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Richard Rhodes, The Making of the Atomic Bomb (1986) The book, which won a Pulitzer, National Book Award and a National Book Critics Circle Award, is more than just the story of Los Alamos and the Manhattan Project. The story begins much earlier and the reader is presented with a novel-like history of physics and discovery in the first half of the early 1900's. Amazon describes the book as a "sweeping epic" because of the scope of the story and the books length. Others have compared the book, in its sweep and importance, to William L. Shirer's The Rise and Fail of the Third Reich. To read The Making of the Atomic Bomb is to learn how a bunch of academics came to be enmeshed in the most ambitious scientific project ever undertaken. More than anything, the book reveals how science, technology and war are all intertwined. When it came out the book was praised in the New York Times for its "remarkable breadth and depth, revealing new connections, insights and surprises." Many reviews focused on the argument made in the book over who convinced FDR to pursue the bomb. Rhodes argues that it was Wall Street financier Alexander Sachs who convinced the president. The Washington Post described Richard Rhodes as being "in some ways an ideal writer for our times. He has a gift for putting the processes of technology - the application of science to human affairs - into words practically anybody can understand." MORE: Interview with Richard Rhodes on PBS Video Interview with Richard Rhodes from the Nuclear Control Institute Amazon |
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