The Manhattan Project: A Documentary Introduction to the Atomic Age

by Michael B. Stoff (Editor), Jonathan F. Fanton, R. Hal Williams (Editor)

The authors provide students with a documentary case study of a critical episode in modern American history. The authors allow students to learn history by doing history--or at least by asking them to read and analyze the most original sources that could be assembled. In effect, The Manhattan Project is a form of interactive narrative history that tells its story through the words of the men who lived it. No other such documentary study of the Manhattan Project exists.

Genres: History

298 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1990

About the author

Stoff is Associate Professor of History at the University of Texas at Austin. The recipient of a PhD from Yale University, he has received many teaching awards, most recently the Friars' Centennial Teaching Excellence Award (1996). He is the author of Oil, War, and American Security: The Search for a National Policy on Foreign Oil,1941-1947 and co-editor (with Jonathan Fanton and R. Hal Williams) of The Manhattan Project: A Documentary Introduction to the Atomic Age.

Reviews

[Sjors · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent selection of primary sources concerning the development and use of the atomic bomb during WW2.

[Erfman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a truly fascinating look at the top secret documents surrounding the development of the atomic bomb during the WW2 years.

It starts in 1939 with the famous letter Einstein writes to the President and ends in 1945 with the Secretary of War's recommendations on what entering the atomic age means to America, and the world.

It is an eminently absorbing portrait of primary documents that gives a startling view behind the scenes of government, and this fearsome weapon. A must for any military history buff.