The Birth of the Atomic Bomb in the Words of Its Creators

As a participant at the Trinity test, I find the "The Manhattan Project" is a fascinating read. It is a collection of short pithy statements of interest concerning the Project and it's history from a wide variety of involved sources including political and scientific leaders as well as military officers involved. It also has contributions from a few gifted writers who have reseached to subject.

This book consists of nothing except clips from existing publications. Although attribution is given, approvals provided, and a short commentary added; when taken out of context of the original publication the meaning and significance is lost or changed.

With tensions mounting over North Korea’s nuclear capability reading the Manhattan Project now has special meaning. The United States is, of course, the only country to have used nuclear weapons. It is important to keep North Korea from being the second.

The editor of the Manhattan Project, Cynthia Kelly, wisely concluded her book with two modern essays on nuclear policy. One authored by Henry Kissinger and George Schultz (and others) and a follow up to that essay by Mikhail Gorbachev.

Kelly also wisely did not tell the story of the Manhattan Project in her own words. It is simply too big of a story to tell from one person’s perspective. Her book is compilation of essays, letters, oral histories etc. of those involved in the project. She included not just the scientists and military figures, but everyday people involved in the project. The author also includes a few essays from the Japanese side. Including essays from the Japanese perspective reinforces what the reader already knows; even small atomic bombs (by today's standards) like the ones that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki cause horrific suffering.

By including all these perspectives, the reader is left with a full impression of the project, not just the secrecy, or the politics (both overt and behind the scenes) or the engineering challenges, but also the “up close and personal” as well as policy discussions already mentioned. Even though the Manhattan Project came out in 2007 it is still worth reading today

Here is a careful rendition of a "piecing together" of select released articles that recreate the trail of evidence providing the full story behind the development of the Atomic Bomb. It is a well-known story with its own built in mini and melodramas, each with their own heroes and villains -- all acting under the existential pressures of Hitler's rise to prominence and eventually his "military "cake-walk" through Europe.

The difference between this version and that of Richard Rhodes' own two seminal books on both bombs, is that here we have excerpts from the original source documents that for 60 years were held behind a wall of national security secrecy. But now, finally, we have them assembled in a very readable format without intermediary commentaries or interpretative filters. With the missing filters, the reader is able to make up his own mind and draw his own conclusions about the wisdom of, and risks involved, in embarking on a speculative venture in which American and British Scientists' reputations were on the line. Together they were following the trail of a number of unproven theoretical hunches that while plausible their success was by no means a foregone conclusion.

Likewise, the reader is also able to draw his own conclusions about the personalities involved, about their brilliance, their loyalty, etc. We see the personality clashes, the sheer force of committed teamwork and what it can do in the face of some of the most daunting problems any nation has ever had to face. As well, we see how a lumbering bureaucracy sprung to life when it was needed and turned what became an existential crisis for the nation (as well as for the allied side) into one of history's most successful enterprises.

Here, the raw data consistently gives subtle new, and important twists to even the smallest of the known events (perhaps conveyed best) in Rhodes' two books, but which are also taken as givens in the historical literature on the Atomic bomb, more generally. Such things as that it was Alexander Sachs, of the now infamous Goldman-Sachs international Banking conglomerate who served as the primary conduit between Einstein and President Roosevelt in the letter that eventually got the Manhattan Project rolling. Likewise, the articles go into great detail about the politics that led to the Army getting the lead role in the project instead of the Navy.

Here also are the details (and the incredible irony) of Otto Hahn (a Nazi chemist) having to rely on Lise Meitner's (an exiled Jew living in Sweden) for the proper interpretation of his own results. Hahn, a skilled Nazi Chemist, whom Meitner had worked with prior to being exiled, still had no idea what he had when his experiment resulted in the first successful splitting of the atom.

While there was a scientific consensus that the bomb eventually could be built, there was no such consensus around either a timetable of success, or on whether building it was the moral thing to do. However, despite serious differences on the moral and timing planes, once the decision was made to go forward, a kind of American-British esprit de corps kicked in and throughout the bomb's development the work that went into it is something every American and Brit can still be proud of. Five Stars

"The Manhattan Project" edited by Cynthia C. Kelly.
This is a collection of letters, excerpts from official reports, personal recollections of participants at all levels, official statements, later articles by the principals and excerpts from scholarly research, etc. related to the Manhattan Project to build and use the atomic bomb.

James Chadwick discovered the neutron in 1932, and the possibility of a multiplying neutron chain reaction, if more than one neutron was released for each neutron absorbed, occurred to Leo Szilard while crossing the street one morning outside the British Museum in 1933. When Lise Meitner interpreted Otto Hahn's measurements of heat production in uranium irradiated with neutrons in 1938 as fission of the uranium nuclei, the possibility of releasing large amounts of nuclear energy by the neutron-induced fission chain reaction in uranium was obvious to nuclear physicists, as were the implications both for nuclear electrical energy production and for a nuclear, or "atomic", bomb.

Since Hahn's discovery of fission took place in Germany, there was a great concern among physicists in England and the USA during the early years of WWII that German physicists were already working on an atomic bomb. This stimulated formation of a high-level government committee under Chadwick in England to determine the possibility of releasing a tremendous amount of energy in a neutron fission chain reaction to make a bomb. This MAUD committee brought together scientists and industrialists with government officials and determined by 1941 that it would be feasible to construct such an atomic bomb.

Neils Bohr brought news of Hahn's fission of uranium to a theoretical physics conference in the USA in early 1939, and US physicists quickly confirmed the result and began to loosely organize themselves under the auspices of a National Academy of Science Committee to look into various aspects of making an atomic bomb. The government formed a uranium committee but was slow to respond because Vannevar Bush, head of the National Defense Research Committee, was initially skeptical of the idea and because Lyman Briggs, who chaired the government Uranium Committee looking into the matter, was not up to the job. British physicists, realizing that the bomb work could not be done in wartime England, sent representatives to stir up American interest.

Finally, at the urging of Leo Szilard and Eugene Wigner, Albert Einstein signed a letter to President Roosevelt drafted by himself and Szilard warning of the possible German development of an atomic bomb and urging immediate US effort. Szilard managed to have this letter delivered personally to President Roosevelt by Alexander Sachs, a Wall Street banker and personal friend of the president. Roosevelt authorized and fully supported the organization of the Manhattan Engineering District of the US Army Corps of Engineers to undertake the design and production of an atomic bomb, and Colonel Leslie Groves was appointed the commanding officer. Groves created an organization to design a bomb and to produce the required nuclear material. He appointed Robert Oppenheimer to direct the design of the bomb, over-riding objections about his communist connections and lack of administrative experience. Both of these were brilliant appointments. So began the Manhattan Project.

The first job that Groves was faced with was development and construction of industrial facilities to produce the nuclear fuel on a large scale, but by what process? The problem was that the isotope of uranium which fissioned, U235, constituted only a small fraction (0.7%) of natural uranium, and initial estimates indicated that a uranium mixture of at least 80% U235 would be required for a bomb.

The most influential figure among the nuclear physicists of the day was E. O. Lawrence of the Univ. of California, who had recently invented the cyclotron, and he advocated using the principle upon which the cyclotron was based---that the path of a charged particle moving in a magnetic field will be curved by an amount that varies with the ratio of the charge-to-mass of the particle---implying that the small mass difference 238-235 of U235 and the U238 which constituted most of the remaining 99.3% of natural uranium would cause the different mass particles to follow slightly different paths to different collectors. Lawrence began disassembling his cyclotrons in Berkeley and sending the parts to the new site for isotope separation being constructed at Oak Ridge, Tennessee to build "calutrons" for the electromagnetic separation of uranium 235 from natural uranium.

But there were other ideas. Harold Urey at Columbia University was developing a "gaseous diffusion" method for isotope separation which depended on the fact that the slightly smaller U235 molecules would diffuse through a wire membrane with microscopic-scale openings somewhat faster than the slightly larger U238 molecules, but a large series of diffusion columns would be required to obtain appreciable enrichment of the uranium in the isotope U235. A decision was made to build a gaseous diffusion plant at Oak Ridge. Another separation scheme that depended on the mass difference between the U235 and U238 molecules was the centrifuge (used e.g. to separate the heavier cream from milk), and such an isotope separation facility also was built at Oak Ridge.

Enrico Fermi, also at Columbia, believed on theoretical grounds that neutron capture in the more common U238 would lead to the production of a heavier isotope with atomic mass 239 which would also have fission properties similar to those of U235. A decision was made to build a "critical" uranium assembly that would support a self-sustaining neutron fission chain reaction at Chicago to test this conjecture.

The gaseous diffusion method worked well, if inefficiently, and produced the uranium fuel highly enriched in U235 that was used for the "Big Boy" bomb dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, with a little help from the calutron. The centrifuge encountered difficulties in producing large quantities of enriched uranium and was abandoned (although the centrifuge has subsequently been refined and is the enrichment method of choice today). The Chicago "pile" went critical---sustained a continued neutron fission chain reaction--on December 2, 1942, and was followed up with a Pu239 (plutonium) production reactor designed by Eugene Wigner and built in Hanford, Washington, which produced the fuel for the "Fat Man" bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945.

The big job, however, was to develop the physics knowledge to design and produce an atomic bomb, once the nuclear fuel was available. For this purpose now-General Groves consolidated the disperse physics efforts at Columbia, Princeton, Wisconsin and elsewhere into a new laboratory, built in the wilds of New Mexico---Los Alamos--and chose J. Robert Oppenheimer as the scientific director. This book is a little weak on describing the nature of the significant physics challenges that were faced and overcome (perhaps because they remain classified), but Oppenheimer emerges once again as an inspirational intellectual leader who made the whole thing work. Many personal recollections of life at Los Alamos convey the spirit of the undertaking,of the people involved and of the place.

The latter part of the book deals with the misgivings on the part of some Los Alamos physicists about using the bomb, once Germany surrendered, and about President Truman's decision to use the bomb on joint civilian-military targets in Japan. Historical literature on the ensuing and unfinished debate on this subject concludes the book.

A complex phenomenon like the Manhattan Project couldn't be described nearly so well if the information came from a single writer. The Project was not just a project; it was a life for thousands over several years, coming from all places, times, and directions. These stories are written by those who lived the Project, and they come from all angles within the kaleidoscope. The scope of the Manhattan Project is nearly beyond comprehension. These observations go far in providing a sense of the magnitude and complexity of the work and this period of history.

I'm amazed that one (or some) of the reviewers here think this is "revisionist history" from all of these various sources of information. This last part of this book gives fair treatment to both sides of the moral question of using the bombs -- a question that continues today. I guess some folks can't stand having their tree shaken. If you read this, be ready to consider history fairly and learn about the complexities of making new deadly weapons with untested technologies, and decisions made under incredible stress in incredible times.

All considered, an incredible book.

This book is a collection of notes, letters, excerpts, etc compiled together in a reasonably chronological manner which provides the reader with additional insight on the sheer complexity of a super top secret government project which actually involved tens of thousands of American employees across the country while still maintaining the highest level of security. The book also notes the many 'key players' involved in the Manhattan Engineering District(aka Manhattan Project). Quite an interesting read.

The first stop for anyone wanting to learn about the Manhattan Project is (and quite possibly always will be) Richard Rhodes' Pulitzer-winning The Making of the Atomic Bomb. For most people, that tome will completely sate their curiosity.

For the insatiable minority that remains, this book is marvellous. Anyone thinking of writing a book with a title like this has to avoid duplicating the work of Mr. Rhodes. Cynthia Kelly simply presents some of the original source material, stitched together with a minimum of analysis, and with an introduction added by Rhodes himself.

It's also a complement to the excellent documentary The Day After Trinity. One of the main narrators in the video, Robert Serber, describes their hilariously-futile attempts to sow disinformation around the gin goints of Santa Fe. In the book here we get the same story told from his wife's viewpoint, to great effect.

The book doesn't use rose-coloured glasses: it adequately covers the rather shoddy treatment of Oppenheimer after the war, but it does skimp on some areas that I would like to see more about, like Oppenheimer's rather shoddy treatment of his one-time friend Haakon Chevalier. And it also spends exactly two pages going into one of the few areas of the whole story that perhaps still deserves a volume to itself: the very long delay between Einstein's letter to FDR explaining that the Germans were probably working on an atomic bomb (August 1939), and Vannevar Bush's letter to FDR announcing the Project finally at "full speed" (March 1942). Eugene Wigner describes the early days of the project as like "swimming in syrup." Leo Szilard estimates that unnecessary delays delayed the project for at least a year. Imagine how much pain, suffering and death might have been avoided, and how different the world might be today if Little Boy, instead of being ready to drop on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, had instead been ready to drop exactly fourteen months earlier, on June 6, 1944.

But the material the book does include is first-rate. My likely next stop after this is Now It Can Be Told - the same story from the viewpoint of "the biggest S.O.B. who ever lived", Leslie Groves.

Very good survey book concerning the manhattan project from multiple aspects. As it is selections from various sources the writing styles vary from selection to selection with some more readable than others. However, this also means the book gives a more rounded sense of the size and accomplishments involved.

Picked this book up as part of a class requirement for college. Easy to read, understand and very much taught me more than I ever knew prior. If you are interested in the topic I highly recommend the book. It's one of the few books I kept from my recent college completion.

Well written. Covered all aspects of the program. I was interested because I attended Iowa State Univ. and it was one of seven Universities which were involved in the process development. ISU was purifying solutions of Uranium using an ion exchange process. My P-

The book was of interest since I studied Chem Engr at ISU and our school was one of seven across the US which were doing work for The A-bomb development. My Physical Chemistry Prof was at Enewitok Atoll when the bomb was tested, prior to its use in WW-II. He was a very bright Professor.

As most oral histories go, the interviewer sits down with the interviewee and records their statements. But this book is not that. It is a collection of stories, newspaper articles, letters, exceprts from books and speeches...and that is what this oral history is composed from. Nevertheless, I was a bit disappointed. The book does a decent job of splicing together the history of the early development of the bomb; day to day life in Los Alamos; and the after effects of the bomb dropping. However, the last part of the book which includes modern history about current events surrounding nuclear arms was a bit boring. It could have easily been excluded from this book. I think some of the DVDs available about the Manhattan Project are far more riveting than this book.

My grandfather was the liason between the scientists and the construction people who built the facility where the first bomb exploded. He was accidentally on-site when it happened. I loved to hear his stories and feeling connected to history in this way.

It is just amazing how much declassified material is available to the public at large. The Manhattan Project is an excellent compilation of previously published material and interview with the many scientists who participated in the development of the A Bomb. While book is full of excepts from other books on the subject, it is put together in such a way as to provide a quick read on the subject. Many of the documents contain technical information that I had not previously been aware of. That we, as America, could develop such a complex infrastructure to extract U235 and Plutonium is truly amazing.

A perfect way to become familiar with that famous enterprise which changed the world. In just about two years the Manhattan Project, starting with the basic knowledge about nuclear fission of uranium and plutonium, managed to produce the atomic bombs that ended World War II. The effort was gigantic, involving several hundred thousand people and billions of dollars, conducted in absolute secrecy, at the height American involvement in the war effort. This book uses short abstracts from many sources to describe the Manhattan Project's origins, its activities at centers throughout the country, the dropping of the bombs on Japan, and the impact that atomic energy has had on the world even to this day. A highly recommended source for all things related to the Manhattan Project.

A thoroughly comprehensive collection of the most important documents and writings that really enlightens the reader about this unprecedented engineering project. Full of interesting details from the inside!!

It brought back to me pieces of my earlier life. I was impressed by the way this immense project came into being in just a few years of time.

This should be read by our children before they leave their secondary schooling.

I have found that reading the stories from eclectic points of view was refreshing. Not only did it allow me to complete a little section in the short time I have before bed time. It also allowed me to come up with my own point of view as I learned the many disparate points of view given in the book. Love it.

This is just a compilation of disjointed writings from other books, and wrtining. Not sure what a reader is going to get out of this book, as the pieces arent very cohesive.

I thought this was a book about the story of the project.

I have found that reading the stories from eclectic points of view was refreshing. Not only did it allow me to complete a little section in the short time I have before bed time. It also allowed me to come up with my own point of view as I learned the many disparate points of view given in the book. Love it.

This is just a compilation of disjointed writings from other books, and wrtining. Not sure what a reader is going to get out of this book, as the pieces arent very cohesive.

I thought this was a book about the story of the project.