Posted on Thursday, May 03, 2018
The History and Science of the Manhattan Project is a book about the historical background and science of the development of the atomic bomb. It's accessible and easy to read but covers all the interesting aspects of the Manhattan Project starting with the fascinating scientists and other people that were involved in the project and continuing with the physics and engineering that were required for the successful development of such an important and devastating invention.
Having read some biographies and more general histories of some or other aspect of the project or the people involved, I found this book delightfully inclusive and very detailed and as such a perfect book to read if you're interested in the Manhattan Project in general. It is very straightforward though, to-the-point and there isn't any unnecessary veering off the topic at hand, so the book has a very different feel to it compared to a biography where the author might try and show different aspects of the person's life and the possible reasons for behaving in a specific way or doing something, but in this book it's more about delivering facts.
The extent to which the book covers the related and connected topics is slightly astonishing, as you can read about the aftereffects of the deployed bombs having read about the different methods that were used for enriching uranium and how fission and radioactivity were discovered - all in the same place!
I'd say that if you're interested in the history of the Manhattan Project and you're not scared off by a little physics, then this is a great book to read.
Labels: book review, Manhattan Project, The History and Science of the Manhattan Project