Inventing Los Alamos: The Growth of an Atomic Community

by Jon Hunner

A social history of New Mexico’s “Atomic City”

Los Alamos, New Mexico, birthplace of the Atomic Age, is the community that revolutionized modern weaponry and science. An “instant city,” created in 1943, Los Alamos quickly grew to accommodate six thousand people—scientists and experts who came to work in the top-secret laboratories, others drawn by jobs in support industries, and the families. How these people, as a community, faced both the fevered rush to create an atomic bomb and the intensity of the subsequent cold-war era is the focus of Jon Hunner’s fascinating narrative history.

Much has been written about scientific developments at Los Alamos, but until this book little has been said about the community that fostered them. Using government records and the personal accounts of early residents, Inventing Los Alamos, traces the evolution of the town during its first fifteen years as home to a national laboratory and documents the town’s creation, the lives of the families who lived there, and the impact of this small community on the Atomic Age.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

302 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[Kathy Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A rather dry, no-nonsense account of the development of Los Alamos. Well-researched.

[Nick Black · Rating 1 out of 5]

Amazon third-party 2009-04-18. One of the worst books I've ever read. My bile began rising upon page 2's introduction, followed by explanation, of the author's neologism "Cleocidal", atomic weaponry apparently being designed to kill the Muse of history. At this point I laughed out loud -- what an asshole you are, Jon Hunner! Every few pages sees use of the term "code-switching", some kind of stillborn homuncular half-thesis about cultural exchange, when "euphemism" would have worked just fine. A majority of the book is reworked passages from Rhodes, McPhee, Groves's autobiography and other classics of the atomic literature, often lacking credit, and the author misspells "beryllium" on page 121 (in the context of Louis Slotin's semihemispherical misadventures). How the fuck do you write a book about the history of atomic warfare without having a periodic table in front of you? How do you get to be an Assistant Professor of History without learning basic Greek (etymologically, βήρυλλος would have made the spelling clear). Also, why exactly would the inhabitants of 1943 Los Alamos "be forgiven if they mistook [the town:] for a mini-United Nations"? The United Nations wasn't launched until 1945, numbnuts!!!

I say we go to the Public History Program of New Mexico State University, find Assistant Professor Hunner, and tar and feather him. What a jerk. He condemns any number of hard-working scientists; rise, my scientist brothers, and let us condemn those who'd make an easy buck off shoddy nuclear shyster journalism! In the memory of Dr. Louis Slotin, Thomas Ashcroft's "Slotin - A Tribute":

May God receive you, great-souled scientist!
While you were with us, even strangers knew
The breadth and lofty stature of your mind
Twas only in the crucible of death
We saw at last your noble heart revealed.

[Carol Wakefield · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit dry, sometimes repetitive, too many names of bit players but still an interesting look at the development of a community by the government for one purpose initially. You start with an isolated plateau in northern newmexico utilized by a boys school. You need laboratories and scientists but that's only the beginning. Add wives and families as inducements for the scientist, add lab workers, security personnel, construction workers. Add lots of mud, difficulty of building very rapidly during war time. Then a grocery store, pharmacy, hospital, doctors and oops-- a mass of new babies no one had considered, requiring appropriate services. Schools, came and it all multiplied over and over in the years covered--early forties till late fifties when much of the formerly gated community was opened for the public. It remains a scientific community with a broader range of scientific studies than in the forties and fifties. And if you visit Los alamos add a visit to bandellier national monument on its outskirts for a look at another aspect of civilization. Fascinating!

[Rick B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a city planner and history geek, I found this book to be quite interesting.

[Bruce Harbison · Rating 5 out of 5]

A well-documented history of the development of Los Alamos from an outdoor school for boys in the mid 40s until 2004. The author describes how the town slowly developed as a "normal" community after WWII and into the cold war period and beyond and how Los Alamos influenced various policies across the US.

There are lots of stories of the people who worked and lived there and less about the making of the "bomb" than is some books. I enjoyed it and learned a lot about the cold war period that previously did not know about.

[ShannonOshannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wry technical book with way too many tedious details.

Was expecting a more personal accounting of the early years of Los Alamos. Is a very painstakingly researched accountIng of them entire history of Los Alamos lacking any real human stories.

[Jules Nyquist · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a compact history of Los Alamos, a city created and run by the government to build the atomic bomb. Fascinating stories of those who lived and worked there, were born there (a baby boom) and the veil of secrecy lifted after the atomic bomb testing and the war. Concludes with where Los Alamos is today, after the security gates came down. I like history and this helps me know my state's city a bit better.

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thinking this might be a good non-fiction companion to Green Glass Sea

NCPH review

[Mellanie C]

I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/13118501