Mini-Review: The Making of the Atomic Bomb

When the first atomic bomb exploded in the New Mexico desert at Alamagordo, nuclear scientist Kenneth Bainbridge congratulated Robert Oppenheimer by saying "Now we are all sons of bitches." Richard Rhodes's "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" explains how the world's greatest scientists willingly transformed themselves into sons of bitches while pursuing an atomic dream.

The atomic bomb had no mother or father. Instead it had an extended family, a thousand aunts, uncles, and cousins, each partially responsible for raising the little monster. Ernest Rutherford discovered the nucleus--and made it possible to dream of splitting that nucleus. Robert Lawrence invented the cyclotron--which became an invaluable tool for harvesting valuable uranium 235. Leo Szilard conceived of the idea of weaponizing the energy radiating from a broken nucleus--and it was his letter that convinced Franklin D. Roosevelt to create the Manhattan Project.

Rhodes gives each of these characters their due. Even relatively minor figures like Paul Tibbets, commander of the Enola Gay, receive a concise biography. Major players like Neils Bohr and Robert Oppenheimer receive chapter-long treatments. The young Oppenheimer is described as "a Goth looting Rome," obsessed by the feeling that "Nothing was yet his, nothing was original." Szilard, writes Rhodes, "made dull men uncomfortable and vain men mad."

The remarkable thing about the making of the bomb is that much of the project was driven by a completely false idea. The Americans were terrified of being beaten by the Germans, who, they imagined, held an insurmountable lead in the race to build a bomb. Nothing was further from the truth. By the war's end, the Nazis had managed to make a few paltry nuclear piles. They had nothing close to the industrial capacity of American facilities like Hanford and Oak Ridge.

"The Making of the Atomic Bomb" closes with an extended epilogue, in which Rhodes argues that the "republic of science" offers the only alternative to the militaristic nation-state. The republic of science is founded in openness, transparency, and the free flow of ideas, all concepts antithetical to the closed and paranoid nation-state. Science, Rhodes believes, has the potential to liberate us from the endless squabbling of nations. It is an optimistic and perhaps overly hopeful dream, but certainly a dream worth having.

Also, it's a good book. Read it.