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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
- Narrated by: Peter Johnson
- Length: 23 hrs and 1 min
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Publisher's Summary
In September 1942, Colonel Leslie R. Groves was given the job of building the atomic bomb. As a career officer in the Army Corps of Engineers, Groves had overseen hundreds of military construction projects, including the Pentagon. Until now, scientists have received the credit for the Manhattan Project's remarkable achievements. And yet, it was Leslie R. Groves who made things happen. It was Groves who drove manufacturers, construction crews, scientists, industrialists, and military and civilian officials to come up with the money, the materials, and the plans to solve thousands of problems and build the bomb in only two years. It was his operation, and in Racing for the Bomb, he emerges as a take-charge, can-do figure who succeeds in the face of formidable odds. 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's actions during World War II, which had a lasting imprint on the nuclear age and the Cold War that followed. Groves's extensive influence on key institutions of postwar America has been overlooked for too long. In this full-scale biography, which includes archival material and family letters and documents and features several previously unpublished photographs, Norris places Groves at the center of the amazing Manhattan Project story.
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What listeners say about Racing for the Bomb
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Jean
- 04-22-15
Fascinating
Over the years I have read many books about the Manhattan Project and biographies mostly of and about the various scientists on the project. This book is about a man that was mentioned frequently in passing in the various books but nothing in-depth. This book is more of a biography of General Leslie R. Groves (1896-1970) than a history of the Manhattan Project.
Norris cover Groves early life, his life at West Point, graduating 4th in his class and after graduation going into the Corp of Engineers, he also explains how Groves developed his exceptional organizational skills and administrative skills. The author covers Groves' time overseeing the building of the Pentagon.
Norris states Groves was responsible for choosing the three key sites, Oak Ridge, Los Alamos, and Hanford and for the construction of the buildings at these sites. The author bogs down the book with too much information as how many miles of corridors there we’re and how many windows etc.
At the end of the book Norris covers Groves’s role in the Cold War. Norris was meticulous with his research and had access to all the detailed information on daily activities, meetings, phone calls and so on kept by Gen. Groves’s secretary Jean O’Leary. The book is well written but does bog down at times. I found the book most fascinating.
If you are interested in World War II history or the Manhattan Project this would be an interesting book for you to read. The audio book is long 23 hours, Peter Johnson narrated the book.
5 people found this helpful
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- Mike From Mesa
- 10-30-15
More than just the bomb
The book is titled Racing For The Bomb and it seemed reasonable to assume that it discussed the period from Leslie Groves appointment to head the Manhattan Project to the dropping of the bomb or, perhaps, from the first serious decision to try to build the bomb to the dropping of it.I bought this book because I was interested in learning more about how the Manhattan Project was run and how it ended up producing an atomic bomb in only 3 years, a period much shorter than anyone would have expected. Instead this book turns out to be a biography of General Leslie Groves and, of course, spends a great deal of time on Groves' family and his family life. Indeed less than half of the book (approximately 10 1/2 hours) covers the period when he was in charge of the Atomic Bomb program during World War II.
Much of the book that covers the early Groves' life is spend discussing his father's career as a minister and then an Army chaplain as well as his brothers and sisters and their lives. While a standard part of a general biography I found much of this information to be extraneous and dull since it had no bearing on the period of the Manhattan Project and its aftermath, although the period convering his attempts to gain entry to West Point, his life there and his early life as an Army Engineer were more interesting and had a great deal of bearing on how and why he ran the Manhattan Project as he did.
That portion of the book covering his appointment to head the Manhattan Project through the construction, testing and dropping of the bomb were very interesting and covered much more than I would have expected. While there is little discussion of the technical problems involved, there is a great deal on what had to be done to support the project, the interaction between Groves and the scientists doing the research work, surprising information about the effort those associated with the project exerted in Europe to prevent Germany from developing the bomb (until they learned how far behind Germany was) and the effort to round up atomic scientists as the Allies swept toward Germany after July 1944. There are also details of events I never heard of, like the transportation of "Jumbo" to the Alamogordo test site, a very interesting subject in itself.
One of the most interesting parts of the book for me was the coverage on the political events leading to the actual dropping of the bomb. Mr Norris make clear tht there was no real decision to drop the bomb, just the lack of a decision to not drop it, but I found the coverage of the politcal discussions leading up to the actual dropping of the bomb fascinating.
The coverage of Groves' life after the end of World War II seemed anticlimactic and some of the events, like his antagonism toward David Lilienthal, was simply sad. The author makes a very good case that Groves was instrumental in the construction of the bomb and that without him the development effort would have taken much longer and many lives would have been lost in the invasion of Japan.
I felt that the narration of the book was acceptable, but not inspired, and that the book was far too long and too detailed for what I expected it to be. A more aggressive editor might have improved the book by cutting out a great deal of information that was not pertinent, but the book is OK, if not great, as it is.
2 people found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 04-11-21
Long winded
My opinion is that the information on Lesley Groves grandparents and parents had little relevance to the story and that the book could have been more interesting and satisfying to read if it was half the volume.
Narrator had a tough task making the book interesting but sounded bored
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- scott
- 03-18-19
The ultimate boring book
I couldn't make it past the second chapter of this book. it's basically reading the appointment book of a bureaucrat. I would rather watch paint dry. Total waste of a credit, don't waste yours.
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- Brent A Ellis
- 12-30-18
Genius!
Great book about an American Hero and Genius! No other man could have done it.
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- Ben Harrison
- 11-12-18
An overdue tribute
It should astonish any reader familiar with military hierarchy that Leslie Groves held the permanent rank of Army Colonel when chosen to head the Manhattan project. As this book illuminates, this fact may explain a measure of Groves’ hubris as well as the reactions of more senior officers when Groves was finally given
three stars.
The book is a little weak in describing the roles of the three main sites and the technical aspects of this massive project. However, arguably Groves’ own earlier book covers these aspects adequately.
An excellent and essential contribution to a full understanding of the atomic age and its principal manager.
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- Nick Stuart
- 09-10-18
Great Background on Manhattan Project
If you're interested in the background of the Manhattan Project, you'll be interested in this.
Minor problem with the audio editing. Someone could have gone through and silenced all the times the narrator took a breath. Could have gotten a high school student to do it for minimum wage.
Aside from that minor annoyance, I'm glad I got and listened to this book.
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- Gautam Satpathy
- 04-07-16
Extraordinary!
A child of the 70s India, I knew about the Scientific side of the Manhattan Project and nothing about the Military side other than a few references in Feynman's books etc. This tale was all the more fascinating as a result. Secondly it gave me a view into the American mind of the early 20th century with it's self centered arrogance which of course is still around today.
Nevertheless it is a fascinating tale and well produced. Well worth the price and the time spent in reading it. Highly recommended.
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- Linda
- 03-31-16
Informational
Informational that is all I can say. The book is solid information. Which isn't a bad thin but makes it very dry to listen to. This is a book much better read then listened to.
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- Jonathan R. Zeko
- 03-08-16
A necessary book about General Leslie Grove
Would you consider the audio edition of Racing for the Bomb to be better than the print version?
Yes. The book is so long and full of technical details that having it read, is much more pleasurable than reading.
What did you like best about this story?
Most of the books on the Manhattan Project concentrate on the scientists' contribution to the success of the project. This book focuses on the engineering and industrialization required to make the bomb work. Without Groves' contribution the program would have fizzled.
Which scene was your favorite?
When General Groves contacts the Secretary of Treasury to borrow tons of the US Mint's silver needed to build the magnets to purify Uranium. Anyone wanting to know the story of the Manhattan Project should read this book and Richard Rhoads "The Making of the Atormic Bomb." Both are superb.
Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
The heroic and stoic life of a dedicated patriot.
Any additional comments?
I've always had respect for the Army Corp of Engineers, but this book, which tells the story of a member of that corp. So it tells the story of West Point, the story of the Army Corp and the story of the massive industrial logistics that were necessary to put the great scientific theory into reality.
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
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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First War of Physics
- The Secret History of the Atom Bomb 1939-1949
- By: Jim Baggott
- Narrated by: Mark Ashby
- Length: 17 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
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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For all atom bomb and physics nerds
- By Jodie Swafford on 11-30-18
By: Jim Baggott
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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
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
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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Schriever rhymes with beaver.
- By John Gardner on 11-13-09
By: Neil Sheehan
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Man of the Hour
- James B. Conant, Warrior Scientist
- By: Jennet Conant
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 24 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
James Bryant Conant was a towering figure. He was at the center of the mammoth threats and challenges of the 20th century. As a young eminent chemist, he supervised the production of poison gas in WWI. As a controversial president of Harvard University, he was a champion of meritocracy and open admissions. As an advisor to FDR, he led the interventionist cause for US entrance in WWII.
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One of the Top 10 Books of the Year
- By Arthur Glauberman on 04-29-22
By: Jennet Conant
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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
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
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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Fantastic book, weak technical execution
- By Paul on 10-13-18
By: Jennet Conant
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Dark Sun
- The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb
- By: Richard Rhodes
- Narrated by: Richard Rhodes
- Length: 6 hrs
- Abridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
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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Abridged??
- By Delano on 04-17-13
By: Richard Rhodes
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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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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
Not exactly about the General and the Genius
- By FidlrJiffy on 01-28-16
By: James Kunetka
-
First War of Physics
- The Secret History of the Atom Bomb 1939-1949
- By: Jim Baggott
- Narrated by: Mark Ashby
- Length: 17 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
For all atom bomb and physics nerds
- By Jodie Swafford on 11-30-18
By: Jim Baggott
-
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
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
Schriever rhymes with beaver.
- By John Gardner on 11-13-09
By: Neil Sheehan
-
Man of the Hour
- James B. Conant, Warrior Scientist
- By: Jennet Conant
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 24 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
James Bryant Conant was a towering figure. He was at the center of the mammoth threats and challenges of the 20th century. As a young eminent chemist, he supervised the production of poison gas in WWI. As a controversial president of Harvard University, he was a champion of meritocracy and open admissions. As an advisor to FDR, he led the interventionist cause for US entrance in WWII.
-
-
One of the Top 10 Books of the Year
- By Arthur Glauberman on 04-29-22
By: Jennet Conant
-
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
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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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Fantastic book, weak technical execution
- By Paul on 10-13-18
By: Jennet Conant
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Eisenhower in War and Peace
- By: Jean Edward Smith
- Narrated by: Paul Hecht
- Length: 28 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Author of the best-seller FDR, Jean Edward Smith is a master of the presidential biography. Setting his sights on Dwight D. Eisenhower, Smith delivers a rich account of Eisenhower’s life using previously untapped primary sources. From the military service in WWII that launched his career to the shrewd political decisions that kept America out of wars with the Soviet Union and China, Smith reveals a man who never faltered in his dedication to serving America, whether in times of war or peace.
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Good, although biased, biography
- By Mike From Mesa on 10-15-12
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The Puzzle Palace
- Inside the National Security Agency, America's Most Secret Intelligence Organization
- By: James Bamford
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 20 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In this remarkable tour de force of investigative reporting, James Bamford exposes the inner workings of America's largest, most secretive, and arguably most intrusive intelligence agency. The NSA has long eluded public scrutiny, but The Puzzle Palace penetrates its vast network of power and unmasks the people who control it, often with shocking disregard for the law.
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Great NSA genesis - but watch the publication date
- By E. M. on 12-05-18
By: James Bamford
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The Angel
- The Egyptian Spy Who Saved Israel
- By: Uri Bar-Joseph
- Narrated by: Neil Shah
- Length: 11 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
As the son-in-law of Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser and a close advisor to his successor, Anwar Sadat, Ashraf Marwan had access to the deepest secrets of the country's government. But he himself had a secret: he was a spy for the Mossad, Israel's intelligence service. Under the codename "The Angel", Marwan turned Egypt into an open book for the Israeli intelligence services and, by alerting the Mossad in advance of the joint Egyptian-Syrian attack on Yom Kippur, saved Israel from a devastating defeat.
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Buena biografía
- By Rony M on 07-05-20
By: Uri Bar-Joseph
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A Matter of Honor
- Pearl Harbor: Betrayal, Blame, and a Family's Quest for Justice
- By: Anthony Summers, Robbyn Swan
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 12 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The Japanese onslaught on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, devastated Americans and precipitated entry into World War II. In the aftermath, Admiral Husband Kimmel, commander in chief of the Pacific Fleet, was relieved of command, accused of negligence and dereliction of duty, and publicly disgraced. But the admiral defended his actions through eight investigations and for the rest of his long life. The evidence against him was less than solid.
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Great information, Reads like a textbook.
- By UncleHammy on 12-13-16
By: Anthony Summers, and others
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Admiral Hyman Rickover
- Engineer of Power (The Jewish Lives Series)
- By: Marc Wortman
- Narrated by: Paul Bellantoni
- Length: 9 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Admiral Hyman George Rickover (1899-1986) remains an almost mythical figure in the United States Navy. A brilliant engineer with a ferocious will and combative personality, he oversaw the invention of the world’s first practical nuclear power reactor. In this exciting biography, historian Marc Wortman explores the constant conflict Rickover faced and provoked, tracing how he revolutionized the navy and Cold War strategy.
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Rickover - No Compromises
- By Brustar on 07-18-22
By: Marc Wortman
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Code Warriors
- NSA's Codebreakers and the Secret Intelligence War Against the Soviet Union
- By: Stephen Budiansky
- Narrated by: Mark Deakins
- Length: 14 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The National Security Agency was born out of the legendary codebreaking programs of World War II that cracked the famed Enigma machine and other German and Japanese codes, thereby turning the tide of Allied victory. In the postwar years, as the United States developed a new enemy in the Soviet Union, our intelligence community found itself targeting not soldiers on the battlefield, but suspected spies, foreign leaders, and even American citizens.