When this book was published 25 years ago it was immediately recognized as a true classic, a history that was unlikely to be ever surpassed for the sheer amount of detail in it, the amazing breadth of the narrative and the spellbinding language and almost epic style that Rhodes brought in describing an earth-shattering event in human history. 25 years later this fact still rings true and it is inconceivable that anything of this caliber can ever be written. The new anniversary edition has a poignant foreword by Rhodes in which he traces the history of the book, examines our nuclear world and makes a heartfelt and yet commonsense plea for the ultimate abolition of these weapons of mass destruction.
There are three things about the book which make it a timeless classic. The first is the sheer, staggering amount of meticulous research and attention to detail that Rhodes brings to his narrative. One simply marvels at the wealth of sources he must have plumbed and the time he must have spent in making sense of them, the mountains of material he must have assimilated and sorted and the number of people he must have interviewed. This book stands as a model of exhaustive research on any topic. A related aspect is the immense breadth and sweep of events, people and places that Rhodes covers. He paints on a canvas that's expansive enough to accommodate everything from quantum mechanics to the human psyche. In this book he doesn't just give us the details of the first atomic bombs but also holds forth on, among other things: the fascinating political and military personalities of the era (FDR, Truman, LeMay), a history of physics in the first half of the twentieth century, ruminations on war and peace including accounts and interpretations of key events during both World Wars, an account of anti-Semitism in Europe, the beginnings of "Big Science" in the United States, the psychological aspects of scientific personality, the moral calculus of bombing, the political history of Europe between the wars and the detailed engineering that went into building weapons of war. There are sections on each of these topics and more, and even the digressions are deep and riveting enough to temporarily immerse the reader into an alternative topic (for instance, a six page account on Jewish history and persecution transports the reader). Long paragraphs of direct quotation allow the characters to speak in their own words. What is remarkable is that Rhodes makes the material utterly gripping in spite of the extraordinarily broad coverage and the level of detail and holds the reader's attention from beginning to end through an 800 page work. This is an achievement in itself.
The second aspect of this book that makes it such a fantastic read is the elegant, clear explanation of the science. It is no easy feat to describe the work of Rutherford and Oppenheimer on nuclear physics while at the same time dissecting the political manipulations of Churchill and Roosevelt. Yet Rhodes accomplishes a beautifully simplified (but not oversimplified) version of the momentous scientific ideas developed during the early twentieth century. He seems to have read the original papers on the neutron, radioactive transformations and nuclear fission and these sources are thoroughly documented in the extensive bibliography; key experiments and theories unravel into clear explanations supported by quotes from the original participants. In fact the first half of the book would be a first-rate introduction to the development of atomic physics and the life and times of brilliant scientists like Fermi, Heisenberg, Rutherford, Bohr, Chadwick, Einstein and the Curies who contributed to this discipline. These remarkable scientists are really at the center of Rhodes's account and their personalities and work come alive under his pen. This was physics during its most glorious age of discovery and nobody knew just how enormously it would impact politics and society; indeed, one of Rhodes's goals is to demonstrate how even the purest of science can have the most far-reaching practical and social ramifications. The work of all these scientists is set in revealing detail against the backdrop of growing anti-Semitism and political turmoil in Europe, and their subsequent emigration to the United States and England constitutes a very important chapter in this story. But the introduction of nuclear energy was primarily an act of science, and Rhodes excels in describing this science in patient and marvelous detail.
Finally, what ensures this book's place in history is Rhodes's mesmerizing prose, of the kind employed by the select few historians and novelists like Shakespeare, Tolstoy and Herodotus who opened our eyes to world-changing historical events and to the human condition. In Rhodes's hands the making of the atomic bomb turns into an epic tale of triumph and tragedy akin to the Greek tragedies or the Mahabharata. He brings a novelist's eye to his characters and portrays them as actors in a heroic drama of victory and woe; a great example is the unforgettable opening paragraph of the book in which the physicist Leo Szilard first thinks of a chain reaction while waiting for a traffic light in London. The leading lights of the narrative are Niels Bohr and Robert Oppenheimer, brilliant men who also saw deep into the future. And there are many others, human beings laid bare in all their glorious folly, frailty and greatness, struggling to comprehend both natural and human forces. There are no saints and sinners here, only complex humans struggling to understand and control forces that are sometimes beyond their immediate comprehension, often with unintended consequences. Rhodes relentlessly drives home the point that man's greatest gifts can also be the cause of his greatest evils. He makes it clear that science, politics and human nature are inextricably linked and you cannot perturb one without perturbing the other. Taming this combustible mix will be a struggle that we will always grapple with.
I first read "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" about fifteen years ago and consider it the most influential book I have ever come across. I am a scientist and the book completely changed my understanding of the inextricable relationship between science and society. Since then at any given moment I have about three copies of the book on my shelf, ready to be lent or gifted to anyone I feel might be interested. I consider it one of the best chronicles ever written about what human beings are capable of, both as creators and destroyers. In the making of the atomic bomb are lessons for all of humanity.
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A Very Human Description of How a Very Inhuman Device Came into Existence
Despite the title, the Making of the Atomic Bomb is less about the Manhattan Project than the lengthy evolution of the science that made the bomb possible, beginning decades prior to the devastation at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Rhodes tells that tale through the life and times of the dozens of remarkable physicists and chemists who collaboratively and progressively moved the ball forward using ingenious tools they devised along the way. Today, these instruments seem astonishingly primitive and crude - using materials like blocks of paraffin and thin pieces of aluminum foil to filter strange emanations to discover hitherto unknown subatomic particles. Nobel prizes rested on observations as seemingly random as the differences between test results obtained when an instrument was placed on a marble rather than a wooden tabletop.Rhodes is more than usually gifted for a writer of non-fiction. His prose flows quickly and easily, often ending with an elegant flourish that ties together wonderfully what has come before. He also extensively relies on, and generously quotes from, letters, diaries and interviews that bring alive the individuals who made the discoveries, many of whom were Jewish and retreated across Europe to Britain and the United States in the course of their work. He also provides a running narrative of the deteriorating political situation in Europe, the rise of Hitler, the outbreak of war, and the hideous impact of traditional weaponry in the course of that conflict. More may have died in Hiroshima than in other cities after radiation was taken into effect, but as many or more died directly from the fire bombing of Hamburg, Dresden, and Tokyo, where many tens of thousands in each case died hideously from incendiary carpet bombing, sometimes from waves of over 1,000 aircraft, leading to horrific firestorms that destroyed buildings and human beings almost as completely as the atomic bombs that were later deployed.Those interested only in the Manhattan Project may want to start the book two thirds of the way through. Others may find themselves skipping through places where Rhodes takes a deeper dive, as he often does, on some historical, scientific or personal aspect of the tale as he has chosen to tell it. But if you have the time, read it cover to cover. Rhodes is an elegant and sensitive writer and the road from Madame Curie’s discoveries to Oppenheimer’s Trinity test is perhaps the greatest scientific saga of our time, wrapping in as it does uncommon brilliance, societal upheaval, elements of Greek tragedy, and the long following shadow of the Cold War. To his credit, after glorifying the work of scores of scientists, Rhodes ends the book by describing in horrifying detail what those on the ground were subjected to in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.I read the book on Kindle, and see that other reviewers have noted - and regretted - the deletion of an earlier epilogue. I'm sorry to have been deprived of the ability to read that and will have to find an older printed copy to get the full benefit of Rhodes' understanding of his subject.
Top reviews from other countries
Mark B. Röttenberg
The Making of Hte Atomic Bomb
Reviewed in Brazil on September 3, 2024
Sébastien
Good
Reviewed in Belgium on July 29, 2023
Sébastien
Reviewed in Belgium on July 29, 2023
The book takes us back at the beginning of the quantum revolution in science in order to introduce the different characters important in the developpment in the bomb, as well as the physics behind it. This is why, I think, this book is made for everyone, as scientists usually lack the historical side of their own field while non-scientifically educated people will tend to enjoy the human side more than the dry physics parts.
The package and the book both arrived in pristine condition (well protected) and 2 weeks earlier than expected!
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JLG
What a fantastic book - a must read for all history buffs
Reviewed in Canada on May 11, 2019
