false 16884 7 If the first 270 pages of this book had been published separately, they would have made up a lively, insightful, beautifully written history of theoretical physics and the men and women who plumbed the mysteries of the atom. Along with the following 600 pages, they become a sweeping epic, filled with terror and pity, of the ultimate scientific quest: the development of the ultimate weapon. Rhodes is a peerless explainer of difficult concepts; he is even better at chronicling the personalities who made the discoveries that led to the Bomb. Niels Bohr dominates the first half of the book as J. Robert Oppenheimer does the second; both men were gifted philosophers of science as well as brilliant physicists. The central irony of this book, which won a National Book Critics Circle Award, is that the greatest minds of the century contributed to the greatest destructive force in history. 105195 book 1986 The Making of the Atomic Bomb total:675|5:394|4:199|3:68|2:14|1:0| 675 2998 1134 134 5 5 false false Sat Aug 16 19:04:24 -0700 2008 Sat Aug 16 19:05:44 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 2 false false Sat Nov 01 00:00:00 -0800 1986 Wed Nov 14 16:17:16 -0800 2007 Wed Nov 14 16:24:46 -0800 2007 more...]]> 5 2 false false Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Tue Jul 17 09:31:35 -0700 2007 Tue Jul 17 11:01:53 -0700 2007
If you want to impress my dad, read something with a title like A Hero Will Rise: A World War II POW's Introspection About the War in the Pacific, the Bataan Death March, General McArthur, Iwo Jima, and P-38s. Oh, and John Wayne.

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Here is the review I wrote a co...more...]]> 5 1 false false Wed Sep 19 13:22:52 -0700 2007 Wed Sep 19 13:42:13 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 1 false false Wed Jan 30 10:05:51 -0800 2008 Wed Jan 30 10:09:02 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Tue Jan 06 17:13:26 -0800 2009 Thu Jan 08 17:47:03 -0800 2009 more...]]> 5 2 false false Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1989 Wed Mar 05 07:48:24 -0800 2008 Fri May 30 09:06:55 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu May 01 00:00:00 -0700 1997 Sun Jun 07 07:21:16 -0700 2009 Sun Jun 07 07:21:16 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Fri Feb 20 20:01:52 -0800 2009 Fri Feb 20 20:08:35 -0800 2009
I've heard many of the physics stories before, but they're always worth hearing again if told competent...more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Apr 28 06:31:05 -0700 2009 Tue Apr 28 06:40:55 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu Mar 05 08:55:57 -0800 2009 Thu Mar 05 08:56:05 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Jan 11 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Dec 09 11:49:05 -0800 2008 Sun Jan 11 21:12:34 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Oct 05 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 05 19:45:40 -0700 2009 Sun Oct 18 23:02:35 -0700 2009 2
After that, the pace picks up sharply, and we see why those biographical sketches were there. One of the spurs to the US nuclear program was the "Hungarian conspiracy"...more...]]> 3 1 false false Sun Dec 07 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Oct 21 05:47:11 -0700 2008 Sat Dec 06 23:02:34 -0800 2008 Bomb and you will find many different variants on a laudatory theme. If you read works of historical nonfiction for any of the reasons this book has rightly earned praise – its thoroughness, attention to detail, exhaustive research, fanatical devotion to accuracy, and a...more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Nov 10 18:33:32 -0800 2008 Mon Nov 10 19:11:51 -0800 2008 The Making of the Atomic Bomb, Wig...more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Sep 29 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun Sep 07 15:12:23 -0700 2008 Mon Sep 29 20:00:24 -0700 2008 more...]]> 0 0 true false Mon Aug 13 11:43:07 -0700 2007 Fri Aug 24 11:56:16 -0700 2007
Uncommon sensitivity to experiences -- usually sensory experiences -- is the beginning of creative discovery in science. Heightened sensitivity is accompanied in thinking by overalertness to relatively...more...]]> 5 0 false false Fri Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1988 Thu May 24 22:52:31 -0700 2007 Thu May 24 22:59:50 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon May 11 18:01:08 -0700 2009 Mon May 11 18:06:02 -0700 2009 more...]]>