Up and At Them

I'm about a third of the way through Richard Rhodes' The Making of the Atomic Bomb, which I think is the single best work of nonfiction I've ever read. You should track this down, or borrow it from me during the holidays. (Or from Pete, since I got this for him for his birthday last year, before I'd read it.)

The front cover points out rather quickly that the book (published in 1986) won Rhodes the Pulitzer, the National Book Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award. It is indeed that kind of book.

In part I, Rhodes interweaves a survey of the advances in physics from about 1900 (from Ernest Rutherford's discovery of the nucleus; it's mind-boggling how much took place within a half-century) with biographies of the major figures involved (Rutherford, Niels Bohr, Enrico Fermi) and who'd become involved later on (Oppenheimer, Edward Teller), following their work and their displacement from Hitler's antisemitic campaigns of the 1930s. One chapter describes the gas warfare and air raids of World War I as a precursor of the industrial-scale war and modern military technology to follow in World War II. This adds up into a sweeping story that, simultaneously, accessibly recapitulates the early development of nuclear physics, crisply sketches the fascinating scientific personalities involved, and grippingly evokes Europe's tilt into World War II. Rhodes paces himself extraordinarily well. This is just a really good book.