British Scientists and the Manhattan Project: The Los Alamos Years

by Ferenc Morton Szasz

During World War 2, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill pooled their nations' resources in the desperate race to beat the Germans to the secret of the atomic bomb. This book tells the story of the British scientists who journeyed to Los Alamos, New Mexico, to help develop the world's first nuclear weapons. The contributions of the British Mission to Los Alamos, which have been largely overlooked, were vital to the completion of the project. In addition, the two dozen scientists who collaborated with their American and Canadian allies were to have a profound effect on the post-War world, helping to shape the nuclear programs of the United States, Great Britain and, more controversially, the USSR.

187 pages, Hardcover

First published April 15, 1992

Reviews

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a fine summary of British scientists' lives and works in the Manhattan Project realm, before and after WW2, and is a good summary to the UK's contribution to nuclear science. However, I felt like the author's biases kept bleeding through the narrative in subtle ways that became distracting somewhat. Plus, the conflation of "British scientists" and the "British mission" meant that this book spent time on Canadian scientists like J Carson Mark that could have be spent on the actual British scientists, not to mention scientists like Klaus Fuchs. I think if the book title said "British Mission and the Manhattan Project", I wouldn't have this complaint. BTW, I recommend reading Atomic Spy: The Dark Lives of Klaus Fuchs for a detailed, full look at Klaus Fuchs and his life and espionage work.