Nuclear Weapons: What You Need to Know (Hardcover)

by Jeremy Bernstein (Author)
Key Phrases: atomic scientists, eka rhenium, centimeter cubed, Los Alamos, Nuclear Weapons, New York (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"There's no better person to analyze this crucial and fascinating topic. Jeremy Bernstein is a delightful writer and accomplished physicist who worked at Los Alamos as a young scholar and has since written on such subjects as Hitler's nuclear scientists, Einstein, and plutonium. He combines colorful personal tales with wonderfully clear explanations. He's the teacher we all wish we had."
-Walter Isaacson, President of the Aspen Institute and author of Einstein: His Life and Universe (2007)

"Jeremy Bernstein's Nuclear Weapons: What You Need to Know is an important addition to the scientific literature." -David Hafemeister, Physics Today

Product Description
Nuclear Weapons is a history of nuclear weapons. From their initial theoretical development at the start of the twentieth century to the recent tests in North Korea, the author seeks to, at each point in the narrative, describe the basic science of nuclear weaponry. At the same time, he offers accounts and anecdotes of the personalities involved, many of whom he has known firsthand. Dr. Bernstein writes in response to what he sees as a widespread misunderstanding throughout the media of the basic workings and potential impact of nuclear weaponry.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 312 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (October 15, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 052188408X
• ISBN-13: 978-0521884082
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #325,524 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing, July 16, 2008

By	Paul "Paul" (Montana) - See all my reviews

On the page before the book's title page there's a one-paragraph abstract for the book, along with a brief paragraph about the author. One sentence in the abstract says "The book is a history of nuclear weapons." Yes it is, although I think the Richard Rhodes book _The Making of the Atomic Bomb_ is a much more satisfying history. Bernstein does include one technically important topic, new to me, that wasn't even breathed about in the Rhodes book -- the high sensitivity of plutonium's crystalline state to temperature.

Since the book's subtitle is "What You Need to Know," I initially figured another sentence in the abstract was key to the book: "Dr. Bernstein writes in response to what he sees as a widespread misunderstanding throughout the media and hence among the general public of the basic workings and potential impact of nuclear weaponry." Then in his Introduction, Bernstein suggests, quoting Stanley Kubrick, that most people are blase about the danger of nuclear weapons -- they have "even less interest in them than they [do] in city government. (...) [P]eople seem to look on the absence of a nuclear conflict as they would money growing in a savings account."

Overall, then, I thought Bernstein would try to graphically remind us that nuclear weapons are REALLY DANGEROUS and propose approaches citizens might take to lessen the likelihood of a REALLY GRIM future. As a 60-year-old physicist myself (and one who's become as blase as everyone else about the hazard of such fearsome weapons), this struck me as a worthy aim on Bernstein's part.

But, apparently, in writing the book, Bernstein essentially forgot about that theme (if it was ever really his intention -- maybe I'm wrong) and merely wrote a rather meandering history of nuclear weapons, including his slight personal acquaintance with them, the latter being familiar to me, probably from articles of his in The New Yorker.

So the book is a disappointment in that way. It's also surprisingly muddled about physics at quite a number of points. There are points at which I'd like to understand what he's trying to describe, but I can't. Worse, there are a couple of instances where he spouts stuff that I recognize as nonsense, but a layman probably wouldn't recognize it as such. Two specific examples of such howlers:

Page 210 - "Fifty grams of [deuterium] plus [tritium] has about the mass of one gram of uranium." Perhaps he actually meant "about the energy."

Page 214 - "As [the sun] compressed [during its formation], the pressure at the center became greater and greater, which increased the temperature." Cause and effect exactly backwards! Actually, increasing temperature boosted the pressure.

Bernstein **can** write well. His two "Reporter At Large" New Yorker articles in 1975 about the great physicist I.I. Rabi were terrific. But he shouldn't be satisfied with this new book.

Two stars because some of the historical vignettes are new (to me) and interesting.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent historical account., April 18, 2008

By	Josef Goergen "JJG" (Northern New Jersey) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Provides colorful and detailed account of the development and basic functioning of nuclear weapons as seen through the eyes of a physicist-turned-writer whose career in physics started just after the basic engineering challenges of nuclear weapons were mostly solved. Written with clarity, thus fun and easy to read. Nicely puts into perspective the initial discovery of nuclear fission. Good coverage of the Manhattan Project of the political intricacies that led to the development of the "super"(hydrogen booster) bomb.

6 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly Recommended, March 6, 2008

By	Raymond G. Wilson (NORMAL, IL USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

NUCLEAR WEAPONS: What You Need To Know, is a very well written account of the people and the physics that went into creating the world's weapons of mass destruction. Any one teaching about this topic will surely wish to consider this as a textbook or reference. The book makes a nice complement to the video THE DAY AFTER TRINITY in which one "meets" many of the characters in Bernstein's book. The Day After Trinity

A 2007 book, it makes reference to many contemporary problems, Iran, Iraq, a terrorist bomb, DPRK, and proliferation. It includes suggestions for further reading should one find something missing, or wish to pursue the topic in more depth.

The one element I found missing in detail, since this is "What You Need To Know," is what happens to people when such a device explodes overhead or otherwise nearby. Bernstein does state numbers for deaths in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He gives, 90,000 and 74,000. I believe Carey Sublette provides similar numbers. The question becomes, "In what year do you stop counting?" For many decades now the "official" figure that comes from reliable sources in Hiroshima is that by Dec. 31, 1945, the death toll was 140,000, with 10% possible error. Sadako Sasaki died 10 years later as did many others between 1945 and 1955. In general, not criticizing Bernstein or Sublette, when an enemy of ours kills, we use death figures from the victims; when WE kill we use OUR figures. When the 90,000 figure is used for nuclear deaths, I wonder if someone is trying to make it seem no worse than the Tokyo air raids. The United States government has never published a full and detailed account of what happened to the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and still remains with the few survivors to this day, some 63 years after.

I would add to the Further Reading Suggestions, Naomi Shohno's THE LEGACY OF HIROSHIMA, Legacy of Hiroshima: Its Past, Our Future, James C. Warf's ALL THINGS NUCLEAR, All Things Nuclear, and DAYS TO REMEMBER from the Hiroshima Nagasaki Publishing Committee, Days to Remember: An Account of the Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

NUCLEAR WEAPONS: What You Need To Know, is an excellent book. It has my highest recommendation. Give it 10 STARS!