Atomic Spaces: LIVING ON THE MANHATTAN PROJECT [Paperback]

Peter Hales (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 1999

'The atomic bomb. As ominous as the atomic legacy itself, these words conjure a stark image of a mushroom cloud, devastation, and death by radiation. Code-named the Manhattan Project, the detailed plans for developing an atomic bomb were impelled by urgency and shrouded in secrecy. The Manhattan Engineer District, the coded designation for the numerous sites where the volatile bomb components were developed, included not only university laboratories, but also geographically remote locations where civilians and scientists clashed with the requirements of military culture. "Atomic Spaces" tells the story of the project's three key sites: Oak Ridge, Tennessee; Hanford, Washington; and Los Alamos, New Mexico. Drawing from tens of thousands of never-before-studied documents, from house plans to medical records, Peter Bacon Hales trains a cultural historian's eye on the worlds within the fences'.'The result is a bold, graphic reinterpretation of these sites and the larger issues they represented: the clashes between ideals of obedience and freedom, efficiency and democracy. Out of these, Hales proposes, came a new form of American culture. Creating an atomic bomb was an utterly new, dangerous, and urgent mission, one that seemed to justify ignoring known environmental hazards, downplaying dangers, and covering up accidents; yet as part of our atomic legacy, some of these wartime imperatives endure in peacetime practices in the military and defense industries. Peter Bacon Hales, a professor of art history and director of the American Studies Institute at the University of Illinois at Chicago, is the author of "Silver Cities: The Photography of American Urbanization, 1839-1915 and William Henry Jackson and the Transformation of the American Landscape"'.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

In this unusual cultural history, Hales (art history, Univ. of Illinois) explains how instant towns were created by military fiat during World War II with the sole purpose of developing the atomic bomb. The three principal sites were Los Alamos, New Mexico; Oak Ridge, Tennessee; and Hanford, Washington. Physical traces of these sites remain today?stockpiles of weapons, tanks of untreatable waste, noxious regions, and injured workers. While Hales's detailed history is more than the casual reader may wish to tackle, the author's exploration of the story's human and mythological elements should broaden the book's appeal. The first half looks at how sites were acquired and the ethical questions raised, while the rest deals with occupations, race relations, leisure activities, and thought control within the three main sites. Recommended for academic and larger public libraries.?Gary D. Barber, SUNY at Fredonia Lib.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

Runner up for the Parkman Prize for 98, awarded for the best book in American history, by the Society for American Historians: "In an extraordinarily imaginative interdisciplinary treatment of architecture, community planning, technology, environmental history, politics, and race and gender relations, Hales raises searching questions about the broadest implications of the coming atomic age." "Hales combines careful research with stylistic power, a playful intellect, a strong visual sense, and an unobtrusive but keen moral sensibility." - Paul Boyer, Lingua Franca "Paints a vivid picture of what it must have been like to live and work at the three atomic development sites in the 1940's-Los Alamos, Oak Ridge, and Hanford... Especially interesting are the chapters on the treatment of women and ethnic minorities, on censorship restrictions and use of coded language at the sites, and on the first blast at Trinity and its effects." - George M. Eberhart, College and Research Libraries News "While Hales's detailed history is more than the casual reader may wish to tackle, the author's exploration of the story's human and mythological elements should broaden the book's appeal... Recommended for academic and larger public libraries." - Gary D. Barber, Library Journal "Hales's extensive research into the relationships among the military, contractors, scientists, local and state authorities and workers forms the core of this book. He provides a fascinating glimpse into the complex and overlapping interests and intentions that structured relationships at the sites across lines of gender, race and class." - Grant H. Kester, The Nation "Drawing on memoirs, declassified government files, unpublished letters and diaries, Hales ... has assembled a cultural history of the Manhattan Engineer District-more familiarly, the Manhattan Project... This is an engaging book encompassing everything from utopian architectural plans to the subject of race relations and the role of women. Sixty black-and-white photographs-archival photos and Hale's own photo essay-round out the book." - Publishers Weekly "Hales makes a signally important contribution to the burgeoning literature occasioned by the 50th anniversary of the atomic bomb... No syllabus of study of the atomic age will now be complete without this book, and it should equally enrich any review of the complex interrelationship of technology and culture." - L. W. Moore, Choice "Hales' cultural history offers new perspectives on the dawn of the atomic era, and on its continuing consequences." - Science "A sociologist and historian's dream, a thorough and overwhelmingly detailed history of the project, not the research or the bomb, but the people, facilities, organization, and social structure which grew into a huge national endeavor from 1942 to 1945... The Atomic Age buff will be thrilled with Hales' research and detail." - William D. Bushnell, Independent Publisher "Hale's book is a perceptive, well-documented account of the atomic spaces of the Project. His inclusion of eerie photographs, especially those that advertised the sites to prospective employees, effectively illustrates the gap between the ideal image and the dangerous reality - not only of the Manhattan Project sites but of our post-atomic world in general." - Cindy Hendershot, Arkansas Review: A Journal of Delta Studies "An impressive achievement, blending the history of science and of technology and the study of American culture and politics. The Manhattan Project was science's greatest contribution to the "Good War" and a founding event of postwar American science as well. Hales gives us a novel view of this difficult birth, asking us to recognize the dark side of our creation: its hazardous effects on workers, its terrible toll on the environment, and its antidemocratic and militaristic influence on our culture and politics." - Russell Olwell, ISIS "A professor of the history of architecture and art, Hales has an excellent eye for the vocabulary of photographs, the deeper meanings of social and cultural history, and the language of the Manhattan Project... [An] intriguing, pathbreaking study. - R. Hal Williams, The Journal of American History "Hales is at his best in his discussion of town planning, house types, and daily life in this jerry-built world. He is exceptionally perceptive in his analysis of graphic images. The stark 'Flow Circuit-Water Plant B-Area,' which depicts Hanford's intake and release of water from the Columbia, speaks volumes... Filled with intriguing observations and insights." - Ferenc M. Szasz, Pacific Historical Review ADVANCE PRAISE "A passionate work that unmasks the encrypted histories and seemingly exotic environments of the Manhattan Project. Hales shows that the Project's half-life should be measured in the persistence of technologized values, dehumanized personal relationships, and hardened bureaucratic locations in American culture that seem to be protected from scrutiny or critique." - Eric J. Sandeen, author of Picturing an Exhibition: "The Family of Man" and 1950s America "Superb! Hales combines careful scholarly research with stylistic power, a playful intellect, and a profound moral sensibility in a wholly unique way." - Paul S. Boyer, author of By the Bomb's Early Light: American Thought and Culture at the Dawn of the Atomic Age "In Atomic Spaces, Peter Hales adds an entirely new dimension to our understanding of the effort to create the atomic bomb. In his intensively-researched, elegantly-written account of the major sites of the Manhattan Project, he provides a creative interpretation of the development of new communities and their impact on the men and women who made the first atomic weapons." - Allan M. Winkler, author of Life Under a Cloud: American Anxiety About the Atom

Product Details

• Paperback: 456 pages
• Publisher: University of Illinois Press (April 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0252068319
• ISBN-13: 978-0252068317
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 8.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,138,734 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Born and raised in rural Connecticut, Peter Bacon Hales graduated from Haverford College in 1972. After a short period in New York as a photographer, writer and musician, he moved to Texas, where he studied with the photographers Russell Lee and Garry Winogrand and the cultural historians William H. Goetzmann and William Stott, receiving MA and Ph.D. degrees in American Civilization. While in Texas, he was a part of Austin's rich music scene, playing pedal steel guitar in c&w bands and lead guitar in the Texas Express, a Chicano-conjunto-rock quartet based in Lockhart, Texas. After living and photographing in San Francisco and Los Angeles, he completed his first book, SILVER CITIES: THE PHOTOGRAPHY OF AMERICAN URBANIZATION, which was published by Temple University Press in 1984, winning a number of academic and writing prizes. Since that time he has written essays and books looking at aspects of the American cultural landscape, from the American West to the postwar suburbs. ATOMIC SPACES: LIVING ON THE MANHATTAN PROJECT, published in 1999, won the Hoover Prize and was runner-up for the Parkman Prize in American History. Long out of print and in demand, his seminal SILVER CITIES was published in a vastly expanded and revised form by the University of New Mexico Press in 2006. For many years a faculty member in the Art History Department at the University of Illinois at Chicago, he has collaborated with photographers, writers and scholars in Chicago and across the globe on writing, visual, and web-based projects. He was the founding director of UIC's American Studies Institute, which runs programs for teachers and scholars around the globe. Currently dividing his time between Chicago and a small farm in Stone Ridge, New York, he continues to write about, and photograph, the changing American landscape.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars At times tedious, December 1, 2002

By 

"[e-mail]" (Moorpark, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Atomic Spaces: Living on the Manhattan Project (Hardcover)

I found some sections of this book fascinating, and others quite slow and tedious, hence the three star rating.

Be prepared: this is not quick reading!

I like how this book glorifies no one. It also talks about many "forgotten" victims of the Manhattan PRoject; those who were evicted from their property, the "underclass" workers, those who lived near Alamogordo and sufferred from nuclear fallout. I learned information about Gen. Groves and how he oversaw the project. It spoke also about the scientists, but not just about the scientists. This isn't a book about the making of the bomb; it's a book about the culture. At times it was slow---I skimmed about 100 pages at the beginning, which I very rarely do--- but there should be something for you in this book if you're interested enough in the topic to read this review! I found especially interesting the medical testing (or lack thereof), the radiation safety protoocols (or lack thereof) and the fallout (literal and sociological) of the Alamogordo test. These areas were fascinating to me. Also, while I already knew about Feynman's battle with the censors, it's fun to read again!

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a powerful and deeply researched history of the bomb, November 2, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Atomic Spaces: Living on the Manhattan Project (Hardcover)

Beautifully written and by turns restrained and emotionally charged, this moral history of the Manhattan Project takes on what the others never mention-- all the smaller worlds created, destroyed or utterly changed as we entered the atomic age. Engrossing, packed with information spirited out of classified archives or found in the bottom of boxes, this book deserves the prizes it has won. Even the pictures are striking and remain on my mind long after I have closed the book.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The single best book on the Manhattan Project, December 28, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Atomic Spaces: Living on the Manhattan Project (Hardcover)

I have read literally a dozen or more books about the atomic projects both in the United States and Germany. Unlike most books on the subject, Atomic Spaces, glorifies no one. It tells the story like it really was. It goes into the social, economic, racial, and moral cost of the project. It puts into perspective the relationship between the military, the government, big buisness, and the American people for this last half of the twentieth century. In no uncertain terms it demonstrates the true cost of entering the atomic age.

Although the outcome was "successful," I wonder if the true price of the atomic age was worth it? It certainly came with a high price tag, much, much more than money.

This book is a must read in order to see the real Manhattan Project and not the glorified picture presented by so many other authors. This is a really great book, about a really great endeavour, done by the average man with his usual weakness.