Critical Assembly: A Technical History of Los Alamos during the Oppenheimer Years, 1943-1945 [Hardcover]

Lillian Hoddeson (Author), Paul W. Henriksen (Author), Roger A. Meade (Author), Catherine L. Westfall (Author), Gordon Baym (Contributor), Richard Hewlett (Contributor), Alison Kerr (Contributor), Robert Penneman (Contributor), Leslie Redman (Contributor), Robert Seidel (Contributor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0521441323 | ISBN-13: 978-0521441322 | Publication Date: May 28, 1993

This volume is a lucid and accurate history of the technical research that led to the first atomic bombs. The authors explore how the "critical assembly" of scientists, engineers, and military personnel at Los Alamos, responding to wartime deadlines, collaborated to create a new approach to large-scale research. The book opens with an introduction laying out major themes. After a synopsis of the prehistory of the bomb project, from the discovery of nuclear fission to the start of the Manhattan Engineer District, and an overview of the early materials program, the book examines the establishment of the Los Alamos Laboratory, the implosion and gun assembly programs, nuclear physics research, chemistry and metallurgy, explosives, uranium and plutonium development, confirmation of spontaneous fission in pile-produced plutonium, the thermonuclear bomb, critical assemblies, the Trinity test, and delivery of the combat weapons.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This book fulfills its declared intention of providing an unprecedentedly full picture of all the actions and processes that were involved in bringing the bombs into existence." A. P. French, Nature

"Generally the presentation is clear and shows the care one expects of the four distinguished authors....The presentation can easily be followed by a scientific reader, and a non-scientist will get an interesting impression of the events." Rudolf Peierls, Science

"...provides detailed discussion of the many experiments that made up the project, including the implosion and gun assembly programs and the interesting consequences of spontaneous fission in reactor-produced plutonium and continues with details of the Trinity test and the actual dropping of the bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Recommended as an important addition to any college or university library." Choice

"...draw[s] upon a full lode of primary data and explore[s] for the first time the methodology by which researchers at Los Alamos succeeded in their wartime mission. The authors successfully avoid the "official history" pitfall by focusing on individual contributions to scientific and technological advances as opposed to the usual summary of divisional achievements...a well-documented, concise, chronological review of the combination of nuclear physics, chemistry and metallurgy that produced the first fission weapons...also examines the impact of Los Alamos upon the methodology of "big science" at national laboratories in the postwar era." Peter Neushal, Physics Today

"...this is the most technical account of Los Alamos's war years to appear in print...it considers Project Y's significant success in the use of 'big science' methodology....Critical Assembly is a masterful piece of technical writing accomplished by four authors in conjunction with six scientific advisors and editors....essential reading for technically-minded scholars interested in the history of Los Alamos, atomic research, and the development of modern research labs...." Richard Melzer, Western Historical Quarterly

"Critical Assembly has a lot to say about proliferation, much of it relevant to the present. Among other things, it provides a better foundation than ever for evaluating the problems facing countries (or terrorists) with nuclear ambitions." William Sweet, The Sciences

"...an indispensable book...." Barton C. Hacker, American Historical Review

"The book has the great merit of illustrating the depth and breadth of the scientific and technical problems faced by scientists in the laboratory at Los Alamos, New Mexico...This is an important book, for its insight into the enormously complex activities at Los alamos and, even more for its tantalizing survey of the implications of that research and development." Lawrence Badash, Journal of American History

"...the book certainly does bring together a lot of information that fleshes out the story." New Scientist

"...a notable and richly detailed work....Critical assembly sets a new standard for writings on wartime Los Alamos." Canadian Review of American Studies

Book Description

This volume studies the technical research that led to the first atomic bombs. The authors explore how the 'critical assembly' of scientists, engineers, and military personnel at Los Alamos, collaborated during World War II to create a new approach to research. Readers will find this book a crucial resource for understanding the underpinnings of contemporary science and technology.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 527 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (May 28, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521441323
• ISBN-13: 978-0521441322
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 6 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,060,276 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Technical/Scientific history of the work at Los Alamos, October 31, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Critical Assembly: A Technical History of Los Alamos during the Oppenheimer Years, 1943-1945 (Hardcover)

This is a great book if you are a scientist, particularly if you are a physicist. This is a technical history of the Manhattan project at it relates to the work done at Los Alamos Lab leading to the first atomic explosions. You'll learn the fine details of the work as a scientist would recount them. You'll be amazed at the limited knowledge and instrumentation available at the time!!! You'll be surprised by the methods used to get things done in time! And you will be impressed by the

schedules and the accomplishments made in those years of hard -and we are told in details how and why it was hard- work!

If you have worked at a National Lab (and even if you haven't) you'll understand how the concept of the national laboratory came about by understanding the work in the early days of Los Alamos involving a fine interplay between the scientific, the engineering and the programmatic thrusts.

Recommending this book seems like an understatement. If you are a physicist, a chemist, a mathematician, a computer scientist you want to read this book and understand how they did it!

The only thing that could be improved in this book is possibly including a few diagrams. I am not sure whether that is because they might still be classified, but they must exist the archives at Los Alamos. And adding a diagram here and there would certainly be helpful to the reader. If there had to be a revised edition, that's where improvement could find a home.

I'd challenge the team that wrote this book to tackle other successes such as the history of Fermilab or SLAC for example. And not to shy away from a tougher one -not a success story- the history of the failed SSC project. Use some of that insight and record in a similar manner how science, engineering and a really fine mission (not equaled in the latter half of this century) sadly failed that time around...

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Read Richard Rhodes' "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" First., July 14, 2003

By 

B James "Wizard of Knox Vegas" (Oak Ridge, TN) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Critical Assembly: A Technical History of Los Alamos during the Oppenheimer Years, 1943-1945 (Hardcover)

Without doubt, this is the finest account of the technical aspects of the race to produce an atomic weapon at Los Alamos before the end of WWII. As other reviewers have noted, you don't need a degree in physics to read this book; however, you do need endurance.

"Critical Assembly" is a plodding, straightforward, chronological narrative of how talent and materials came together to make a bomb; a techno-nerd's dream. There is no attempt to delve into politics and ethics, make the characters "come alive" with interesting personal glimpses, or place it all in historical perspective. For that you need Richard Rhodes' "The Making of the Atomic Bomb."

Still, the authors did not write "Critical Assembly" to be a riveting historical novel soon to be a blockbuster movie. For technical information, it is the best single book available. To understand why anyone would care how the atomic bomb was made, let alone plod through the technical details, read "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" first.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Greatest Technical Achievement of the 20th Century, July 8, 2001

By 

Ronald C. Reynolds (Brookhaven, PA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Critical Assembly: A Technical History of Los Alamos during the Oppenheimer Years, 1943-1945 (Hardcover)

This book is THRILLING in the scope and depth of its description of HOW the bomb was made. This was a unique historical event in that the best brains in the world, stimulated by a sense of extreem urgency and given, in effect, unlimited physical and financial resources accomplished in the space of three years somthing that in the 1930's was considered as Science Fiction.

The book is highly readable and understandable by non technical people. This book is proof that "once upon a time" we did things "Right the First Time" in this country. An outstanding historical and technical account of the "ultimate" invention.