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Churchill's Bomb
- How the United States Overtook Britain in the First Nuclear Arms Race
- Narrated by: Clive Chafer
- Length: 14 hrs and 20 mins
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Publisher's Summary
Perhaps no scientific development has shaped the course of modern history as much as the harnessing of nuclear energy. Yet, the twentieth century might have turned out differently had greater influence over this technology been exercised by Great Britain, whose scientists were at the forefront of research into nuclear weapons at the beginning of World War II.
As award-winning biographer and science writer Graham Farmelo describes in Churchill's Bomb, the British set out to investigate the possibility of building nuclear weapons before their American colleagues. But when scientists in Britain first discovered a way to build an atomic bomb, Prime Minister Winston Churchill did not make the most of his country's lead and was slow to realize the bomb's strategic implications. This was odd - he prided himself on recognizing the military potential of new science and, in the 1920's and 1930's, had repeatedly pointed out that nuclear weapons would likely be developed soon. In developing the bomb, however, he marginalized some of his country's most brilliant scientists, and also failed to capitalize on Franklin Roosevelt's generous offer to work jointly on the bomb - and ultimately ceded Britain's initiative to the Americans, whose successful development and deployment of the bomb placed the United States in a position of supreme power at the dawn of the nuclear age. Churchill came to be terrified by the possibility of thermonuclear war and emerged as a pioneer of détente in the early stages of the Cold War.
Contrasting Churchill's often inattentive leadership with Franklin Roosevelt's decisiveness, Churchill's Bomb reveals the secret history of the weapon that transformed modern geopolitics.
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Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- MAC24211
- 09-08-21
Loved it!! This was great.
Having listened to Manchester’s books on WSC three times, this book covers details into his second premiership that nothing else does. Really a great book.
1 person found this helpful
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- B.
- 02-27-22
Good story but narration was not great.
I liked this book and it’s wide span of history. The only issue was the reader had a rather annoying inflection at the end of most sentences. Perhaps it is my American ear.
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- bee geek
- 09-24-21
Worth the listen
This book addresses a part of atomic research I've been unfamiliar with: the pre-WWII history of Britain's nuclear players. It describes the fascinating dynamics between Rutherford, "Old Prof" Lindermann, and Churchill, Lindermann's oversized influence as Churchill's scientific advisor, and Churchill's connection with authors Wells and Shaw. I'd heard of Lindermann before but never realized his effect on policy, and was unaware the Brits understood much of the relevant technology sooner than the US. The narrator has a pleasing voice and inflects the story appropriately. Recommended.
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- Maria
- 05-29-21
didn't enjoy this book
I was looking forward to the content; however, I couldn't finish the book. The narration was very dull.
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- By Amazon Customer on 04-23-15
By: Leo Barron
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Oblivion or Glory
- 1921 and the Making of Winston Churchill
- By: David Stafford
- Narrated by: Gerard Doyle
- Length: 10 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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This is an engaging and original account of 1921, a pivotal year for Winston Churchill that had a lasting impact on his political and personal legacy. After the tragic consequences of his involvement in the catastrophic Dardanelles Campaign of World War I, Churchill’s political career seemed over. He was widely regarded as little more than a bombastic and unpredictable buccaneer until, in 1921, an unexpected inheritance heralded a series of events that laid the foundations for his future success.
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Great explanation if this great m Chirchill’s an
- By David Hitchins on 10-25-20
By: David Stafford
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MI9
- A History of the Secret Service for Escape and Evasion in World War Two
- By: Helen Fry
- Narrated by: Helen Lloyd
- Length: 13 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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When Allied fighters were trapped behind enemy lines, one branch of military intelligence helped them escape: MI9. The organization set up clandestine routes that zigzagged across Nazi-occupied Europe, enabling soldiers and airmen to make their way home. Secret agents and resistance fighters risked their lives and those of their families to hide the men. Drawing on declassified files and eye-witness testimonies from across Europe and the United States, Helen Fry provides a significant reassessment of MI9’s wartime role.Â
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Super informative
- By LawyerLady on 04-07-22
By: Helen Fry
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The Last Fighter Pilot
- The True Story of the Final Combat Mission of World War II
- By: Don Brown, Captain Jerry Yellin - foreword, Captain Jerry Yellin - contributor, and others
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 4 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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On the morning of August 15, 1945, Captain Jerry Yellin flew the last combat mission of World War II out of Iwo Jima. Today, Captain Yellin is a sharp, engaging, 93-year-old veteran whose story is brought to life by best-selling author Don Brown.
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A history Air War in the South Pacific & Iwo Gima
- By Amazon Customer on 06-30-20
By: Don Brown, and others
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AC/DC
- The Savage Tale of the First Standards War
- By: Tom McNichol
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 6 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Long before there was VHS versus Betamax, Windows versus Macintosh, or Blu-Ray versus HD-DVD, the first and nastiest standards war was fought over how electricity would be transmitted around the world: alternating current (AC) and direct current (DC). The savage showdown between AC and DC changed the lives of billions of people, shaped the modern technological age, and set the stage for all standards wars to follow.
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An incredible true story
- By Christopher on 06-05-08
By: Tom McNichol
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Spymaster
- Startling Cold War Revelations of a Soviet KGB Chief
- By: Tennent H. Bagley
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 8 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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From the dark days of World War II through the Cold War, Sergey A. Kondrashev was a major player in Russia’s notorious KGB espionage apparatus. Rising through its ranks through hard work and keen understanding of how the spy and political games are played, he “handled” American and British defectors, recruited Western operatives as double agents, served as a ranking officer at the East Berlin and Vienna KGB bureaus, and tackled special assignments from the Kremlin.
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An brilliant personal Cold War perspective
- By Iamnotaspy on 01-09-15
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The Last Ridge
- The Epic Story of America’s First Mountain Soldiers and the Assault on Hitler’s Europe
- By: McKay Jenkins
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 11 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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When World War II broke out in Europe, the American army had no specialized division of mountain soldiers. But in the winter of 1939-40, after a tiny band of Finnish mountain troops brought the invading Soviet army to its knees, an amateur skier named Charles Minot “Minnie” Dole convinced the United States Army to let him recruit an extraordinary assortment of European expatriates, wealthy ski bums, mountaineers, and thrill-seekers and form them into a unique band of Alpine soldiers.
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Disappointingly Average
- By Dave on 09-23-22
By: McKay Jenkins
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The Defining Moment
- FDR's Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope
- By: Jonathan Alter
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 12 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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In this dramatic and fascinating account, Newsweek columnist Jonathan Alter shows how Franklin Delano Roosevelt used his first 100 days in office to lift the country from the despair and paralysis of the Great Depression and transform the American presidency.
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Very infomative, and also refreshingly honest
- By Andy on 02-19-09
By: Jonathan Alter
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The General and the Genius
- Groves and Oppenheimer - The Unlikely Partnership That Built the Atom Bomb
- By: James Kunetka
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 14 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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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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Not exactly about the General and the Genius
- By FidlrJiffy on 01-28-16
By: James Kunetka
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Bletchley Park and D-Day
- By: David Kenyon
- Narrated by: Greg Patmore
- Length: 9 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Since the secret of Bletchley Park was revealed in the 1970s, the work of its codebreakers has become one of the most famous stories of the Second World War. But cracking the Nazis' codes was only the start of the process. Thousands of secret intelligence workers were then involved in making crucial information available to the Allied leaders and commanders who desperately needed it.
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Dry read by a terrible narrator
- By Bartek on 11-10-20
By: David Kenyon
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Red Star Rogue
- By: Kenneth Sewell, Clint Richmond
- Narrated by: Brian Emerson
- Length: 12 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Early in 1968, a nuclear-armed Soviet submarine sank in the waters off Hawaii, hundreds of miles closer to American shores than it should have been. Compelling evidence strongly suggests that the sub sank while attempting to fire a nuclear missile.
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Twaddle. Just twaddle...
- By Scott on 10-13-14
By: Kenneth Sewell, and others
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All Hands Down
- The True Story of the Soviet Attack on the USS Scorpion
- By: Kenneth Sewell, Jerome Preisler
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 7 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Forty years ago, in May 1968, the submarine USS Scorpion sank in mysterious circumstances with a loss of 99 lives. The tragedy occurred during the height of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union.
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All Hands Down
- By Stephen on 12-19-08
By: Kenneth Sewell, and others