Making of the Atomic Bomb

Rhodes, Richard. The Making of the Atomic Bomb. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1986.

I think I should feel more disappointed that I didn’t get through this book. And yet, I don’t. Quite simply put – I’m just not that into atomic bombs. I think I knew this would happen when I said I didn’t exactly see it as summer reading, despite the clever connection of the first bomb being testing in July…

Here’s what I know – The Making of the Atomic Bomb won a Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. In other words, people liked it. A lot. I can also tell you it is a thick read. Over 800 pages long (and the pictures don’t count). I got through the first 50 and called it quits. Again, no regrets.

If I had been able to devote more time to The Making of an Atomic Bomb I would have found it to be a portrait of personalities ranging from scientists (Einstein) to political leaders (Roosevelt). I would have found it to be a commentary on the state of world economics (The Great Depression) and warfare (World War II). I would have found it to be scientific and philosophical, psychological and historical. All those things.

Believe it or not, I do have a favorite line from the little I read: “As he crossed the street time cracked open before him and he saw a way to the future, death into the world and all our woe, the shape of things to come” (p13). This was in the opening paragraph and sets the stage for science to unleash its dangers.
BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called, “Bomb Makers” (p 42).