Making of the Atomic Bomb

25th Anniversary Edition

By: Richard Rhodes

Narrated by: 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.

Maybe more info than you want

But this book was perfect for me. Suffice it to say that los alamos is just a part of the story. The story of this book starts before atomic structure was known and ends with the dropping of the bomb. Yea >30 hours ... but this is my car commute book so length makes it a great value.

I'm following this with "First into Nagasaki" which is proving to be a good follow on book.

Science, history and war making.

This story has it all no stone left Unturned I read the original hard copy after hearing Rhodes interviewed in 1986 on local radio. So getting the chance now to have the book listened to is a real treat. What a shame at the same time that its sequel Dark Sun is only available in Abridged form when its story is equally compelling not because of the science (which is covered so thoroughly in this book) but because the first half covers the espionage undertaken by the Soviets to have their form of The Gadget, which of course was Fatman. I've seen other reviewers express the same sentiment of Dark Sun, hopefully someone reads these reviews and is considering an unabridged release of that equally compelling tome.

Note to listeners: upon completing the audible I find that the epilogue, about 30 pages of the post-war attempt at Arms Control is also missing relative to the print edition of 1986 Perhaps this was a method because much of this material is covered in Dark Sun.

Informative, but wandering

This is a great story;it starts by introducing the main players in the theory of nuclear physics at the turn of the century. Give a background of the research that was done and how one experiment lead to another and it cascaded into the bombs. However, was a bit wandering at times, I remember a long description on the use of poison gas in the Great War, which felt out of place to me. Also the chapters are very long and full of dense information, I have a minor in physics and I had to go back and re listen a number of times, so I probably wouldn't recommend this to someone with no background in physics. All in all though a grad read.

Thorough and enjoyable story, mediocre narrator

The writing is accessible to the lay person and the historical characters' quirks add color. I'm glad I listened to this long description of a crucial period in physics, it sheds some light on this often impenetrable branch of science.
The narrator, on the other hand, makes an alarming number of blunders in his pronunciation of foreign names, titles and Greek letters. It does not detract from the subject itself, but it is annoying.

A must listen / read

I will insist to my children that they digest the horror of this event - brilliantly articulated here - to help humanity prevent a recurrence forever after - even if the odds are only a fraction of 1 percent.