What do you think?
Rate this book
No High Ground
At 8:15 plus seventeen seconds on the morning of August 6th, 1945, the B-29, Enola Gay, flying at an altitude of 31,600 feet over Japan, dropped the first atomic bomb. No High Ground is the story of that bomb and the men who made it happen. Scientists who built the bomb, spies who tried to steal its secrets, government leaders and generals who made the decision to drop it.
- GenresHistoryScienceNonfiction
272 pages, Hardcover
First published June 1, 1960
2 people are currently reading
61 people want to read
About the author
Fletcher Knebel
57 books27 followersFletcher Knebel was an American author of several popular works of political fiction.
He graduated from high school in Yonkers, New York, spent a year studying at the Sorbonne and graduated from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio in 1934. Upon graduation, he received a job offer from the Coatesville Record, in Coatesville, Pennsylvania. He spent the next 20 years working in newspapers, eventually becoming the political columnist for Cowles Publications. From 1951 to 1964, he satirized national politics and government in a nationally published column called "Potomac Fever".
In 1960, he wrote a chapter on John F. Kennedy for the book Candidates 1960. This seemed to ignite a passion for writing books and he turned his hand to book-length works. He wrote fifteen books, most of them fiction, and all of them dealing with politics. His best-known novel is Seven Days in May (1962), (co-written with Charles W. Bailey), about an attempted military coup in the United States. The book was a huge success, staying at number one on the New York Times bestseller list for almost a year, and was made into a successful film also titled "Seven Days in May" in 1964.
Knebel was married four times from 1935 to 1985. He committed suicide after a long bout with cancer, by taking an overdose of sleeping pills in his home in Honolulu, Hawaii, in 1993. He is the source of the quote: "Smoking is one of the leading causes of statistics."
He graduated from high school in Yonkers, New York, spent a year studying at the Sorbonne and graduated from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio in 1934. Upon graduation, he received a job offer from the Coatesville Record, in Coatesville, Pennsylvania. He spent the next 20 years working in newspapers, eventually becoming the political columnist for Cowles Publications. From 1951 to 1964, he satirized national politics and government in a nationally published column called "Potomac Fever".
In 1960, he wrote a chapter on John F. Kennedy for the book Candidates 1960. This seemed to ignite a passion for writing books and he turned his hand to book-length works. He wrote fifteen books, most of them fiction, and all of them dealing with politics. His best-known novel is Seven Days in May (1962), (co-written with Charles W. Bailey), about an attempted military coup in the United States. The book was a huge success, staying at number one on the New York Times bestseller list for almost a year, and was made into a successful film also titled "Seven Days in May" in 1964.
Knebel was married four times from 1935 to 1985. He committed suicide after a long bout with cancer, by taking an overdose of sleeping pills in his home in Honolulu, Hawaii, in 1993. He is the source of the quote: "Smoking is one of the leading causes of statistics."
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
May 10, 2018
Book 20 of Nuclear Studies:
This is a great, short little read as to the events leading up to and just after the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It’s by far the smallest book I own on the subject, but packed with far more information than I expected.
One of, what I think, the best parts of it is is that the book was written only about 15 years after the relevant events. At the beginning, the authors disclose their reliance on primary sources and lament that there were some government documents which they were not permitted to research. Many of my other books on the subject reference this one as a source in their bibliographies, and it is certainly a valuable one, full of interesting and colorful anecdotes and quotes from the people involved.
If you’re interested in a full history of this historical event, but don’t want to commit to one of the longer reads, I would highly recommend this book to you.
This is a great, short little read as to the events leading up to and just after the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It’s by far the smallest book I own on the subject, but packed with far more information than I expected.
One of, what I think, the best parts of it is is that the book was written only about 15 years after the relevant events. At the beginning, the authors disclose their reliance on primary sources and lament that there were some government documents which they were not permitted to research. Many of my other books on the subject reference this one as a source in their bibliographies, and it is certainly a valuable one, full of interesting and colorful anecdotes and quotes from the people involved.
If you’re interested in a full history of this historical event, but don’t want to commit to one of the longer reads, I would highly recommend this book to you.
October 17, 2022
One of the best books I've read on the atomic bomb! The story goes into detail about how the decision was made to use the bombs, what affect that decision had on the scientists who made the bombs, spies who tired to steal secrets, and government leaders who made the decision to drop the bombs. I truly could not put the book down. I also learned a lot of things along the way. Great read!!
October 21, 2021
Fantastic discussion about the thinking, before and after, around the atomic bombs
November 16, 2023
An exceptional account of the event which changed the world forever. This covers every aspect throughout the development of the capability to the decision whether or not to use it reviewed both in the context of the time and with the eyes of today.
Possibly a spoiler, but I believe the book outlines the essential answer to the morality of its use within its time. Despite the tragedy of the loss created by a single weapon in a single event, it definitively ended a war which would have cost arguably more lives and destruction in the long run. The question beyond the book is whether the new world which was created the moment the Trinity test was successful started the path to our destruction, or whether a decision not to pursue the nuclear option would’ve just delayed the inevitable.
Either way, this book develops a critical understanding to the circumstances surrounding the creation and employment of atomic weapons.
Possibly a spoiler, but I believe the book outlines the essential answer to the morality of its use within its time. Despite the tragedy of the loss created by a single weapon in a single event, it definitively ended a war which would have cost arguably more lives and destruction in the long run. The question beyond the book is whether the new world which was created the moment the Trinity test was successful started the path to our destruction, or whether a decision not to pursue the nuclear option would’ve just delayed the inevitable.
Either way, this book develops a critical understanding to the circumstances surrounding the creation and employment of atomic weapons.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews