3 Review(s)

Oppenheimer is remembered today as 'the father of the bomb'. A charismatic teacher who inspired a generation of physicists, it was his creation that brought a devastating end to World War II, but even then Oppenheimer was keenly aware of its horrific potential. The two bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 killed hundreds of thousands, destroyed the lives of millions, and ushered in a new era in which the potential for nuclear annihilation held the world in a precarious balance for the next five decades. Developing the bomb involved highly complex and theoretical work on splitting the atom. But how did Oppenheimer go about this work, and what about the Manhattan Project and the frantic race to create the first atomic weapon? What of the moral dilemmas Oppenheimer faced over the creation of a weapon of such mass destruction? And what about his contributions to quantum mechanics and his early work on black holes? OPPENHEIMER & THE BOMB presents a brilliant snapshot of a scientist and his controversial work. It gives a clear and accessible explanation of how the bomb was developed, its importance and the implications this has had for the twentieth century and beyond.