The Manhattan Project: The Birth of the Atomic Bomb in the Words of Its Creators, Eyewitnesses, and Historians
A first-person historical record of the Manhattan Project, and the events leading to the birth of the Atomic bomb, as told by the researchers, scientists, and developers intimately involved in its creation. 

The creation of the atomic bomb during World War II, codenamed the Manhattan Project, was one of the most significant and clandestine scientific undertakings of the 20th century. The program, led by physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, forever changed the nature of war and cast a shadow over civilization. Born out of a small research program that began in 1939, the Manhattan Project would eventually employ nearly 600,000 people and cost about $2 billion ($28.5 billion in 2020) — all while operating under a shroud of complete secrecy.

This groundbreaking collection of essays, articles, documents, and excerpts from histories, biographies, plays, novels, letters, and oral histories remains the most comprehensive collection of primary source material of the atomic bomb. It includes contributions from Edward Teller, Enrico Fermi, Richard Feynman, Richard Rhodes, Neils Bohr, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Winston Churchill Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Albert Einstein, just to name a few. This newest edition of The Manhattan Project is updated with writings and reflections from the past decade and a half, including from President Barack Obama, hibakusha (survivors), and the modern-day mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 
1100390345
The Manhattan Project: The Birth of the Atomic Bomb in the Words of Its Creators, Eyewitnesses, and Historians
A first-person historical record of the Manhattan Project, and the events leading to the birth of the Atomic bomb, as told by the researchers, scientists, and developers intimately involved in its creation. 

The creation of the atomic bomb during World War II, codenamed the Manhattan Project, was one of the most significant and clandestine scientific undertakings of the 20th century. The program, led by physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, forever changed the nature of war and cast a shadow over civilization. Born out of a small research program that began in 1939, the Manhattan Project would eventually employ nearly 600,000 people and cost about $2 billion ($28.5 billion in 2020) — all while operating under a shroud of complete secrecy.

This groundbreaking collection of essays, articles, documents, and excerpts from histories, biographies, plays, novels, letters, and oral histories remains the most comprehensive collection of primary source material of the atomic bomb. It includes contributions from Edward Teller, Enrico Fermi, Richard Feynman, Richard Rhodes, Neils Bohr, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Winston Churchill Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Albert Einstein, just to name a few. This newest edition of The Manhattan Project is updated with writings and reflections from the past decade and a half, including from President Barack Obama, hibakusha (survivors), and the modern-day mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 
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The Manhattan Project: The Birth of the Atomic Bomb in the Words of Its Creators, Eyewitnesses, and Historians

The Manhattan Project: The Birth of the Atomic Bomb in the Words of Its Creators, Eyewitnesses, and Historians

by Cynthia C. Kelly (Editor)
The Manhattan Project: The Birth of the Atomic Bomb in the Words of Its Creators, Eyewitnesses, and Historians

The Manhattan Project: The Birth of the Atomic Bomb in the Words of Its Creators, Eyewitnesses, and Historians

by Cynthia C. Kelly (Editor)

Paperback(Revised ed.)

$22.99 
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Overview

A first-person historical record of the Manhattan Project, and the events leading to the birth of the Atomic bomb, as told by the researchers, scientists, and developers intimately involved in its creation. 

The creation of the atomic bomb during World War II, codenamed the Manhattan Project, was one of the most significant and clandestine scientific undertakings of the 20th century. The program, led by physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, forever changed the nature of war and cast a shadow over civilization. Born out of a small research program that began in 1939, the Manhattan Project would eventually employ nearly 600,000 people and cost about $2 billion ($28.5 billion in 2020) — all while operating under a shroud of complete secrecy.

This groundbreaking collection of essays, articles, documents, and excerpts from histories, biographies, plays, novels, letters, and oral histories remains the most comprehensive collection of primary source material of the atomic bomb. It includes contributions from Edward Teller, Enrico Fermi, Richard Feynman, Richard Rhodes, Neils Bohr, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Winston Churchill Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Albert Einstein, just to name a few. This newest edition of The Manhattan Project is updated with writings and reflections from the past decade and a half, including from President Barack Obama, hibakusha (survivors), and the modern-day mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780762471270
Publisher: Workman Publishing Company
Publication date: 07/07/2020
Edition description: Revised ed.
Pages: 544
Product dimensions: 5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Cynthia C. Kelly is the president of the Atomic Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C., and the editor of several books on the subject including Remembering the Manhattan Project.


Richard Rhodes is the author of twenty-six books, including The Making of the Atomic Bomb, winner of the Pulitzer prize, a National Book Award, and a National Book Critics Circle Award.

Table of Contents

Preface: The Manhattan Project Seventy-Five Years Later ix

From the Editor: Preserving the Manhattan Project Cynthia C. Kelly, President, Atomic Heritage Foundation xiii

Introduction: Richard Rhodes, Author, The Making of the Atomic Bomb xvii

Section 1 Explosive Discoveries and Bureaucratic Inertia

Thinking No Pedestrian Thoughts Richard Rhodes 5

The Atomic Bombs Burst in Their Fumbling Hands H. G. Wells 8

If Only We Had Been Clever Enough Leona Marshall Libby 10

What Wasn't Expected Wasn't Seen! Edward Teller 15

I Had Come Close but Had Missed a Great Discovery Philip Abelson 18

Enlisting Einstein William Lanouette 24

Albert Einstein to F. D. Roosevelt Albert Einsten Franklin D. Roosevelt 28

A Practically Irresistible Super-Bomb Otto R. Frisch Rudolf Peierls 31

Working for Otto Frisch J. Wechsler 35

Likely to Lead to Decisive Results, The MAUD Report, March 1941 37

"Wild" Notions about Atom Bombs G. Pascal Zachary 42

Transatlantic Travails Andrew Brown 46

Section 2 An Unprecedented Alliance

The Rather Fuzzy State of Our Thinking James G. Hershberg 57

The Stuff Will…Be More Powerful Than We…Thought Vannevar Bush 61

You'll Never Get a Chain Reaction Going Here Richard Rhodes 63

The Chicago Pile-1: The First Chain Reaction Enrico Fermi 68

Fermi Was Cool as a Cucumber Crawford Greenewalt 72

Proceeding in the Dark General Leslie R. Groves 74

Swimming in Syrup Robert Jungk 77

The Los Alamos Primer: How to Make an Atomic Bomb Robert Serber 80

These Were Very Great Men Indeed Richard Feynman 81

Misunderstandings and Anxieties Stephane Groueff 84

A Weapon of Devastating Power…Will Soon Become Available, Niels Bohr to Winston Churchill 87

One Top Secret Agreement Too Many Winston Churchill 90

Section 3 An Extraordinary Pair

His Potential Outweighed Any Security Risk General Leslie R. Groves 97

Scientific Director for the Special Laboratory in New Mexico James B. Conant General Leslie R. Groves to J. Robert Oppenheimer 100

When You Looked at Captain Groves, a Little Alarm Bell Rang "Caution," Robert S. Norris 103

Decisive, Confident, and Cool Robert DeVore 105

A Bureaucratic Warrior of the First Rank Robert S. Norris 106

The Biggest S.O.B. Colonel Kenneth D. Nichols 107

Not Right-Do It Again. Colonel John Lansdale Jr. 107

"A Jewish Pan" at Berkeley, Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin 109

The Absentminded Professor, Berkeley Gazette, February 14, 1934 110

His Head Wreathed in a Cloud of Smoke Edward Gerjuoy 111

A Psychiatrist by Vocation and a Physicist by Avocation Jeremy Bernstein 115

The Most Compelling Man Jennet Conant 116

Appeasing General Groves Kai Bird Martin Sherwin 123

Visions of Immortality Robert S. Norris 125

An Audacious Gamble Kai Bird Martin Sherwin 127

Then Robert Oppenheimer Walked onto the Page Joseph Kanon 130

Doctor Atomic: The Myth and the Man John Adams 133

A Cascade of Different Oppenheimers Jon Else 136

Section 4 Secret Cities

A New and Uncertain Adventure in the Wilderness Stephane Groueff 143

A Crazy Place to Do Any War Thing Stirling Colgate 146

Excitement, Devotion, and Patriotism Prevailed J. Robert Oppenheimer 147

The Case of the Vanishing Physicists Stanislaw Ulam 148

Learning on the Job Rebecca Diven 149

Life at P.O. Box 1663 Ruth Marshak 152

A Boy's Adventures at Los Alamos Dana Mitchell 157

Something Extraordinary Was Happening Here Katrina Mason 163

A Relief from the Hubbub of the Hill Katrina Mason 165

An SED at Los Alamos Benjamin Bederson 167

A Bad Time to Get a New Boss Joseph Kanon 170

Tumbleweed and Jackrabbits in the Evergreen State Steve Buckingham 174

Making Toilet Paper Roger Rohrbacher 175

Termination Winds Michele Gerber 176

Whoever Gets There First Will Win the War Leon Overstreet 178

The Whole Project Was Like a Three-Legged Stool Walter Simon 180

Cover Stories Colonel Franklin T. Matthias 183

K-25 Plant: Forty-Four Acres and a Mile Long William J. Wilcox 184

Tennessee Girls on the Job Colleen Black 187

Ode to Life Behind the Fence Clifford Colleen Black 188

Operating Oak Ridge's "Calutrons," Theodore Rockwell 191

Men, Write Home for Christmas Norman Brown 194

An Answer to Their Prayers Valeria Steele 196

All-Black Crews with White Foremen Robert Bauman 200

Manhattan Project Sites in Manhattan Robert S. Norris 205

Manhattan Project Sites in Washington, D.C. Robert S. Norris 208

Monsanto's Playhouse for Polonium Stephane Groueff 211

Mysteries at the Met Lab Isabella Karle 212

A Message from Town Management 214

Section 5 Secrecy, Intelligence, and Counterintelligence

Unprecedented Security Measures Robert S. Norris 219

Security: A Headache on the Hill Kai Bird Martin Sherwin 222

Mrs. Farmer, I Presume Laura Fermi 226

As If They Were Walking in the Woods Colonel John Lansdale Jr. 227

Electric Rocket Story Fails to Launch Charlotte Serber 228

A Spy in Our Midst Laura Fermi 233

Never…in Our Wildest Dreams Lilli Homig 236

The Youngest Spies Joseph Albright Marcia Kunstel 237

Enormoz Espionage Gregg Herken 241

Undercover Agents at Berkeley Gregg Herken 245

Jump Start for the Soviets David Holloway Joseph Albright Marcia Kunstel 246

Holes in the Security Fence Joseph Albright Marcia Kunstel 250

A Calming Role for the Counterintelligence Corps Thomas O. Jones 251

The Alsos Mission: Scientists as Sleuths Robert S. Norris 253

From France to the Black Forest: Seeking Atomic Scientists Richard Rhodes 255

I Have Been Expecting You Colonel John Lansdale Jr. 258

Section 6 The Trinity Test

Leaving the Bomb Project Joseph Rotblat 265

Anticipating the End of War Kai Bird Martin Sherwin 269

Scientists Will Be Held Responsible Arthur Holly Compton 273

Advising Against the Bomb, The Franck Report, June 1945 274

No Acceptable Alternative, The Interim Committee Report, June 1945 276

Scientists Petition the President, Leo Szilard and Other Scientists 277

Watching Trinity, Brigadier General Thomas Farrell and General Leslie R. Groves 280

Babysitting the Bomb Don Hornig 284

A Handful of Soldiers at Trinity, Val Fitch 286

Eyewitness Accounts of the Trinity Test Edwin McMillan Kenneth Greisen Enrico Fermi Maurice Shapiro Robert Serber 294

Violence without Limit Joseph Kanon 297

Section 7 Dropping the Bombs

Aiming for Military and Psychological Effects Target Committee 305

Admiral Chester W. Nimitz: Born Too Soon Frederick L. Ashworth 307

The 509th Composite Group at Tinian Island Stephen Walker 309

Official Bombing Order, 25 July, 1945 Thos. T. Handy 313

A Very Sobering Event, Operational History of the 509th Bombardment 315

Massive Pain, Suffering, and Horror Tsuyoshi Hasegawa 316

Miss Yamaoka, You Look Like a Monster Richard B. Frank 319

For All We Know, We Have Created a Frankenstein! Paul Boyer 322

The Battle of the Laboratories, President Harry S Truman 325

The Culmination of Years of Herculean Effort Henry L Stimson 329

Eyewitness over Nagasaki William Laurence 331

It Was Over!, Lieutenant Colonel Fred J. Olivi 339

The Atomic Bomb's Peculiar "Disease," George Weller 342

Section 8 Reflections on the Bomb

Outwitting General Groves Harold Agnew 351

Speech to the Association of Los Alamos Scientists J. Robert Oppenheimer 352

You Have Done Excellent Work J. Robert Oppenheimer 360

A Citizen's Guide to the Atomic Bomb; The Smyth Report Henry DeWolf Smyth 362

Hersey's Hiroshima John Hersey 363

The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb Henry L. Stimson 369

History Is Often Not What Actually Happened Barton J. Bernstein 374

A Question of Motives Patrick M. S. Blackett 376

Thank God for the Atom Bomb Paul Fussell 380

The Return to Nothingness Felix Morley 385

The Bomb in National Memories Tsuyoshi Hasegawa 387

Hiroshima in History J. Samuel Walker 393

Why Does This Decision Continue to Haunt Us? Gar Alperovitz 400

Section 9 Living with the Bomb

On the International Control of Atomic Energy, Acheson-Lilienthal Report, March 1946 409

Open Letter to the United Nations, Niels Bohr, June 1950 413

I Hope Not a Soul Will Remember My Name, Paul Mullins, "Louis Slotin Sonata" 422

Atoms for Peace, Dwight D. Eisenhower, December 1953 424

A Cold War Warning: The Russell-Einstein Manifesto, July 1955 430

A World Free of Nuclear Weapons, George P. Shultz, William J. Perry, Henry A. Kissinger, and Sam Nunn 434

The Nuclear Threat, Mikhail Gorbachev 439

Thoughts on a 21st-century Manhattan Project, George A. Cowan 442

Section 10 Seventy-Five Years Later

Truman Made the Right Decision Benjamin Bederson 451

No Regrets Leona Marshall Libby 452

One Atomic Bomb Was Sufficient Gerhart Friedlander 453

A Well-Meaning President Made the Worst Decision Murray Peshkin 454

An Odd Mix of Feelings Lilli Hornig 456

The Perils of Nuclear Fallout Ralph Lapp 458

A Global Manhattan Project Dieter Gruen 460

A Lack of Trust and Confidence Herbert L. Anderson 461

Before We Die, We Have to Tell Our Stories Keiko Ogura 463

Doctor, you know our bodies. The atomic bomb is still living Masao Tomonaga 465

Such a Tragedy Should Never Happen Again, Kazumi Matsui, Mayor of Hiroshima 467

Why Do People Need Such Cruel Weapons?, Tomihisa Taue, Mayor of Nagasaki 469

Mayors for Peace: Achieving a Better World Yasuyoshi Komizo 470

Open Discussion Is the Only Way to Solve Problems Kenji Shiga 472

Paper Crane Journey Tomoko Watanabe 473

Our name is Yamawaki. Where is our father? Yoshiro Yamawaki 475

The World Was Forever Changed Here, U.S. President Barack Obama 478

The Threat of Nuclear War Is Still with Us George P. Schultz William J. Perry Sam Nunn 482

The Madness of Nuclear Deterrence Mikhail Gorbachev 485

The End of Nuclear Weapons or the End of Us Beatrice Fihn Setsuko Thurlow 486

Acknowledgments 489

Chronology 491

Biographies 496

Bibliography 506

Index 511

Credits 519

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