Customer Reviews

Manhattan Project: The Untold Story of the Making of the Atomic Bomb

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I read this book as a teenager when it first came out in 1967, and it has stayed with me ever since (to the point where I have recently sought out used copies of the paperback and hardbound editions). It is written in something of a "heroes of science and industry" tone that itself helps to convey the straightforward sense of urgency and righteousness that drove the development of the Bomb, and it completely captivated me and began for me a lifelong fascination with the Manhattan Project. Few other books I've read have made science and engineering seem so thrilling. I'm delighted to see it in print again!

This book is fascinating. The characters in this book were not only technically brilliant, but bold leaders, as well.

The author has produced a readable book that resembles a novel. Yet, it does not gloss over the technical aspects. If you are an engineer or a scientist, you will particularly appreciate this book.

There isn't much I can add to what other reviewers have said other than concur that this is a fascinating book. The challenges that faced the Nobel Laureates, scientists, engineers, managers of American's largest corporations, and military were beyond imagination. Groueff does an excellent job developing character profiles of people involved in the Project -- all in brief sketches.

You will especially enjoy this account if you have ever visited or traveled through Oak Ridge, TN, Hanford, WA, Los Alamos, NM, the University of Chicago, the old Woolworth Building in New York, DuPont Chemical Company, the American Chicle Company chewing gum factory in New York... well, maybe you get the idea how varied the real story is.

Never in the history of the United States, before or since, has the full assets of the country been thrown behind the solution of a single engineering problem. Every resource, scientific and financial, was provided upon request. The results were a phenomenal success.

This account was written at a time when the primary sources were almost all still available for their first hand insight. The implications of this story for future generations of Americans are far reaching. A must read.

We are taught that project management is a sequential discovery process where cost, time and results are traded off as required; when you do not have the time (the Axis powers may get the bomb first) and you have no idea even if it will work but you have to proceed, the management issues are beyond the experience of most of us. The process needed 10,000 tons of copper when there was none to spare, so they "borrowed" more than 10,000 tons of silver from the US Treasury and melted it down to wire for the magnets in the separation processing. Every apparent dead end was overcome with staggering and imaginative solutions - it provides a great learning aid for all project managers.

It is book for the lay man to understand the atomic bomb. I was really amazed by the size of the project, which never thought in the earlier stage of the project. It is really terrifying story to understand how much money is spend on this.I could understand the guts of Leslie Groves, the man who involved in spearheading this project.It is like a novel. Wonderful to read and amaze.I found that very less information about the scientific details.

I JUST HAD TO RESPOND TO THE REVIEW OF MR. C. SCANLON. FIRST OFF THE JAPANESE HAD NOT SURRENDERED WHEN WE DROPPED THE BOMBS. THEY DIDN'T SURRENDER UNTIL SEVERAL DAYS AFTER THE ATOMIC BOMBING OF HIROSHIMA AND NAGASAKI AND THEN ONLY AFTER A FAILED PALACE COUP BY THE ARMY! A COUP THAT FAILED IN NO SMALL PART BECAUSE OF THE FINAL B-29 FIRE BOMBING RAID OF THE WAR. AND IF YOU WANT TO TALK ABOUT HISTORICAL,POLITICAL,RELIGIOUS AND MORAL ABDICATION YOU NEED TO SPEAK TO THE JAPANESE WHO PERPETRATED THE RAPE OF NANKING!ALSO WHEN THE MASS MURDERING FASCIST SCUM OF THE WORLD STOP TEACHING THE LESSONS OF WAR WE IN THE PEACE AND FREEDOM LOVING DEMOCRACIES WILL NO LONGER FEEL THE NEED TO LEARN THEM SO WELL!MY FATHER WAS A COMBAT MARINE IN WWII. HE FOUGHT ON GUAM AND IWO JIMA AND DID'T HAVE HIS 18TH BIRTHDAY UNTIL THE DAY AFTER THEY DECLARED IWO JIMA SECURE! SO I THANK GOD THAT THAT OLD MISSOURI REDNECK HARRY TRUMAN(TRU-MAN:NEVER WAS A PERSON MORE APTLY NAMED)DROPPED THOSE BOMBS!AGAIN I SAY THANK GOD!

The Manhattan Project is a book that explains and tells us how the Atomic bomb was made. This is also a book that tells us how it was a race against other countries, especially Japan to get the bomb done first. People in the states were scared about others countries getting done first and landing the bombs on the United States. The problems that we had trying to get this little toy made. It shows and explains the process in which it was made and also the scientist that they picked to make the two bombs that landed on Japan.
This book is definitely a book that I would recommend to read to help further your knowledge on the past. If you don't know how the bombs were made or why they were made this book is very enjoyable to read. It is a rather lengthy book, but if you like to read then you would love to read this. This book is very useful to learn more about the technologies that we had back around WWII and also to just realize where the big boom of technology started. Before this we did try to learn more about technology, but that was mostly to help everybody out. From the time when they made the atomic bomb is when they started building more technologies in the defense for our nation.
This book is defiantly a readable book. Most people can read a book if I can finish one. I am not much of a fast or good reader, so if I can read a book then most likely everybody will be able to read the book. Most of the terminology in the book is fairly easy to understand and to read. This book may take a couple of weeks to read, but in the end it is a great book and I would recommend it highly. This book is a book that you can read anywhere. It is not like some books where you either have to be in a mood or have to read in a certain spot to get the feel of the book. This is book is a great reading book right before bed or just when you have some free time at work.
You can almost put anything as being part of technology or have technology part of it. This book goes great in depth about the atomic bomb. Some say one of our greatest inventions ever made. This is the technology that helped us win a war and also to defend our nations. This is definitely one of the high points in both science and technology in our past and future that is for sure. The technology for atomic weapons just keeps getting more accurate and high-tech. Now days you can use a remote control to direct a weapon where as in the book and WWII they had to use planes to drop them over the target.
On a scale from one to ten I would give this book a nine. It may be a little less than a nine if you are not interested in the wars and technology such as bombs. I loved this book and will probably read it again sometime in the future.