 "Impressive in scope, somewhat difficult to read" | 2009-08-02 |
| - Reviewed By mlovett@wwnet.net |
As many have said, the amount of research that went into this book, and the resultant detail, was phenomenal.
I'm glad I bought and read the book. It gave me insights and understanding that I didn't have before hand, related to the scientific, social, and political elements of development of the bomb. At times it was so engaging, I had trouble putting it down.
I also enjoyed reading about the early history of atomic/nuclear research with Szilard, Rutherford, et. al. I had no idea beforehand of the massive undertaking needed to produce a workable bomb, and all the associated political problems.
Having said that, it was TOO MUCH WORK to read this book, for two main reasons:
1) Way too much detail on too many levels. For example, it seems like each time a new character was introduced there was anywhere from one to twenty pages background on this person, their family, their political and scientific past, etc. Kudos to the author for doing all this research but the net effect is that the central story kept losing steam each time we'd take one of these long detours into character building. I eventually found myself skipping dozens of pages at a time, trying to get back on track with the main topic. A good book must not stray too far from the main story or the average reader simply loses interest.
2) I found the sentence structure and language used to often be confusing. I had to re-read many sentences to understand what was being said. I'm not referring to the scientific sentences, which one might expect to be challenging for a non-scientist, but to the general prose. A lot of it was fine, but I would say at least once every few pages I was stumped and there a few times that after re-reading the sentence I just didn't get what the author was trying to communicate to me.
Overall, I give the book a positive review because of its unprecedented content and scope, but be aware of what you are buying: a phone book of endless details, with a very interesting central story woven somewhere in between those pages.
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 "Exhaustive History Lesson, tendentious view of "Science."" | 2009-03-29 |
| - Reviewed By mrjoerooney |
March 29, 2009
Ardsley, PA
THE MAKING OF THE ATOMIC BOMB provides a valuable insight into the developments within physics and chemistry which directly lead to the Manhattan Project with its parallel development of the first fission bombs and their use against Imperial Japan.
In 790 pages, 19 chapters and three parts Richard Rhodes covers every imaginable aspect of the scientific discoveries which brought us into the Atomic Age. Along with the discussions of the developments in Physics and Chemistry we are introduced to the various scientists and laboratories, the major world events and the political decisions that accompanied these developments.
Anyone with more than an introductory class in Physics in college will recognize all of the major scientists and much of the physics and chemistry discussed. Highlighted figures include Ernest Rutherford, Marie Curie, Niels Bohr, Enrico Fermi, Otto Hahn and Lise Meitner, Leo Szilard, Einstein, Robert Oppenheimer, General Leslie Groves, Churchill, FDR, Truman and countless others.
This encyclopedic book weaves the story of the development of atomic chemistry and physics with the accompanying strands of world developments. These include the founding of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Berlin, Rutherford's work at various universities in England and Canada, WWI, the development of theoretical physics in the USA, the rise of Nazism and its accompanying flight of Jewish Physicists to the west, the parallel bomb programs of Germany, Japan, the UK and Russia and the incredible industrial and engineering efforts within the USA orchestrated by Leslie Groves.
This is a very interesting book, but is not an easily read book. It should be read carefully and you should take notes if you intend to follow the converging story lines of scientific, interpersonal, political and industrial developments. I actually read most of it twice correcting and adding to my notes as I went. Beyond the discussion of bomb development, there are a few items that really struck me:
1. An atomic bomb was inevitable. There were parallel programs underway in all the major combatants of WWII. Once the war ended, most would have overcome the industrial obstacles and built fission weapons.
2. General Leslie Groves, whatever his personal peccadilloes alluded to in the book, was an organizational genius. It is beyond belief that he oversaw the acquisitions and developments necessary to bring about the factories necessary to produce the Plutonium and Uranium bombs in the time he did.
3. Franklin Roosevelt was a dictator. This to me is the most frightening aspect of this whole book. Regardless of whether he was a benevolent dictator, or not, the realization that the USA elected and accepted this is disheartening. In 800 pages there aren't three mentions of Congress, there were no checks and balances, there was no oversight of the billions spent on the Manhattan Project; "Make it happen, FDR," seemed all that was needed. When Harry Truman assumed the presidency it was days before his Secretary of War even briefed him on the bomb, he knew nothing of its existence. Please understand that he was not only the VP, but also had been a Senator, yet was completely in the dark about the Manhattan Project.
The author carries through the book this idea that scientists are morally superior to everyone else. Without once explaining how these individuals attain that superiority, time and time again he bemoans the fact that Churchill and Truman wouldn't listen to Bohr , Szilard and Oppenheimer. I trust the leadership of Winston Churchill and Truman in the strategic realm as I do Bohr and Oppie in the theoretical physical world.
Finally, this book is worth 5 stars, but the epilogue is a one star groaner. By 1989 the epilogue is completely irrelevant. Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher and Pope John Paul II understood the inhumanity of the USSR far better than Bohr, Oppenheimer or Richard Rhodes. Fission and Thermonuclear weapons have not proven to be the plague that the author alludes. Western Civilization, rather, carries within its fabric a far more insidious plague which took no Manhattan Project to develop and has been freely, even cheerfully, employed not only to kill probably 100 million but also to destroy whole cultures. That plague is ABORTION. It has torn the fabric of Europe more surely than two world wars and has brought most European societies, both democratic and totalitarian, within sight of extinction.
Abortion, not atomic weapons, reveals the true morality of this book's much heralded "Republic of Science."
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| "Superb, in narrative, character study, political and philosophical thinking and of course nuclear physics" | 2009-03-19 |
| - Reviewed By User: A234KUM064EGHL |
| This book details from the beginning of radiation physics from the beginning of the 20th century till the massive efforts by scientists and the US government to build the first nuclear bomb. However, this is not just a simple chronicle of the events. The author has done extensive and detailed research. He excels in a number of areas. Firstly, the discussion on physics is far beyond the popular science level, and you can learn a lot about the process of discovery, the excitement in developing the new physics and scientific collaboration. The motivated reader can learn new physical insights. Secondly, the vivid depiction of the various characters is invaluable. They range from the towering figures of Bohr, Fermi and later Oppenheimer, to the lesser known but no less important ones in the development of the bomb, the "Hungarian Jews" such as Szillard, Edward Teller and John von Neumann. Lastly, Rhodes captured the political debates and the moral struggles of the characters particularly well. Especially, the debate between Teller and Oppenheimer were an invaluable read. Tragically, this debate is a precursor to what is to happen to Oppenheimer post the war. However, one can tell the debate was not simply a case of persecution during the building of the first bomb. Richard Rhodes should serve as a benchmark of scientific writing for the masses. Even for readers who are not interested in science, this is a worthwhile read because the geopolitical impact of the bomb was so big that it engendered 60 years of relative world peace (no major worldwide or continental conventional wars). Highly recommended. |
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| "Did anyone actually READ this book?" | 2009-02-27 |
| - Reviewed By gmwoods2 |
One hundred pages in:
I don't care that Niels Bohr's father had an older friend who admired Kierkegaard and that Kierkegaard had read a book that he admired by Poul Moller, or the plot of that book, I want to read about the development of the atomic bomb! At the rate this is going I'll be hearing about what Adam and Eve had for breakfast that fateful morning!
"The scheme was too schematic for Bohr. Mathematics was probably too much like ratiocination, leaving him isolated within his anxiety." This won the Pulitzer?!
Sigh. Back to it.
Two weeks and seven hundred pages later, the book read: This is a remarkable book and the Pulitzer is justified by the volume of research that was required to write it. In its form. The book is encyclopedic, detailing every event and nuance that was in any way related to the development of the atomic bomb. That includes the political developments leading to and the carnage of the "Great War," the changing politics of the interwar years, Hitler's childhood, his father's childhood, even, it sometimes seemed, the dreams of his father's housekeeper ( editor's note: hyperbole.) The exhautive detail about the life of every character from as early as 1870 no matter how tangential, was, well, exhausting. This was not a fun, or even pleasant read. It is dense with scientific detail that even I (a holder of graduate degrees in the natural sciences) found hard to follow. The book details the evolution of military "theory," the justification of carpet bombing and the use of incendiary bombs to create the apocalyptic firestorms. Even Kurt Vonnegut speaks from his meat locker in Dresden. Everything is in here, nothing omitted. It treats in a remarkably evenhanded fashion the moral question of the bomb's use over Hiroshima and Nagasaki leaving the issue unresolved. As it, in fact, remains. And yet it felt also incomplete with tantilizing allusions, for example, to Robert Oppenheimer's fate and predictions of an arms race that came all too true (and had already done so when this book was written.) My impression was, too, that life and work at Los Alamos, the period of actual bomb development was handled too briefly but that may have been inevitable given the ponderous concentration on the decades leading to those two years. The author's late in the book (in fact, in the epilogue) ruminations about mankind's fate, the relations among and the evolution of nation states made the book come alive in a way that would have served it well much earlier. The book has the sort of feel of a slice taken out of the pie that is world history, emphasis on nuclear physics. Nonetheless, if your interest is some facet, no matter how miniscule, relating to the atom bomb, you will find it here.
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| "Must Read" | 2009-02-17 |
| - Reviewed By User: A2IOPWAX5CDL8Y |
Its hard to add anything substantial when reviewing a book with 137 five star reviews, but I'll try any way.
For a few years I've been interested in learning more of the history and science of the atomic bomb and this was the first book I read that specifically focused on that subject. I will say that the book was not a disappointment. I knew very little of the time or circumstances that surrounded the building of the bomb other then watching the movie Fat Man and Little Boy, yet I did not feel I was at a disadvantage in understanding the material. Mr. Rhodes provides enough of a historical and scientific background for the uninformed to enjoy and learn from the book.
As with any book dealing with such a technical topic there was a great deal of science. Although I have degrees in Math and Computer Science I understood very little of the scientific material, but I would not let that deter anybody from reading the book. Mr. Rhodes mixes the historical, biographical and technical material in such a way that the reader never really gets bogged down in any one category. Also the technical info is presented in such a way that one does really have to understand it to enjoy it. You come way amazed that some men can actually understand this stuff, and even more so because others actually discovered it. In addition I also gained a deep appreciation for the engineering, manufacturing and management feat it was to develop the atomic bomb.
I also enjoyed the biographical information that Mr. Rhodes added. The characters are very colorful men and women and the main ones are not just dropped from the sky into the narrative but are introduced at the proper time with the necessary background information to make them come alive in the story.
Two other points I would like to make.
The book really made me appreciate the freedom America offered the world in the 20th century. Many (if not most) of the scientists who contributed, either directly or indirectly, to allied effort in developing the bomb did so because the were seeking refuge from the tolitarianism of Nazi Germany or Soviet Russia. Scientist such as Einstein, Bohr, Teller, Enrico Fermi, Meinter, Szilard, and Wigner contributed to the allied effort because they fled their former countries out of a hatred for the racism and governments who had taken over their homelands.
A final note is on Mr. Rhodes description of the destruction of the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This was by far the most moving part of the book. The author does not have a blame America attitude that indicates we were wrong in dropping the bomb. He is neither an apologist nor critic of what we did. However, his description of the human tragedy that took place was so overwhelming that often I could only read a few pages and then have to put the book down. I also appreciated his setting the bombing of the cities in the context of the rest of the bombing that we had already done to Japan.
Let me close by saying this was a great book.
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| "Ares befriends Prometheus and Pandora" | 2008-12-19 |
| - Reviewed By 72752163 |
Few schooled in 1950-60s can fail to remember clumsy `duck-and-cover' squats choreographed in lockered hallways or under classroom desks. The nuclear age, born at Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, bestowed omnipresent dread (and an appreciation of farcical drills) in children who (ironically) might never have been born had their fathers died invading Japan with `conventional' weapons. The Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962 saw the apogee of prefab `home' bomb shelter sales and nonperishable family food storage guidelines. Meanwhile airborne B-52s armed with weapons worthy of Armageddon raked the northern skies 24/7. Kubrick's `Dr. Strangelove' brought comic relief (and a warning) in 1964, but major adversaries remained preoccupied with enhancing weapons that could already easily destroy mankind several times over. How did it happen?
This is a lucid, masterful history of the physics, chemistry, and inevitability of atomic weapon development (including the contemporary efforts of Germany, England, the United States, USSR, and Japan). Basic principals are outlined so skillfully even I derived a general understanding (I only wish my physics and chemistry professors possessed Rhode's skill - maybe I'd have gotten better marks).
Portraits of major figures (scientific, technical, military, political) are skillfully set in their times. The events (theory, engineering, development, testing, industrialization, manufacturing, deployment, application, etc) are fully depicted. They end in victim descriptions of bomb-destroyed Hiroshima - a sobering primer on the ruinous effects of human-induced natural forces that continue to be available for exploitation.
Bohr's assertion that conventional state craft was obsolete given atomic technology/weapons was accurate - but postponed by Teller's Faustian desire for a Hydrogen `Superbomb.' The dilemma continues. Rhodes, in his epilogue, fully explores the dual-edged sword forged by the Manhattan Project.
This work explains much of what I, a child who obediently squatted in `duck-and-cover' pantomimes, waited fifty years to discover. |
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