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The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II

Denise Kiernan (Goodreads Author)

3.69 · Rating details · 26,517 ratings · 3,285 reviews

The New York Times bestseller, now available in paperback—an incredible true story of the top-secret World War II town of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and the young women brought there unknowingly to help build the atomic bomb.

“The best kind of nonfiction: marvelously reported, fluidly written, and a remarkable story...As meticulous and brilliant as it is compulsively readable.” The New York Times bestseller, now available in paperback—an incredible true story of the top-secret World War II town of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and the young women brought there unknowingly to help build the atomic bomb.

“The best kind of nonfiction: marvelously reported, fluidly written, and a remarkable story...As meticulous and brilliant as it is compulsively readable.” —Karen Abbott, author of Sin in the Second City

At the height of World War II, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, was home to 75,000 residents, and consumed more electricity than New York City, yet it was shrouded in such secrecy that it did not appear on any map. Thousands of civilians, many of them young women from small towns across the U.S., were recruited to this secret city, enticed by the promise of solid wages and war-ending work. What were they actually doing there? Very few knew. The purpose of this mysterious government project was kept a secret from the outside world and from the majority of the residents themselves. Some wondered why, despite the constant work and round-the-clock activity in this makeshift town, did no tangible product of any kind ever seem to leave its guarded gates? The women who kept this town running would find out at the end of the war, when Oak Ridge’s secret was revealed and changed the world forever.

Drawing from the voices and experiences of the women who lived and worked in Oak Ridge, The Girls of Atomic City rescues a remarkable, forgotten chapter of World War II from obscurity. Denise Kiernan captures the spirit of the times through these women: their pluck, their desire to contribute, and their enduring courage. “A phenomenal story,” and Publishers Weekly called it an “intimate and revealing glimpse into one of the most important scientific developments in history.”

“Kiernan has amassed a deep reservoir of intimate details of what life was like for women living in the secret city...Rosie, it turns out, did much more than drive rivets.” —The Washington Post ...more

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Paperback, 371 pages

Published March 11th 2014 by Atria Books (first published March 5th 2013)

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Jul 14, 2013 Katherine Hunter rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

This is the story of women who went to work in Oak Ridge, Tennessee during WW2. I liked the subject, I thought it was interesting. But these women's stories were told in a bare bones sort of way. I never felt like I got to know any of them. I certainly didn't get invested in anyone's story. Each person's story is spread over the whole book and elements pop up without much of a connection to other parts. Keeping track of the main people was not straight forward as some showed up once and then wer ...more

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May 07, 2013 The Library Lady rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: adult-non-fiction

If you read my reviews (and thanks if you do) you know that I virtually NEVER give a book 5 stars. Few books deserve it.But I am breaking my own rule on this one.

Most of the adult non-fiction I have read in recent years has been pretentious, badly written, and highly overrated by reviewers. But this book is outstanding. From the first page, it reads like a well written novel--only it tells a true story.

It's the story of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, a city created by the government to develop the atomi ...more

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Mar 29, 2013 Sarah rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: history

Five stars for subject matter, three for execution.

I'm always happy to read histories that focus on women, typically left out of war narratives. Add to that the fact that my grandmother was one of the "girls" of Atomic City, and you can see I was eager to read this book. My mother has said that the only thing my grandmother ever said on the subject was that everyone dated a lot during their time in Oak Ridge. The subject matter was fascinating, but unfortunately I keep getting caught up by sent Five stars for subject matter, three for execution.

I'm always happy to read histories that focus on women, typically left out of war narratives. Add to that the fact that my grandmother was one of the "girls" of Atomic City, and you can see I was eager to read this book. My mother has said that the only thing my grandmother ever said on the subject was that everyone dated a lot during their time in Oak Ridge. The subject matter was fascinating, but unfortunately I keep getting caught up by sentences I don't like.

"The effusively outgoing 18-year-old brunette was on line for the shower..."

"A sudden knock came at the door." (most knocks are sudden to the person on the inside)

"She missed her mama, though. A good ol' plump woman with a welcoming lap no matter your age, a soft bosomy shelf that held the answer to any crisis, a pillow for your troubles."

"Virginia Spivey was stuck in limbo, the kind that existed for those lacking appropriate paperwork - and in triplicate. If there were a penance designed specifically for the shy-yet-spunky, 21-year-old woman, it came in the form of a daily challenge to devise something of value to teach the other fidgety individuals who were stuck with her in a place called the 'bull pen.'"

"Willie had to physically carry her to the bathroom." (HOW ELSE WOULD HE CARRY HER? WITH HIS MIND?)

I would also have liked to read more about the aftermath, and specifically: what is the cancer incidence for those who worked on site? The book seems more concerned with wrapping up their stories with marriages and new jobs.

One absolutely fascinating side story was told about an otherwise healthy man who was brought to the hospital at Oak Ridge after a car accident in the vicinity. Rather than setting his broken leg, they injected him with radioactive isotopes (without his permission) and removed fifteen of his teeth, keeping him in the hospital for weeks. His story is wrapped up in a couple of lines because it doesn't fully keep with the "girls" narrative, but probably merits a book of its own if there hasn't been one already.

I'm glad the author took the time to research this worthwhile subject. ...more

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Jul 30, 2018 Katie B rated it really liked it

Shelves: 1940s, history, read-in-2018, tennessee, ww2, war, science, nonfiction

Incredible story of how tens of thousands of ordinary American citizens worked in Oak Ridge, Tennessee and helped build the atomic bomb. Each person knew how to do their job but did not know the purpose of their individual tasks other than it was part of the war effort. When the bombings occurred in Japan, they were just as surprised as the rest of the world. It was probably the best kept secret in American history.

The book features the stories of some of the women who worked in various capacit ...more

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Oct 22, 2012 Diane S ☔ rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Started with a picture that sparked Kiernan's curiosity and resulted in this wonderful book. Oak Ridge, TN managed to build a complex that employed 75,000 people, all sworn to secrecy. Loved the narrative style of this book and that the book centered on the young woman who worked there as well as staff and others employed in this huge complex. The bravery of these young women, who left their homes, not able to tell their families nor friends where they were going or what they were doing, especia ...more

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Mar 29, 2013 Amy rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommended to Amy by: Nancy Oakes

Shelves: read-on-recommendation, nonfiction

My father was a pathologist, with an interest in oncology. He was a pioneer in the work towards a cure for leukemia, and his quest took him on many unique journeys. He had this idea that you could inject an isotope into an infected guinea pig, and be able to read the path of the disease in the animal's body. He worked for the National Institutes of Health, and it was his resources there that allowed him to drive the family station wagon out to this place in Tennessee, and pick up a substance to My father was a pathologist, with an interest in oncology. He was a pioneer in the work towards a cure for leukemia, and his quest took him on many unique journeys. He had this idea that you could inject an isotope into an infected guinea pig, and be able to read the path of the disease in the animal's body. He worked for the National Institutes of Health, and it was his resources there that allowed him to drive the family station wagon out to this place in Tennessee, and pick up a substance to help in the refining of his idea. Whatever it was that he picked up, was in a lead-lined box, and we kids weren't allowed near the box, or the car, when he got home. I remember him washing the car, inside and out, to "make it safe" for the family to ride in again. (I remember, because it was the only time I saw him ever wash the car. It was something relegated to his sons and daughter to do.) Daddy took the box to his lab and went on with his experiments. His career was illustrious, and his work brought him a nomination for the Nobel prize (he found out after the fact) and was the basis for other people to win the prize itself (which was a sore point for him.) The box hung around the lab, then came to our home where it was used as a door stop for years. The base has been lost, but we actually still have the lid, and some weights used to help keep the top secure on the car ride between Tennessee and Maryland. (My husband says that early exposure to radioactive material explains a lot about my family. I just glare at him.)

Maybe it was my childhood awareness of Oak Ridge, maybe it was my love of history, but I had put this book on my reading list. A friend sent it on to me (thank you Nancy!) when she saw I was interested in it. Such a fascinating collection of people, in a fascinating time and place. All were very ordinary, and very extraordinary at the same time. The secrecy surrounding the project, some of the rules and regulations, and the level of detail thought through in some areas (while totally ignored in others, such as what to do with the mud at the site, to allow people to get about) was fascinating. It did take me a little bit to keep the various people and their story lines straight (for though this is non-fiction, there are times when it really doesn't read as such.)

I found this a thoughtful and though-provoking look at history, and the women, from janitor to scientist, who helped build the atomic bomb. They did, indeed, change the world. ...more

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Apr 06, 2013 Elyse Walters rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Update: Kindle $1.99 special today. It’s a remarkable fascinating story!!!!

Wow... Once I really sat down and read the last 70 percent of this book, (on Kindle), in almost one sitting (on a couple of sittings), I couldn't put it down!

The 'details' from the Decision Makers (Scientists, Engineers), in this book no longer scared me. (or feed into "I won't understand").

This story was FASCINATING. (I knew nothing about this topic prior to reading this book).

The most ambitious War Project in Military ...more

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Dec 21, 2013 Leslie rated it did not like it · review of another edition

I made myself finish this wretched book. There are some things through the end that were interesting, but the author took a fascinating story and made it impossible for me to get into. The editor did this author a grave disservice by giving this version of the book the green light. Horribly difficult to follow and I didn't care about anybody because I couldn't keep track of who was who. Wretched. Wretched book. Skip it. I don't know how this book has become bad big as it has. I can't say enough ...more

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Oct 29, 2017 Jenny (Reading Envy) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommended to Jenny (Reading Envy) by: Blaine DeSantis

Shelves: around-the-usa, location-usa-tennessee, history, read2018

I've been wanting to try this author for a while, because I've also noticed her more recent book on the Biltmore Estate, The Last Castle: The Epic Story of Love, Loss, and American Royalty in the Nation's Largest Home, which I will also plan to read. I don't read a lot of history but she made it go down easy by alternating between chapters on the backstory of the technology leading to the actual applications of atomic energy, and chapters about the characters, largely women, moving to Oak Ridge ...more

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Mar 11, 2013 Chrissie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommended to Chrissie by: Judy

Shelves: usa, science, 2014-read, audible, history

I liked this book a lot, so four stars. It is interesting, well told and easy to follow. Although filled with facts it is never dry or boring. The scientific details are well explained so any lay person can understand. It is about the creation of Oak Ridge, Tennessee - a city created to produce the first atomic bombs' fuel source. This book not only follows the historical facts surrounding the creation of this fuel source but also the creation of the city where the people employed to do the firs I liked this book a lot, so four stars. It is interesting, well told and easy to follow. Although filled with facts it is never dry or boring. The scientific details are well explained so any lay person can understand. It is about the creation of Oak Ridge, Tennessee - a city created to produce the first atomic bombs' fuel source. This book not only follows the historical facts surrounding the creation of this fuel source but also the creation of the city where the people employed to do the first enriching of uranium worked. It is really quite fascinating.

This is a great book to read along with:
American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer
Bomb: The Race to Build—and Steal—the World's Most Dangerous Weapon
Einstein: His Life and Universe
Truman

The “secrecy of the town’s very existence” is depicted through the people that lived there. Suspense is further increased as the author switches between different topics. The extent to which one's mouth had to be clamped shut is exemplified. You are not just told but shown. It is hard to really imagine. It makes complete sense that unmarried girls were central to the town’s work force; why this was so becomes clear when you read the book. There were however many men there too. I wish the author had also spoken of them. There were plenty of jobs for men too. We are told that 75 000 people came to live there at its peak. I wish the author had specified how many were women ad how many men. I wanted that figure. Although the title does clearly point out the importance of women I would have preferred a book that discussed the men too; their role was vital too. In the name of equality, not just one side of the story should have been told. This is my biggest complaint with the book.

I liked how the story of the Oak Ridge was described from its beginning, through the war and AFTER the war too. Our view of the atomic bomb and atomic energy during the war and AFTER is discussed. This too is well done and gives a more rounded perspective. How the residents of the city saw themselves while working "to win the war" and afterwards when they discovered what their role really had been was honest - a mix of both pride and shame.

The audiobook I listened to was narrated by Cassandra Campbell. She is very popular with many, but my experience with earlier audiobooks was less favorable. Kiernan, with her particular choice of words sometimes wanted to get across and implied meaning and this came across loud and clear through Campbell’s reading. Bravo! Campbell also well captured both feminine Southern Appalachian dialects and official government documents. The narration was very well done! ...more

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May 15, 2013 Nate rated it liked it

Shelves: autobiography-biography-memoir, non-fiction, own, history, 2013, war

Overall a pretty good, informative, and entertaining book about a part of American history that is pretty much all but forgotten... and unknown.

The book is more a series of short stories from different women that are somewhat interwoven together over their tenure in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Like a lot of short stories, you fail to really connect with any of the characters other than just finding out random bits of information that compose their daily lives over their interesting and puzzling pasts. ...more

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Jul 27, 2020 ALLEN rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This is an amazing book containing fascinating and informative history, and it reads like a dream. The focus is on a handful of young women of varying skills from various walks of life and various regions who converged on Oak Ridge, Tennessee, a sheltered valley west of Knoxville commandeered by the Army during World War Two and devoted solely to the production of weapons-grade uranium and plutonium for use in the brand-new atom bombs.

Life in this built-from-scratch, super-secret place was neve This is an amazing book containing fascinating and informative history, and it reads like a dream. The focus is on a handful of young women of varying skills from various walks of life and various regions who converged on Oak Ridge, Tennessee, a sheltered valley west of Knoxville commandeered by the Army during World War Two and devoted solely to the production of weapons-grade uranium and plutonium for use in the brand-new atom bombs.

Life in this built-from-scratch, super-secret place was never easy. Just as in any other American town of the era, citizens had to queue up to buy movie tickets, meat from the butchers, or Ivory soap flakes at the local A&P. And there were never any proper sidewalks, just wooden planks and mud. Employees from outside the valley had to check in and out of Oak Ridge with armed military guards, and those who lived in town had to contend with jerry-built "cemesto" (CEMEnt + asbeSTOs) housing, especially the African-American workers who always seemed to wind up with the poorest-quality digs in town.

At work, the biggest no-no of all was to ask what the whole project was about, anyway. However, socialization was possible, even easy: dances and special-interest clubs abounded, and many of the women of Oak Ridge met and married soldier boys while at the town. In fact, a non-denominational chapel was built to accommodate the myriad worship services that served such a diverse community, which went on to host numerous weddings.

Author Denise Kiernan is to be commended not only for her extensive research but her good clear writing style. THE GIRLS OF ATOMIC CITY is a book I can recommend to anyone.

From the book:

"Bringing together people from all walks of life with a common purpose but, in most cases, no familial or societal ties certainly encouraged individuals to get to know one another rather quickly. But the rate of adjustment varied. It took more than houses to make homes, more than cafeterias and bowling alleys to build community. [Psychiatrist] Dr. Clarke noted upon arriving that homesickness, especially among the young women, remained a concern, as did morale and depression." (p. 135)

...more

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Jul 29, 2014 Clif Hostetler rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: history

This is the story of ordinary people in extraordinary times, skillfully written to make the story unfold before the reader much like a novel. It’s the story of life in a secret city with a population of nearly 80,000, built within a year (1942-1943), on what had been farm land, and very few of the inhabitants and workers had any knowledge of the purpose of the place. And as the title indicates, many of those living there were women, and this book features their life and experiences.

This is the s This is the story of ordinary people in extraordinary times, skillfully written to make the story unfold before the reader much like a novel. It’s the story of life in a secret city with a population of nearly 80,000, built within a year (1942-1943), on what had been farm land, and very few of the inhabitants and workers had any knowledge of the purpose of the place. And as the title indicates, many of those living there were women, and this book features their life and experiences.

This is the story of Oak Ridge, Tennessee where uranium was enriched for use in the first (and so far the only) atomic bombs used in war. One of the unique features of this book is that it sort of parallels the secrecy experienced by the workers by referring to the raw material they were working with as “tubealloy.” I kept asking myself what in the world is tubealloy?

Many of those working there noticed that everything goes into the place, but nothing comes out. What they didn’t know was that when the finished product left, it left in such small quantities that it was carried in a brief case.

A large part of the story is the emphasis on secrecy and security. The Oak Ridge reservation officially didn’t exist. Letters addressed to Oak Ridge were returned to sender because no city of the name existed. Workers who wrote letters home had so much of their letters blacked out by the censors that the letter’s recipient in many cases couldn’t make sense of it. Many of those who accepted jobs at the place were given train tickets to go to their place of employment, but were not told where it was, how far away, and what they would be doing. Nothing this big could ever be kept so secret like it was then (ask Iran about that). All they were told was that they were doing something to help end the war.

On August 6, 1945 they learned what they had been working on. President Truman addressed the nation and for the first time publicly mentioned words “Oak Ridge." At first all were happy that the war was ending and that they had contributed to its ending. After the magnitude and consequences of the atomic bomb became known feelings were more complicated.

There are some interesting videos at this link.
On http://www.girlsofatomiccity.com/video.html

Here's a detail I recently learned (not from this book) which I am adding here for my future reference if needed. The uranium from Oak Ridge was used in the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. The bomb dropped on Nagasaki used plutonium from Hanford, Washington. The test in the New Mexico desert on July 16, 1945 used plutonium from Hanford. There was no pretest of the uranium bomb. ...more

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Jun 27, 2013 Larry Bassett rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: history

This was a secret government project during World War II. The goal was to create a weapon of mass destruction, the atomic bomb, a part of the Manhattan Project.

There is a website: http://www.girlsofatomiccity.com/. Included on the site is a one hour video of an interesting presentation by author Denise Kiernan at NYU shortly after the book was published in 2013.

The project site included tens of thousands of acres of land that was taken by the federal government via the eminent domain process i ...more

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Oct 03, 2016 Book Concierge rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: social-commentary, library, strong-women, world-war-ii, audio, history, tennessee, concierge

Audiobook narrated by Cassandra Campbell
4****

From the book jacket: At the height of World War II, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, was home to 75,000 residents, consuming more electricity than New York City. But to most of the world, the town did not exist. Thousands of civilians – many of them young women from small towns across the South – were recruited to this secret city, enticed by solid wages and the promise of war-ending work. Kept very much in the dark, few would ever guess the tru nature of the t Audiobook narrated by Cassandra Campbell
4****

From the book jacket: At the height of World War II, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, was home to 75,000 residents, consuming more electricity than New York City. But to most of the world, the town did not exist. Thousands of civilians – many of them young women from small towns across the South – were recruited to this secret city, enticed by solid wages and the promise of war-ending work. Kept very much in the dark, few would ever guess the tru nature of the tasks they performed each day in the hulking factories in the middle of the Appalachian Mountains. That is, until the end of the war – when Oak Ridge’s secret was revealed.

My Reactions
This is a very interesting micro history of the men and women – many women – who worked to extract the key ingredient that would fuel the bombs the U.S. dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasacki, thereby ending the war. Kiernan did much research and was able to interview a few surviving women to get their personal stories. In this way we learn about the housekeepers, nurses, chemists, office clerks, statisticians, lab workers, and calutron cubicle operators who each worked in isolation, knowing only just enough about what they were supposed to do, but never knowing the entire scope of the project. Using the personal stories of a handful of women made the history personal and engaging.

What I found particularly fascinating was how the government built this city from scratch. The early workers arrived to mud and a few dormitories, but very quickly the city grew to include a hospital, cemetery, residences, mass transit system, and facilities for religious observance and recreation (gymnasium, movie theater, dance hall, etc).

Cassandra Campbell does a fine job narrating the audio version. She has become one of my favorite audio performers. She has good pacing, clear diction, and is able to breathe life into the performance. In places I felt that I was listening to the young women relate their experiences.
...more

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Jul 03, 2013 MissM rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-2013, library-borrow

The book was interesting but not what I expected. I thought it was going to be more of a biography of women who had been directly and indirectly involved in the making of the atomic bomb(s) of WWII. And it did touch on them throughout the book, but not in any deep or meaningful way that let me feel as if I knew them. It felt more like what it was; the author had gone to interview many women and they shared snippets, little moments of events which made it into the book. The making of a biscuit pa ...more

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Mar 18, 2013 Judy rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Chelsea, Jeanette, PetraX, Chrissie, Gaeta, Cheryl (Pennsylvania), BarbaraC

Shelves: non-fiction, history, usa, 2013-reads, favorites, wwii, 2013-pub-date, tennessee

What an excellent book! I haven't anticipated reading a new book so much since I read The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo last year. Both are excellent books, but I would give the edge to this one.

Kiernan introduces the reader to nine unique ladies who worked at Clinton Engineering Works under the cloak of secrecy. One lady, Celia,a government worker, was transported to the plant from New York City by train at night. She had no idea where the train wa ...more

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Apr 11, 2013 Becky rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: military, women-s-studies, modern-nonfic, history

Girls of Atomic City

This is the perfectly executed history book: It tells a story from a side (women) that most people haven’t heard. It includes female scientists, African American women, native Tennessee women, transplants from the city, transplants from the prairie, and interactions between the women and Japanese women years immediately –and years- after the bomb fell. It covers racial tensions, social caste tensions, segregation and discrimination in the workplace, and the struggles of femal Girls of Atomic City

This is the perfectly executed history book: It tells a story from a side (women) that most people haven’t heard. It includes female scientists, African American women, native Tennessee women, transplants from the city, transplants from the prairie, and interactions between the women and Japanese women years immediately –and years- after the bomb fell. It covers racial tensions, social caste tensions, segregation and discrimination in the workplace, and the struggles of female scientists to be taken seriously or even recognized for what were their discoveries. You get multiple perspectives, and that is what good history is really about.

I also like the structure of the book. It was compartmentalized, just as these women’s lives would have been. Imagine sitting at a desk for 12 hours a day, adjusting knobs and watching dials to ensure they stayed within a certain range, but having no idea why. Or cleaning miles and miles of pipe, free of all dust, when no one ever walked through any ways. Or working in shipping and receiving, tons of goods were taken off trains daily, but nothing ever seemed to leave Oak Ridge. These women didn’t know what was going on, they didn’t interact with one another, and they never ever talked about work… and in many ways that’s the structure of the book. Some people have complained that this structure kept the reader from immersing in any characters story, that you never felt connected or care about any of the women and the story. I personally didn’t have that problem. I felt very much that we were interacting with them in a way that they would have interacted with each other at the time- a little stilted, careful to say nothing wrong. And, the author can really only tell us what these women told her in their interviews. Perhaps they weren’t emotional, or stressed, or joyous, about the work they did anymore- it’s been years, they’ve had time to think rationally and decide what stories they were going to tell. You just don’t know. I would LOVE for this to be turned into a mini-series on the History Channel… or whatever channel that now acts as the History Channel since the History channel is about “aliens” and “ice trucking.” I will say this, and I’ve said it a thousand times, history books would really benefit from a dramatis personae. So many people, so many names, help a reader out would ya?

In the end I would 100% absolutely recommend this book. It was very easy to set down, but very easy to pick back up again. It might not have been a real page-turner to me, but on every single page I felt like I was learning ten new things. There was just so much about this time, this place, that no one knows about, but Kiernan brings us closer to the story.
...more

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Mar 07, 2013 Aaron rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: history buffs, WWII enthusiasts, feminists

Shelves: favorites, goodreads-first-reads

Per FTC rules: I received a free copy of this book as a giveaway from Goodreads First Reads.

What an outstanding read! I've made a point of contacting the author to let her know what a great book this was, and it certainly is the best book I've read this year.

This story, based on interactions and interviews with the women who worked (and lived) at Oak Ridge, is truly remarkable in both its telling and its creation. It seems almost fictional for those of us who grew up in a world where nuclear en ...more

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Jan 15, 2015 Claire rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: book-club

A nicely written, well-researched story on the creation of the atomic bomb. The book does a good job of bringing the science down to an attainable level for most readers. It's not an in-depth scientific look at the A-bomb by any means. Rather, the author tells the story through the women who moved to Oak Ridge, TN to work on the secretive Manhattan Project. In similar fashion to The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, the book alternates between scientific/historical accounts and delving into the ...more

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Oct 19, 2016 Donna rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: biography, non-fiction

Content: 5 stars

Execution: 3 stars

This is a great story of some of the women who helped with the making of the first atomic bomb. It was fascinating how they were recruited and then carried out their jobs. I loved reading about the history here. I just wasn't crazy about the writing. Some of it was kind of dry and weighty. Before it even really got started, I thought I wasn't going to be able to do it.....but I'm glad I did. The story was worth the read. ...more

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Jan 13, 2016 Nicole R rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: women, ner, science, wwii, play-book-tag, 2016, nonfiction, american-history, biography, shelfagories

This was a hard book for me to rate. I absolutely loved the topic and appreciated that it was a a totally new subject to me that (supposedly) highlighted the role of women in creating the atomic bomb. But, I felt the title was a bit of false advertising and the story was not nearly as compelling as it could have easily been.

After Pearl Harbor, there was an otherworldly confluence of scientific breakthroughs related to atomic fission and collection of scientific geniuses the likes of which the wo This was a hard book for me to rate. I absolutely loved the topic and appreciated that it was a a totally new subject to me that (supposedly) highlighted the role of women in creating the atomic bomb. But, I felt the title was a bit of false advertising and the story was not nearly as compelling as it could have easily been.

After Pearl Harbor, there was an otherworldly confluence of scientific breakthroughs related to atomic fission and collection of scientific geniuses the likes of which the world may never see again. They had the theoretical key to ending the war: an atomic bomb. But, the practical constraints of purifying and collecting vast quantities of the rare element posed a problem. A problem that President Roosevelt and the U.S. Army tackled full on.

A triumvirate of top-secret scientific sites popped up across the U.S.: Manhattan, headquarters of the think tank; New Mexico, testing grounds for the future bomb; and Oak Ridge, Tennessee, expansive industrial site to make the most important component of the bomb.

There was a slight problem: The Army needed vast tracks of land, construction of the largest buildings in the world, and over 75,000 people to live in utmost secrecy to work in the production facilities. Thousands upon thousands of people relocated to Oak Ridge, moved into modular housing, and worked 12+ hours a day doing a single, narrow task without asking others about the big picture or talking about their jobs. This could have only occurred pre-Twitter.

Without a doubt, Oak Ridge was a miracle mission, and I am not just talking about the billions of dollars hidden in congressional appropriations bills. This make-shift settlement became a home to many people and housed the world's biggest secret in plain site. The workers did important work and brought a swift, though now controversial, end to what could have been years more of fighting Japan.

I also liked that the author simultaneously told the story of the scientists and events leading up to the need for Oak Ridge. I am in awe of those scientists who did something so ground-breaking, so history-altering that they will live on forever in infamy. And, I am not just talking about their contributions leading to the building of the bomb; nuclear fission changed the face of what we thought we knew of chemistry and physics and while fission can be used for bad, it can -- and has been -- used for so much good.

And, I appreciated all of those descriptions in the book, I enjoyed reading about the women, but there was nothing special about them in this book. Yes, the author mentioned several times that the largest portion of this new workforce were female, but I didn't feel like she was invested in that premise. It was more like she happened to pick women to interview out of convenience and then decided to capitalize on it.

But, the most glaring misstep to me was that the stories of the women were not compelling. I realize that after having read books like Unbroken, Boys in the Boat, and In the Kingdom of Ice that I have extremely high expectations of my situational nonfiction (I just made that term up), but the women were not distinctly described, I did not find myself particularly caring what happened to them, and I was not overly intrigued. It lacked personal details of their stories, which should have been readily available because these women were all interviewed in person by the author.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the book; I appreciated learning something new and it was not poorly written. But, it seems like a missed opportunity to write something more outstanding. ...more

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Nov 04, 2013 Nancy Oakes rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction, history, history-usa

If you are at all interested in women's history, the history of America's nuclear program, or Cold War history, The Girls of Atomic City should be one of those books that gets added on to and then moved up to the top of your tbr pile. It is one of the most thought-provoking nonfiction books I've read in a long time. As always, you can read the shortened version here, or click through for the longer one.

In a nutshell, Girls of Atomic City explores some of the women who helped keep things going d If you are at all interested in women's history, the history of America's nuclear program, or Cold War history, The Girls of Atomic City should be one of those books that gets added on to and then moved up to the top of your tbr pile. It is one of the most thought-provoking nonfiction books I've read in a long time. As always, you can read the shortened version here, or click through for the longer one.

In a nutshell, Girls of Atomic City explores some of the women who helped keep things going during the war in a project located in a facility in what is now Oak Ridge, Tennessee, one that was geared toward putting an end to the war,as well as a place that tens of thousands of people called home. The women were trained to do only very specific tasks without understanding the overall project that their labors helped to create. They were not allowed to talk about their work, nor were they allowed to question anything, and they never knew who might report them if they did. The project was so secret that wives couldn't talk to husbands about their work, dating couples couldn't discuss their jobs, workers couldn't talk to families or friends on the outside, and violations of that rule often ended up with people simply disappearing, never to be heard from or seen ever again. The women, along with the majority of men working at Oak Ridge, had no clue at all that everything they did helped to contribute to the production of the atomic bomb that was used first in Hiroshima, and then Nagasaki. It was only when the bombs were dropped that the news was released, and people finally realized what it was they'd been working on, with very mixed reactions. In The Girls of Atomic City, the author examines the personal and professional lives of some of the women who called Oak Ridge home for the duration. It can get a little boggy sometimes with too much detail, and in some cases doesn't seem to go far enough in terms of questions that imho weren't asked, but despite these flaws, an overall look at the big picture makes this a history well worth reading. It also made me wonder whether or not something like an Oak Ridge might be possible today in terms of the sheer amount of secrecy involved. The book is definitely thought provoking and also provides a look inside the America of the WWII years. Highly recommended. ...more

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Jun 07, 2019 Nancy rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction

Any conversation around the Manhattan Project and development of atomic energy brings out all kinds of mixed feelings. This book is an interesting take on this part of American history from the perspective of the women who worked there. No complete surprises. Gender bias played a role in the workplace in that era. The percentage of women attaining a college education compared to men was still low. Or if they did, there was no advancement. What attracted people to the rise of this secret city and ...more

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May 29, 2013 Holly rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: 2013-reads

I don't know - I found myself not caring terribly much about this story and these people. That's exactly the opposite of what the author intended - she wanted the reader to be deeply invested in the life stories of an arbitrarily chosen/representative group of young women who worked at Oak Ridge during the Manhattan Project, as perhaps a friendly handholding way for the reader to enter the story of the Bomb. (The "Cast of Characters" list at the start of the book lends to this idea of a grand sa ...more

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Apr 29, 2020 Tara rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: history, war, strong-women, wwii

From the author: "The challenge in telling the story of the atomic bomb is one of nuance, requiring thought and sensitivity and walking a line between commemoration and celebration."

I think Kiernan pulls off this difficult high wire act with intelligence, thorough research, personal and homey anecdotes sprinkled with journalistic vignettes on the bomb as it progresses. A close examination of the secret city built in Tennessee, which drafted thousands of female volunteers. An important, though gr ...more

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Nov 26, 2016 Mo rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Not recommended

Shelves: x-sbc-read, 0-dl, 2016, abandoned-ship, historical, non-fiction

I made it to page 111 in chapter 5 and I'm calling it quits.

The construction of this book is lousy. It jumps all over the place, there are too many characters to remember, none of them are memorable, the author relates WAY too much information about the specifics of making the bomb and only provides mundane snippets of the lives of the "girls" and I AM BORED TO TEARS!

Read with SBC book club November 2016 (or not, as the case may be) ...more

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Nov 03, 2020 Donna rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This book has been on my shelf for a long time and I'm glad I finally got to it. It recounts the war time experiences of a handful of women who left their homes to work as secretaries, factory workers, cleaners, nurses, statisticians, and chemists at Oak Ridge, Tennessee. They represent the thousands of Americans who were recruited to this secret city that grew to 75,000 during its peak with the promise of good wages and work that would help bring an end to the war. The major caveat, though, was ...more

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Jan 04, 2014 Lady ♥ Belleza rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: world-war-ii, hard-cover, history, library-book, memoir, reviewed

If I were to say Los Alamos or The Manhattan Project, most people would know what I was talking about. If I were to say Hanford, WA or Oakridge, TN fewer people would know what I was referring to. This website about Los Alamos, New Mexico mentions both places briefly. What it doesn’t tell you is neither town existed before the 1940′s. This book is the history of the town of Oak Ridge, TN. More specifically it is the story of the many young women who came to Oak Ridge to help win the war.

Ms. Kier If I were to say Los Alamos or The Manhattan Project, most people would know what I was talking about. If I were to say Hanford, WA or Oakridge, TN fewer people would know what I was referring to. This website about Los Alamos, New Mexico mentions both places briefly. What it doesn’t tell you is neither town existed before the 1940′s. This book is the history of the town of Oak Ridge, TN. More specifically it is the story of the many young women who came to Oak Ridge to help win the war.

Ms. Kiernan gives a first hand account of the young women who came to live and work at the plants that the government was constructing in the newly formed city of Oakridge, TN. It was a secret project, the workers themselves didn’t know what they were working on. Everyone hired had to have a security check, the buildings were numbered, the substance they were working with was called Tubealloy or Product, their mail going out was censored and mail sent to them was returned to family members because the Post Office didn’t know where Oakridge was. All the workers knew was they were making more money than they could anyplace else and that their work “could end the war sooner”. For many of the young women, it meant seeing their loved ones sooner. For others it meant making a loved ones death mean something.

While colored or black or African American (whichever designation you prefer) workers were hired, the jobs they did and their living conditions were vastly different than what was provided for white workers. For many they were ‘used’ to discrimination, it was a fact of life in the south, and the wages were much better than elsewhere. For some it was more money than they had ever seen in their lives.

For many of the women, the job was something they wouldn’t have been able to get elsewhere given the fact that they were women.

Reading this book is like traveling back in time, learning about how life was in Tennessee and the US in the 40s. Women weren’t allowed in certain fields of work. People didn’t question the government and didn’t complain.

One thing Ms. Kiernan doesn’t cover is any current health problems for people exposed to the radioactive material. Apparently there were not the problems in Tennessee as were in other locations involved in the construction and testing of atomic weapons.

A very fascinating and informative book about a very interesting period of history. ...more

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Jun 24, 2018 Pamela rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: history, world-war-two, american-history

A very interesting book on the building and running of Oak Ridge, Tennessee which developed the fuel for the atomic bomb during World War II. Located in an isolated section of East Tennessee, 25 miles from Knoxville, it was built in a hurry and in as much secrecy as possible. Young men and women from all around the country and especially the surrounding area were recruited, given no indication of where they would be going or what they would be doing or for how long but promised good pay and a ch ...more

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About Denise Kiernan

Denise Kiernan

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Denise Kiernan is an author, journalist and producer and has been working as a writer for more than 20 years. Her work has been published in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Village Voice, Ms. Magazine, Reader's Digest, Discover and many more publications. She has also worked in television, serving as head writer for ABC's "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" during its Emmy award-winning first ...more

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“They fought to smile through the lines and the mud and the long hours, dancing under the stars and under the watchful eyes of their government, an Orwellian backdrop for a Rockwellian world.” — 6 likes

“A dictator decrees,” she later wrote, “a president asks Congress for permission to organize.” — 3 likes

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