb.
I lost a great uncle on Okinawa 5 days before the Japanese surrender and my grandfather who had just finished fighting against the Germans told me he knew there was no way he could survive another major fight against the Japanese in an invasion of mainland Japan. The atomic bomb was terrible, and a tremendous amount of innocents died, but it had to be done.