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Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb (Paperback)

~ (Author) "EARLY IN JANUARY 1939, nine months before the outbreak of the Second World War, a letter from Paris alerted physicists in the Soviet Union to..." (more)
Key Phrases: Los Alamos, United States, Soviet Union (more...)

4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (52 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

An engrossing history of the scientific discoveries, political maneuverings, and cold-war espionage leading to the creation of mankind's most destructive weapon.

Includes 94 archival photographs and a glossary with brief descriptions of the hundreds of people interviewed and discussed in the book. Author Richard Rhodes won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award for his previous atomic tome, The Making of the Atomic Bomb.

From Publishers Weekly

Rhodes epic history of the hydrogen bomb and the Cold War arms race spent two weeks on PW's bestseller list.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

Paperback: 736 pages
Publisher: Simon & Schuster (August 6, 1996)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0684824140
ISBN-13: 978-0684824147
Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.4 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (52 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #31,170 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
Popular in this category: (What's this?)
#82 in Books > History > Military Science

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Inside This Book (learn more)

First Sentence:
EARLY IN JANUARY 1939, nine months before the outbreak of the Second World War, a letter from Paris alerted physicists in the Soviet Union to the startling news that German radiochemists had discovered a fundamental new nuclear reaction. Read the first page

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Los Alamos, United States, Soviet Union, New York, Robert Oppenheimer, Harry Gold, Klaus Fuchs, Manhattan Project, Edward Teller, David Greenglass, Julius Rosenberg, Second World War, Nunn May, Communist Party, Fat Man, Igor Kurchatov, State Department, Carson Mark, Yuli Khariton, Red Army, Lewis Strauss, Secretary of State, New Mexico, Oak Ridge, Abe Brothman

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Citations (learn more)

This book cites 99 books:

Conversations with Stalin by Milovan Djilas in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler on page 33, page 206, and Index
Stalin and the Bomb: The Soviet Union and Atomic Energy, 1939-1956 by Mr. David Holloway in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
Harry S. Truman (United States Presidents) by Paul Joseph in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
The Voice of the Dolphins by Leo Szilard in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)

See all 99 books this book cites

100 books cite this book:

Vanguard of American Atomic Deterrence: The Sandia Pioneers, 1946-1949 by James L. Abrahamson on 5 pages
Scientific Authorship: Credit and Intellectual Property in Science by Mario Biagioli on page 284, page 285, and page 307
Beginnings of the Cold War Arms Race: The Truman Administration and the U.S. Arms Build-Up by Raymond Ojserkis on page 164, page 192, and Back Matter
The National Labs: Science in an American System, 1947-1974 by Peter J. Westwick in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
Dr. Strangelove and the Hideous Epoch: Deterrence in the Nuclear Age by John Renaker on page 123, page 313, and Back Matter

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Books on Related Topics (learn more)

American Science in an Age of Anxiety by Jessica Wang

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Critical Assembly by Lillian Hoddeson

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	75% buy the item featured on this page: Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb 4.2 out of 5 stars (52) $12.89
	19% buy The Making of the Atomic Bomb 4.7 out of 5 stars (168) $13.60
	3% buy The Manhattan Project: The Birth of the Atomic Bomb in the Words of Its Creators, Eyewitnesses, and Historians 4.7 out of 5 stars (12) $12.21
	2% buy American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer 4.5 out of 5 stars (85) $12.89

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Customer Reviews

52 Reviews

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37 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential History, March 22, 2002

By	G. Styles (Vienna, VA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I just finished reading this monumental book. Although at first I was surprised that Rhodes devoted so many pages to covering Soviet espionage on the Manhattan Project and subsequent atomic bomb work, it quickly became clear that he was writing a history not just of the H-bomb, but of the Cold War, its impetus, and one of its key drivers and manifestations, the arms race.

This book is essential to understanding a critical period of world history that is no less relevant now that the Cold War is over. The picture this provides of the scientists and administrators of the weapons teams on both sides is fascinating and reveals new evidence and clearer perspectives on issues that many of us grew up thinking about, such as the trial of the Rosenbergs and the effort to tar Oppenheimer's reputation.

The only area in which I found myself seriously questioning Rhodes's conclusions (perhaps unfairly, since 7 years and some key events have transpired since he wrote them), was in the area of nuclear terrorism and its deterrence.

An engrossing read.

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28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars gripping history read, October 27, 2005

By	James W. Picht (Louisiana, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb is a fascinating historical work that reads almost like a novel; perhaps a particularly technical Clancy novel, but a novel nevertheless. It targets a general audience and balances the consequent need for clarity with depth and technical detail, and with great success.

Rhodes starts by taking us through America's Manhattan Project, a subject he dealt with in depth in his earlier book, The Making of the Atomic Bomb. This time he focuses on the political elements of the project and with Soviet espionage. Klaus Fuchs is a major character in Dark Sun; in TMAB, which deals in much more depth with the scientific and technical problems behind atom bomb development, Fuchs has only a minor role. Here the scene switches back and forth between the U.S. and the USSR, where Igor Kurchatov takes charge of the Soviet nuclear program under secret police head Lavrenti Beria.

The early focus on espionage and Soviet work is important in this book; the subtitle, The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb, refers to the political impetus behind the bomb, not the scientific and technical issues. There were formidable technical difficulties in the design of the first hydrogen bomb, but nothing that would warrant the same in-depth examination of basic science that appears in the earlier book. It becomes clear in the course of Dark Sun that the making of thermonuclear weapons was driven by politics, not military need or science (not to minimize the role of politics in atomic bomb development, but that was also the result of extravagantly brilliant scientists pursuing basic and often unexpected research in physics). And much of that political impetus was the result of American shock that the Soviets detonated an atomic bomb as soon as they did, years sooner than American scientists and policy makers believed that they could. Hence the importance of Fuchs and Beria.

Also prominent in this book is Edward Teller. His obsession with thermonuclear weapons seems a powerful force behind American policy development. It's always seemed to me that Ulam was as much the father of the hydrogen bomb as Teller, but Rhodes convinces me that Teller deserves that sobriquet on the basis of his political efforts more than on the basis of his technical efforts. As the making of the atomic bomb was the result of extraordinary scientific and technical achievement, the making of the hydrogen bomb was the result of extraordinary political will. Much of that will was Teller's.

That will was also destructive. The book closes with an examination of the fallout from obsession with the Soviet threat and the way that bomb research was pursued in this country. I think that Rhodes overestimates the costs of the nuclear arms race by misallocating them, and he draws too strong a link between thermonuclear research and America's fraying infrastructure. He also gives short shrift to the case that our obsession with the Soviet threat was almost inevitable and necessary given Soviet behavior and the opacity of their motives at the time. I think Rhodes' treatment of Teller betrays a certain bias. If there's a villain in this book it isn't Fuchs, but Teller. Teller's role in the destruction of Oppenheimer wasn't meaningless and it wasn't an episode of which he should be proud, but Teller wasn't the devil. He was a man motivated by fear, and it was a fear of forces and events he didn't create. Teller was even less responsible for the cold war than he was the scientific father of the hydrogen bomb. I think Rhodes could have found a better villain.

In the context of the book I think these objections are small points; putting them aside, I think this book is very good.

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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Necessary Differences of Style, January 9, 2006

By	Brian Steidinger (Illinois) - See all my reviews

Rhodes' "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" is my favorite nonfiction book. I hesitated to read this one for several years only because of reviews that slammed the book for dwelling too much on Soviet espionage and atomic bomb development and not enough on the actual physics of thermonuclear weapons design.

The criticism is accurate inasmuch as this book is much less about physics than its predecessor. "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" took the reader through the major breakthroughs of atomic physics, the relationships between the most influential scientists of the twentieth century, and finally how all of these brilliant individuals influenced, directly or indirectly, the Manhattan Engineering Dist. and allied atomic bomb research.

The story of Dark Sun is much different. "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" told the story of scientists and nations coming together to defeat the Axis powers. "Dark Sun" tells the story of how weapons of mass destruction polarized scientists, nations, military sects, and political mindsets (Edward Teller and E.O. Lawrences pro-thermonuclear detterence and Oppenheimer's international control camps, Soviets vs. Western powers, etc.).

It is this polarization that is the primary concern of Rhodes. Having covered the issue of nuclear fission in his previous book, all that is left scientifically is the fusion of the light elements, the use of radiation implosion, and some other admittedly difficult engineering breakthroughs necessary to sustain a thermonuclear reaction. The result was merely to boost weapons already designed for mass industrial bombing to even more terrifying megaton proportions.

Faced with the fact that after the war Los Alamos ceased to be a barracks of every influential scientific mind in the United States and became a sort of post-war arms race machine, Rhodes takes the emphasis off the scientists and puts it onto the socio-political mindset that leads to the idea of detterence, of keeping a peace-time nuclear arsenal of tremendous strength, of treating a former wartime ally as a deadly threat.

So while the focus of the book is different, I feel that it was different, not so much in a way that makes "Dark Sun" more interesting than "Making the Atomic Bomb", but in a way that was necessary and makes for perhaps a more historically relevent read. Rhodes analysis is top notch and the espionage reading is actually quite interesting, particualy as it disrobes the kind of sophisticated James Bond style clandestine operative most people continue to associate with spy-work.

I feel this book is an essential follow-up to "Making the Atomic Bomb".

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars First Responder
A must read. Gives insight into a period that we seem not to have remembered. Full of technical history of how to build nuclear weapons.

Published 14 days ago by Shelley D. Palmer

5.0 out of 5 stars This book is fascinating.
I read the making of the atomic bomb by the same author and remianed fascinated for 800 pages. This book is equally marvelous. Read more

Published 1 month ago by Cynthia Klingler

5.0 out of 5 stars Dark Sun
Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb
Very engrossing and difficult to put down after you have started to read it. Read more

Published 6 months ago by Ronald L. Teker

4.0 out of 5 stars A Dance with Death
This is a worthy sequel to the author's Pulitzer Prize winning `The Making of the Atomic Bomb.' It admirably relates the history of post-WW2 atomic weapons (including the Soviet... Read more

Published 10 months ago by ct reader

5.0 out of 5 stars Mega Research
This book has been roundly condemned for various reasons: Too much politics, personalities, science, history, spying, too liberal, too conservative, etc. Read more

Published 12 months ago by Avid Reader

4.0 out of 5 stars Personal dread as national policy
Rhode's history of thermonuclear weaponry is well written, but the subject seems oddly dated, as if the "Cold War" and the terrors of atomic attack were something from centuries... Read more

Published 12 months ago by Todd Stockslager

4.0 out of 5 stars Teller's story
Book arrived in good time. Monster of a book and will take a long read. Too bad summer is over.

Published 14 months ago by Ed J

4.0 out of 5 stars excellent work of history
I have read his Making of the Atomic Bomb, and enjoyed it. This book promises to be just as good and it is. Read more

Published 14 months ago by Donald H. Schneider

4.0 out of 5 stars A Dark Sun and a Cold War...
Richard Rhodes' 1995 "Dark Sun" is the well-written and provocative sequel to his Pulizter Prize-winning "The Making of the Atomic Bomb. Read more

Published 20 months ago by D. S. Thurlow

4.0 out of 5 stars A worthy follow-on to "The Making of the Atomic Bomb:
"Dark Sun" is primarily NOT an overview of the development of the hydrogen bomb. Instead, it is a great fusion (no pun intended) of the people, events and fears of the... Read more

Published 22 months ago by J. LaCoss

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