Before the Fall-Out : From Marie Curie to Hiroshima
Editorial Reviews
Review
“The great, enthralling story of the race to build the bomb is often as complicated and full of twists as nuclear physics itself. . . .”
–Joseph Kanon, author of Los Alamos
“Preston’s revelatory history is rich in telling moments, powerful personalities, intense confrontations, and indelible images of the devastation delivered by nuclear weapons.”
–Booklist
“What Preston does better than any other writer is to capture the human aspects of the frankly exciting race to create a nuclear weapon . . .”
–Chicago Sun-Times
From the Trade Paperback edition.
Book Description
A history of the Atomic Bomb from Marie Curie to Hiroshima.
“I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds”
— Oppenheimer quoting the Bhagavad Gita after witnessing the successful demonstration of the atom bomb.
The bomb, which killed an estimated 140,000 civilians in Hiroshima and destroyed the countryside for miles around, was one of the defining moments in world history. That mushroom cloud cast a terrifying shadow over the contemporary world and continues to do so today. But how could this have happened? What led to the creation of such a weapon of mass destruction?
From the moment scientists contemplated the destructive potential of splitting the atom, the role of science changed. Ethical and moral dilemmas faced all those who realized the implications of their research. Before the Fall-Out charts the chain of events from Marie Curie’s scientific breakthrough through the many colourful characters such as Einstein, Robert Oppenheimer and Lord Rutherford, whose discoveries contributed to the bomb.
The story of the atomic bomb spans 50 years of prolific scientific innovation, turbulent politics, foreign affairs and world-changing history. Through personal stories of exile, indecision and soul-searching, to charges of collaboration, spying and deceit, Diana Preston presents the human side of an unstoppable programme with a lethal outcome.
Before the Fall-Out : From Marie Curie to Hiroshima
Before the Fall-Out: From Marie Curie to Hiroshima,Diana Preston,Doubleday UK,0385604386,History,Military,Military - Nuclear Warfare,Nuclear Physics,Science,History / World,Nuclear weapons,World history: from c 1900 -
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