One of the most saddening parts is the eyewitness accounts of the bombs being dropped on Japan. The book ends with the observations of the moral views of the scientists working on the bombs and the fact that some of them left or begged the president not to use them.

Martin Moeller: Kiernan’s best-selling book inspired renewed interest in the Manhattan Project and the varied roles of American women during World War II. It complements the more well-known stories of the famous scientists and military officials associated with the project. The period of discovery from Rutherford discovering the atomic nucleus to the dropping of the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki could certainly be put forward as the greatest scientific period in human history. The community and fraternity of scientists across the globe preceding the Great Wars is also heartening and certainly a golden era I imagine all scientists wish we could return to. You might be surprised to see a graphic novel on this list, but this must-read for anyone interested in this historical event. It is unlike any other book on this list as it shows, through words and illustrations, everything related to the atomic bomb. This includes the origins of the theory for it, the early work, and the Trinity Test. It then continues with the bombs being dropped on both Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the early Cold War that resulted from developing these weapons of mass destruction. Robert Oppenheimer oversaw all this activity with self-evident competence and an outward composure that almost everyone came to depend on. 'Oppenheimer was probably the best lab director I have ever seen,' Teller repeats, 'because of the great mobility of his mind, because of his successful effort to know about practically everything important invented in the laboratory, and also because of his unusual psychological insight into other people which, in the company of physicists, was very much the exception.'" Most people don't realize that Oppenheimer and Einstein worked in Germany during the 1930s as scientists. They were forced to leave the country and came to the United States as the Nazis came to power. Originally written in the 1950s, this book is just as applicable as in today's world because of the continued military issues associated with them. Oppenheimer became the leader of the Manhattan project while Einstein continued his work on physics and how to make atomic energy.MM: This catalogue from a 2011 exhibition at the Canadian Centre for Architecture explores the legacy of military architecture and engineering during World War II. Thanks to the story inside this book, its author, Richard Rhodes, received several amazing awards that are well-deserved. This list of prestigious awards includes the National Book Award, a Pulitzer Prize, Jason’s 5 Star, and the National Book Critics Circle Award. All of that praise is well-deserved as well. We have a book of similar topics somewhere within our Manhattan Project book review that talks about the women of Los Alamos. Even though the topics may be similar, this is still a different and very unique book. This one is a bit more in-depth and has much more to tell you regarding the women who were forced to live a life of difficulties and war hardship.

Rhodes does an excellent job highlighting the various scientific advancements that finally led to the Manhattan Project and the development of the atomic bomb. For a historical context to explain the urgency felt by the participants, he explains the history of the Jewish people in Europe and the rise of Hitler in Germany. Adding on is the fear that Germany would develop the bomb first and later that Japan would refuse to surrender, producing a constant pressure to continue. Taken as a story of human achievement, and human blindness, the discoveries in the sciences are among the great epics. Moreover, Wigner’s remark – “we are all doomed” – is thematically appropriate, because this is not simply a book about a scientific achievement, but about the terrible consequences of those achievements. Collins, Angelo (1988). "Reviewed Work: The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes". The American Biology Teacher. 50 (8): 532. doi: 10.2307/4448825. JSTOR 4448825. Warzel, Charlie (July 20, 2023). "The Real Lesson From 'The Making of the Atomic Bomb' ". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on July 22, 2023 . Retrieved September 5, 2023.With the development of weapons designed to bring about the end of World War II as its stated mission, it’s easy to think that the story of the Manhattan Project ends in August 1945. However, that’s far from the case. It is compelling and terrifying to see what happened to Japan's people and then think of what could have happened to the world if the Nazis had built an atomic bomb first. The Making of the Atomic Bomb is a history book written by the American journalist and historian Richard Rhodes, first published by Simon & Schuster in 1987. The book won multiple awards, including Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction. The narrative covers people and events from early 20th century discoveries leading to the science of nuclear fission, through the Manhattan Project and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The latter portions of the book are dominated – unsurprisingly – by the “American Prometheus” himself, Oppenheimer. He was a brilliant man in his own right, but his main contribution to the Manhattan Project was to manage the greatest collection of scientific minds perhaps ever gathered in one place.Finally, we have our first fiction book that takes the reality of the Manhattan Project to a whole other level. Some of the characters may be fictional, the story may be made up and customized to some extent, but the basis of the entire tale is very true and real. Everything you’re about to discover, everyone you’re about to meet, are all related to the very real historical event known as the Manhattan Project. Searching for the Truth Consider what had happened earlier, at Monte Cassino in Italy, when Allied commanders made one of the most controversial military decisions of the war and bombed a monastery perched resolutely like a fortress astride an impregnable mountain pass. There are good arguments that that historic monastery never had to be bombed; that, in fact, the whole pass could have been gotten around at a juncture to the east, thus avoiding the head-pounding frustration of trying to take the mountain. Whatever the case, day after day -- to the grunt on the ground -- that monastery was like an evil thing that tied them down, that glowered at them like a death stare. It symbolized a kind of fatal inertia and stasis, a frustrating and threatening obstacle that seemed never-ending. When the place was bombed, it was an instant morale booster to the soldier under siege. If it was the wrong thing to do, it was something to worry about later. At least now you might have a chance to get Consider you were a soldier, or the family of a soldier wondering if, at that moment, your son or daughter was alive and well, alive and suffering, or dead. I'm blown away by Richard Rhodes and his ability to effortlessly master three incredibly difficult disciplines: science writing, history writing, and character writing. Rarely will you find a book that masters any one of these. Rhodes managed to master all three simultaneously. The book's weakest element is its occasional staccato rhythm. At times we jump from place to place, person to person, making discovery after discovery, and decision after decision with the only link being a temporal one. As if the research of Fermi in his lab in Rome and the decisions of Churchill at 10 Downing St can be juxtaposed simply because they happened on the same day.

To quote Isaac Asimov, "The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom." If thousands, tens of thousands, of wolves wage a fight among themselves – with growls and bloodshed, and a myriad of stinking corpses – we would laugh at them for annihilating their own kind and ridicule their stupidity. Yet, we, the "rational animals", who are above such weapons as claws and fangs, devise arrows, spears, bullets, bombs to do the very same! The development of the atomic bomb provided the nations with just another, even more innovative, form of destruction of our own kind. The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is as horrific a crime as the Nazi crimes against peace and humanity; it is a crime against morality and wisdom. In my mind's eye, like a waking dream, I could still see the tongues of fire at work on the bodies of men.”Why did the U.S. get the atomic bomb ahead of Germany and other nations? The U. S. had the quantity and quality of scientists and the massive industrial and material resources required. Just as important was the signature American can-do and will-do attitude.