The First War of Physics: The Secret History of the Atom Bomb, 1939-1949 - Tapa blanda

This 576-page history provides an excellent introduction to a vast and complicated topic. By examining the competition among America, Russia, and Germany, it knits together developments on different sides of the Atlantic into a brisk, exciting and comprehensive narrative.--Michael Dobbs

Starred Review. As readers will recognize while pondering a conclusion outlining the global implications of the 2002 Moscow Treat on nuclear disarmament, we still live in the shadow of the events chronicled so vividly here.

World War II changed many things and not the least among them was the relationship of science to the military. Readers interested in this important historic transformation will find Jim Baggott's engaging history replete with drama and insight.--Martin J. Sherwin, co-author of American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, winner of the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for Biography

This is a very good book. I particularly like the way Baggott has been able to weave the science, 'grand-scale' politics and espionage together into one compelling narrative.--Mark Walker, author of German National Socialism and the Quest for Nuclear Power

I never read such a good, comprehensive account as Jim Baggott's. Highly recommended.--A. N. Wilson, author of London: A History

Rich in personality, action, confrontation, and deception, The First War of Physics is the first fully realized popular account of the race to build humankind's most destructive weapon. The book draws on declassified material, such as MI6's Farm Hall transcripts, coded soviet messages cracked by American cryptographers in the Venona project, and interpretations by Russian scholars of documents from the soviet archives.Jim Baggott weaves these threads into a dramatic narrative that spans ten historic years, from the discovery of nuclear fission in 1939 to the aftermath of 'Joe-1,’ August 1949's first Soviet atomic bomb test. Why did physicists persist in developing the atomic bomb, despite the devastation that it could bring? Why, despite having a clear head start, did Hitler's physicists fail? Could the soviets have developed the bomb without spies like Klaus Fuchs or Donald Maclean? Did the allies really plot to assassinate a key member of the German bomb program? Did the physicists knowingly inspire the arms race? The First War of Physics is a grand and frightening story of scientific ambition, intrigue, and genius: a tale barely believable as fiction, which just happens to be historical fact.