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Bomb: The Race to Build—and Steal—the World's Most Dangerous Weapon
IN DECEMBER OF 1938, a chemist in a German laboratory made a shocking discovery: When placed next to radioactive material, a uranium atom split in two.
That simple discovery, dealing with the tiniest of particles, launched a cut-throat race that would span three continents The plays were the greatest scientists, the most expert spies, hardened military commandos, and some of the most ruthless dictators who ever lived. The prize: military dominance over the entire world.
This is the story of the plotting, the risk-taking, the deceit, and genius that created the world's most formidable weapon. This is the story of the atomic bomb.
That simple discovery, dealing with the tiniest of particles, launched a cut-throat race that would span three continents The plays were the greatest scientists, the most expert spies, hardened military commandos, and some of the most ruthless dictators who ever lived. The prize: military dominance over the entire world.
This is the story of the plotting, the risk-taking, the deceit, and genius that created the world's most formidable weapon. This is the story of the atomic bomb.
Audiobook
First published September 4, 2012
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About the author
Steve Sheinkin
45 books696 followersFrom: http://stevesheinkin.com/about/
I was born in Brooklyn, NY, and my family lived in Mississippi and Colorado before moving back to New York and settling in the suburbs north of New York City. As a kid my favorite books were action stories and outdoor adventures: sea stories, searches for buried treasure, sharks eating people… that kind of thing. Probably my all-time favorite was a book called Mutiny on the Bounty, a novel based on the true story of a famous mutiny aboard a British ship in the late 1700s.
I went to Syracuse University and studied communications and international relations. The highlight of those years was a summer I spent in Central America, where I worked on a documentary on the streets of Nicaragua.
After college I moved to Washington, D.C., and worked for an environmental group called the National Audubon Society. Then, when my brother Ari graduated from college a few years later, we decided to move to Austin, Texas, and make movies together. We lived like paupers in a house with a hole in the floor where bugs crawled in. We wrote some screenplays, and in 1995 made our own feature film, a comedy called A More Perfect Union (filing pictured below), about four young guys who decide to secede from the Union and declare their rented house to be an independent nation. We were sure it was going to be a huge hit; actually we ended up deep in debt.
After that I moved to Brooklyn and decided to find some way to make a living as a writer. I wrote short stories, screenplays, and worked on a comic called The Adventures of Rabbi Harvey. In 2006, after literally hundreds of rejections, my first Rabbi Harvey graphic novel was finally published.
Meanwhile, I started working for an educational publishing company, just for the money. We’d hire people to write history textbooks, and they’d send in their writing, and it was my job to check facts and make little edits to clarify the text. Once in a while I was given the chance to write little pieces of textbooks, like one-page biographies or skills lessons. “Understanding Bar Graphs” was one of my early works. The editors noticed that my writing was pretty good. They started giving me less editing to do, and more writing. Gradually, I began writing chapters for textbooks, and that turned into my full-time job. All the while, I kept working on my own writing projects.
In 2008 I wrote my last textbook. I walked away, and shall never return. My first non-textbook history book was King George: What Was His Problem? – full of all the stories about the American Revolution that I was never allowed to put into textbooks. But looking back, I actually feel pretty lucky to have spent all those years writing textbooks. It forced me to write every day, which is great practice. And I collected hundreds of stories that I can’t wait to tell.
These days, I live with my wife, Rachel, and our two young kids in Saratoga Springs, New York. We’re right down the road from the Saratoga National Historical Park, the site of Benedict Arnold’s greatest – and last – victory in an American uniform. But that’s not why I moved here. Honestly.
I was born in Brooklyn, NY, and my family lived in Mississippi and Colorado before moving back to New York and settling in the suburbs north of New York City. As a kid my favorite books were action stories and outdoor adventures: sea stories, searches for buried treasure, sharks eating people… that kind of thing. Probably my all-time favorite was a book called Mutiny on the Bounty, a novel based on the true story of a famous mutiny aboard a British ship in the late 1700s.
I went to Syracuse University and studied communications and international relations. The highlight of those years was a summer I spent in Central America, where I worked on a documentary on the streets of Nicaragua.
After college I moved to Washington, D.C., and worked for an environmental group called the National Audubon Society. Then, when my brother Ari graduated from college a few years later, we decided to move to Austin, Texas, and make movies together. We lived like paupers in a house with a hole in the floor where bugs crawled in. We wrote some screenplays, and in 1995 made our own feature film, a comedy called A More Perfect Union (filing pictured below), about four young guys who decide to secede from the Union and declare their rented house to be an independent nation. We were sure it was going to be a huge hit; actually we ended up deep in debt.
After that I moved to Brooklyn and decided to find some way to make a living as a writer. I wrote short stories, screenplays, and worked on a comic called The Adventures of Rabbi Harvey. In 2006, after literally hundreds of rejections, my first Rabbi Harvey graphic novel was finally published.
Meanwhile, I started working for an educational publishing company, just for the money. We’d hire people to write history textbooks, and they’d send in their writing, and it was my job to check facts and make little edits to clarify the text. Once in a while I was given the chance to write little pieces of textbooks, like one-page biographies or skills lessons. “Understanding Bar Graphs” was one of my early works. The editors noticed that my writing was pretty good. They started giving me less editing to do, and more writing. Gradually, I began writing chapters for textbooks, and that turned into my full-time job. All the while, I kept working on my own writing projects.
In 2008 I wrote my last textbook. I walked away, and shall never return. My first non-textbook history book was King George: What Was His Problem? – full of all the stories about the American Revolution that I was never allowed to put into textbooks. But looking back, I actually feel pretty lucky to have spent all those years writing textbooks. It forced me to write every day, which is great practice. And I collected hundreds of stories that I can’t wait to tell.
These days, I live with my wife, Rachel, and our two young kids in Saratoga Springs, New York. We’re right down the road from the Saratoga National Historical Park, the site of Benedict Arnold’s greatest – and last – victory in an American uniform. But that’s not why I moved here. Honestly.
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August 4, 2025
In this book, Steve Sheinkin describes the development of the atomic bomb during World War II.
Author Steve Sheinkin
Once scientists learned that uranium atoms could be split, leading to a chain reaction that would cause an enormous explosion, the race for an atomic bomb was on.
Splitting uranium atoms releases huge amounts of energy
The U.S. assembled a team of physicists, chemists, and other specialists which secretly worked night and day to build a bomb from radioactive uranium and plutonium.
American scientists worked on 'The Manhattan Project' to produce the atomic bomb
At the same time Germany was producing and shipping large quantities of heavy water out of Norway, to facilitate their own bomb development.
Vermork Heavy Water Plant in Norway
And the Soviet Union, lacking the know-how to make an atom bomb, planted spies to steal the plans from the U.S.
Sheinkin's book presents a fascinating picture of how the first atomic bombs were built. Needing a large number of top physicists to accomplish the task, the U.S recruited people from universities across the country. Overnight, scientists would 'disappear' from their jobs, secretly making their way to Los Alamos, New Mexico where a bomb-making research facility was assembled.
Entrance to Los Alamos
Los Alamos Tech Area
Los Alamos National Historic Park
The book mentions many scientists/support staff at Los Alamos, especially Dr. Robert Oppenheimer, who was in charge of the facility. Oppenheimer oversaw every aspect of the work, working himself to the bone to accomplish the goal. At the same time a few scientists sympathetic to the Soviet cause stole plans to send to Russia.
Robert Oppenheimer
As they built their own bomb the Allies were desperate to prevent Germany from doing the same. Thus they trained a skilled team to parachute into Norway, sneak into the heavy water plant, and sabotage the facility - which would greatly slow down Germany's research. This is a fascinating section of the book, suspenseful and exciting.
Though the outcome of the bomb research is not a mystery, the reader inevitably gets caught up in the excitement of the tale. The story covers building, testing, and eventually using atomic bombs - and the ambivalence of the scientists who created this devastating weapon.
Testing the first atomic bombA well-written interesting book.
You can follow my reviews at https://reviewsbybarbsaffer.blogspot....
February 28, 2015
Bomb: The Race to Build—and Steal—the World's Most Dangerous Weapon
by Steve Sheinkin
This author is such a powerful story teller. He skillfully tackled several complex topics (physics, chemistry, engineering and history) and made them easy to understand. He juggled a mosaic of characters without confusing this reader and he created a fast-paced, exciting narrative that is light and conversational in tone.
One of my favorite parts of this book was about Knut Haukelid, a Norwegian resistance fighter who led a team of skilled operatives behind enemy lines to sabotage the Vemork hydroelectric plant. Vemork was a fortified Nazi facility nestled high in the mountains of Norway that produced the "heavy water" the Nazi's needed to create their version of the atomic bomb.
It reads like a James Bond movie scene with spies being air dropped into a remote secret location, skiing down the alps in white camouflage to observe their target. They find shelter in an abandoned mountain cabin. They spend months starving, freezing and meticulous planning their raid for perfect timing. After completing the long and treacherous climb up the tall icy cliff, they break into the plant fully armed. By the time the Germans realized what had happened, the Norwegian commando team had donned their skis again and slipped away to the safety of the mountains.
Vemork hydroelectric, the heavy-water plant perched on the edge of a six hundred foot cliff like a fairytale fortress.
If you find non-fiction and history books to be too dry and flat, I urge you, please, give this book a try!
by Steve Sheinkin
This author is such a powerful story teller. He skillfully tackled several complex topics (physics, chemistry, engineering and history) and made them easy to understand. He juggled a mosaic of characters without confusing this reader and he created a fast-paced, exciting narrative that is light and conversational in tone.
One of my favorite parts of this book was about Knut Haukelid, a Norwegian resistance fighter who led a team of skilled operatives behind enemy lines to sabotage the Vemork hydroelectric plant. Vemork was a fortified Nazi facility nestled high in the mountains of Norway that produced the "heavy water" the Nazi's needed to create their version of the atomic bomb.
It reads like a James Bond movie scene with spies being air dropped into a remote secret location, skiing down the alps in white camouflage to observe their target. They find shelter in an abandoned mountain cabin. They spend months starving, freezing and meticulous planning their raid for perfect timing. After completing the long and treacherous climb up the tall icy cliff, they break into the plant fully armed. By the time the Germans realized what had happened, the Norwegian commando team had donned their skis again and slipped away to the safety of the mountains.
Vemork hydroelectric, the heavy-water plant perched on the edge of a six hundred foot cliff like a fairytale fortress.
If you find non-fiction and history books to be too dry and flat, I urge you, please, give this book a try!
January 18, 2015
Do you like spy thrillers? If so, this nonfiction sketch of the birth of the atomic bomb is the place to see where the modern ones were born. The accounts are barebones, often understated, but the outline is all there from trying to stop Hitler from building his own atomic bomb by destroying the heavy water plant in Norway (Norwegian resistance, gliders, & sabotage) to troubled scientists dealing with the morality of their works. There is also a sketch of the politics behind many of the decisions regarding the creation, use, & finally crazy proliferation of this WMD. How & why FDR started the program, Truman continued it, & Japan caved in due to it. The main scientists are covered;heroic Oppenheimer who was later screwed by the country he loved, the spies (Hall & Fuchs), Heisenberg, & many others.
The facts are all there & often in plenty of detail, but it never got boring. This is definitely an overview of the entire situation with a very brief summation bringing us to the present. It's not much on anyone's mind any more - not like the Cold War days when I was a student practicing hiding under my desk - but there are more atomic bombs now than there were then & they're in a lot more dangerous hands. It's mentioned that a 'small' war between Pakistan & India using a mere 80 bombs (Something less than 1%(?) of the bombs in the world.) could create a dust cloud that would disrupt agriculture over the entire earth for a decade. IOW, they're still a very clear & present danger.
I found this very interesting in light of several books I've read recently. A couple were old spy thrillers by Donald Hamilton, although he doesn't push the Commie scare typical of the period as hard as most. The other was King Rat which was about men in a Japanese POW camp. They feared they would be killed if Japan lost the war & likely would have been had the war been fought conventionally to its conclusion. By killing thousands of civilians in atomic fire, Japan's emperor was forced into accepting an unconditional surrender the military leaders probably never would have agreed to.
The book points out the tough moral questions. Oppenheimer wasn't thrilled with his baby, knew well that others could & would replicate it soon, so thought proliferation was stupid, but Truman disagreed. That eventually got Oppenheimer kicked to the curb with Hoover's boys hovering. Hall immediately saw the dangers of one country having such power & saw to it that the Soviets would also have it. Yes, he was an idealistic young man with a naive view of communism under Stalin & his ilk, but I'm not sure he was totally wrong. I can't say as I have any sympathy for Fuchs & the Rosenbergs certainly paid the heaviest price.
This particular genie is out of the bottle. We haven't dealt with it well, but better than we could have. In some ways it's made us grow up politically. The treaties on containing it, biological, & chemical weapons might not be worth a lot, but the thought is there. This book covers how we got there. Everyone should know the story & this is the best summation of the situation I've ever read.
The facts are all there & often in plenty of detail, but it never got boring. This is definitely an overview of the entire situation with a very brief summation bringing us to the present. It's not much on anyone's mind any more - not like the Cold War days when I was a student practicing hiding under my desk - but there are more atomic bombs now than there were then & they're in a lot more dangerous hands. It's mentioned that a 'small' war between Pakistan & India using a mere 80 bombs (Something less than 1%(?) of the bombs in the world.) could create a dust cloud that would disrupt agriculture over the entire earth for a decade. IOW, they're still a very clear & present danger.
I found this very interesting in light of several books I've read recently. A couple were old spy thrillers by Donald Hamilton, although he doesn't push the Commie scare typical of the period as hard as most. The other was King Rat which was about men in a Japanese POW camp. They feared they would be killed if Japan lost the war & likely would have been had the war been fought conventionally to its conclusion. By killing thousands of civilians in atomic fire, Japan's emperor was forced into accepting an unconditional surrender the military leaders probably never would have agreed to.
The book points out the tough moral questions. Oppenheimer wasn't thrilled with his baby, knew well that others could & would replicate it soon, so thought proliferation was stupid, but Truman disagreed. That eventually got Oppenheimer kicked to the curb with Hoover's boys hovering. Hall immediately saw the dangers of one country having such power & saw to it that the Soviets would also have it. Yes, he was an idealistic young man with a naive view of communism under Stalin & his ilk, but I'm not sure he was totally wrong. I can't say as I have any sympathy for Fuchs & the Rosenbergs certainly paid the heaviest price.
This particular genie is out of the bottle. We haven't dealt with it well, but better than we could have. In some ways it's made us grow up politically. The treaties on containing it, biological, & chemical weapons might not be worth a lot, but the thought is there. This book covers how we got there. Everyone should know the story & this is the best summation of the situation I've ever read.
September 1, 2021
Unbelievably good. Some of the best non-fiction I've read. Full review: http://www.everyday-reading.com/2013/...
June 29, 2015
I picked up this book at the library and it sat around the house for a couple of weeks before I even opened it, but when I did, I couldn’t put it down. Wow!! Frightening, suspenseful and bone chillingly real, it captured my attention immediately.
The building of the first atomic bomb is explained from the discovery of atomic energy and key scientists involved to the eventual design, building, testing and detonation of this powerful weapon. Along the way we have espionage, spies, counter intelligence agents, many secrets and different countries trying to steal information from the United States. Labeled as “The Manhattan Project”, it was a colossal top-secret undertaking by the U.S. federal government. There is a lot of information detailing the work of Dr. Robert Oppenheimer, known as father of the atomic bomb, who was selected to lead this great undertaking.
Reading this book was far more interesting than studying facts from a history text. The author made you feel the suspense like a well written spy novel; only these were facts, not fiction.
That is what makes it all the more frightening.
The building of the first atomic bomb is explained from the discovery of atomic energy and key scientists involved to the eventual design, building, testing and detonation of this powerful weapon. Along the way we have espionage, spies, counter intelligence agents, many secrets and different countries trying to steal information from the United States. Labeled as “The Manhattan Project”, it was a colossal top-secret undertaking by the U.S. federal government. There is a lot of information detailing the work of Dr. Robert Oppenheimer, known as father of the atomic bomb, who was selected to lead this great undertaking.
Reading this book was far more interesting than studying facts from a history text. The author made you feel the suspense like a well written spy novel; only these were facts, not fiction.
That is what makes it all the more frightening.
July 8, 2021
Bomb is an easy, engaging read, very accessible, that benefited from a lot of important information about the German situation and Soviet spies that "The Making of the Bomb" by Rhodes (which I read last month) did not have. There's also some exciting action by Norwegian commandos that's not to be missed. Bomb really is the better overall book for most readers.
October 18, 2013
Please note that this book has received awards for its excellence for young adults. I was hesitant at first because I was looking for an adult book covering the science and history on the making of the first nuclear bomb and about Robert Oppenheimer, the father of that first bomb. This book is not in any way childish. It gives a clear and concise history of all the events. I am completely satisfied with the book. It is an excellent place to start. Having read this you want more details, more in-depth information about the main characters. I prefer starting with a background of the entire event before plunging into a book focused on Oppenheimer himself. Now I want to know more about this man. He is fascinating; first he makes the bomb and he is at the same time one of first to be aware of its dangers! I have already begun American Prometheus by Kai Bird, a biography focused just on Oppenheimer.
I gave this book three stars because I like it. It reads like a good Wiki article. It has all the prominent facts. This happened and this happened and then this. One event after another. You get a picture of the path toward the making of the bomb, its actual construction and the political environment of those times – WW2, the race for the scientific knowledge and McCarthyism. It is amazing how differently the people spying for the Soviets were punished….and why each thought the Soviets should have this knowledge.
Having read this book, I now can easily go further. There is little character analysis in this book, and that is what I am looking for in my next book on this topic. You certainly cannot start your education in the tenth grade…..now I have prepared myself.
Concerning the audiobook narration by Roy Samuelson, it was excellent. He doesn’t overdramatize the lines or the events. They are exciting in themselves and do not need extra emphasis. Good speed and clear enunciation too. I can highly recommend this as an audiobook.
I gave this book three stars because I like it. It reads like a good Wiki article. It has all the prominent facts. This happened and this happened and then this. One event after another. You get a picture of the path toward the making of the bomb, its actual construction and the political environment of those times – WW2, the race for the scientific knowledge and McCarthyism. It is amazing how differently the people spying for the Soviets were punished….and why each thought the Soviets should have this knowledge.
Having read this book, I now can easily go further. There is little character analysis in this book, and that is what I am looking for in my next book on this topic. You certainly cannot start your education in the tenth grade…..now I have prepared myself.
Concerning the audiobook narration by Roy Samuelson, it was excellent. He doesn’t overdramatize the lines or the events. They are exciting in themselves and do not need extra emphasis. Good speed and clear enunciation too. I can highly recommend this as an audiobook.
January 8, 2015
Move over, John Grisham (? or Robert Ludlum?), this is a compelling spy story at it's finest. The best part? It's all true!
I'm flabbergasted by the sheer amount of work and research it took for Sheinkin to weave the tales of the US racing to build an atom bomb, the Soviets' attempt to steal it, and the efforts to destroy Germany's bomb program, and do it in such a way that it reads like such a compelling narrative I feel as if I'm there. I read an interview where he described the process of recreating a scene, one that others had maligned the details as impossible to know. I believe it was the scene with FDR and Churchill getting picked up at the airport and people were saying he was making up that someone was glistening with sweat or one was smoking a cigar and what they talked about in the car. Sheinkin described how he recreated just that one scene from about a dozen primary and secondary sources that sited the sweat, cigars, and exactly what was said. Amazing.
Another thing that occurred to me is that so much of the spywork and clandestine operations that stole the plan hinged a lot on seeming amateurs. My hope is that technology means the wool can't be pulled over our eyes quite as easily. Also surprising, the prevalence of communists and how easily US citizens passed things to the Soviets without batting an eye. A little peek into the precursor of the Red Scare and McCarthyism. People really were scared their neighbors were enemies - because this story shows how many average joes were.
One of my elementary classmate's grandpa (I know what a connection) was Bob Caron, the photographer on the Enola Gay and took the famous photograph of the Hiroshima mushroom cloud. I remember him coming to our school to speak. Ahhh-mazing. Cool to see these different stories match up to make a more complete picture. Especially after reading Unbroken last year.
I love reading NF US history books - there is so much I don't know about our own country and our past. I wish I had read this before I drove through all these same towns in New Mexico and known the significance they have in our world's history.
A+++
(I now feel I must read all of Sheinkin's work, what other awesome things have I been missing?)
I'm flabbergasted by the sheer amount of work and research it took for Sheinkin to weave the tales of the US racing to build an atom bomb, the Soviets' attempt to steal it, and the efforts to destroy Germany's bomb program, and do it in such a way that it reads like such a compelling narrative I feel as if I'm there. I read an interview where he described the process of recreating a scene, one that others had maligned the details as impossible to know. I believe it was the scene with FDR and Churchill getting picked up at the airport and people were saying he was making up that someone was glistening with sweat or one was smoking a cigar and what they talked about in the car. Sheinkin described how he recreated just that one scene from about a dozen primary and secondary sources that sited the sweat, cigars, and exactly what was said. Amazing.
Another thing that occurred to me is that so much of the spywork and clandestine operations that stole the plan hinged a lot on seeming amateurs. My hope is that technology means the wool can't be pulled over our eyes quite as easily. Also surprising, the prevalence of communists and how easily US citizens passed things to the Soviets without batting an eye. A little peek into the precursor of the Red Scare and McCarthyism. People really were scared their neighbors were enemies - because this story shows how many average joes were.
One of my elementary classmate's grandpa (I know what a connection) was Bob Caron, the photographer on the Enola Gay and took the famous photograph of the Hiroshima mushroom cloud. I remember him coming to our school to speak. Ahhh-mazing. Cool to see these different stories match up to make a more complete picture. Especially after reading Unbroken last year.
I love reading NF US history books - there is so much I don't know about our own country and our past. I wish I had read this before I drove through all these same towns in New Mexico and known the significance they have in our world's history.
A+++
(I now feel I must read all of Sheinkin's work, what other awesome things have I been missing?)
October 6, 2012
Wow. Wow. Wow. I am in awe of what Sheinkin did with this. This book is everything a good non-fiction should be. It is well researched, well documented, and the information is presented in a way that forces the reader to draw their own conclusions, all things excellent non-fiction does.
BUT THEN it is also everything a good novel should be. Intense, enthralling, suspenseful, and complete with a tragic hero.
The book tells the story of the building of the atomic bomb: the research, the process, the scientists, the espionage, the outcome. All of it in 236 extremely interesting pages. Extremely. Sheinkin does this by doling out his knowledge slowly, only giving the reader exactly as much information as is needed at any given moment. He chooses his quotes and sets up his scenarios to build exactly the right amount of tension for the scene he is unfolding. One example being the countdown to the Trinity test:
Groves lay on the ground ina separate bunker, his eyes facing away from the blast site. "As we approached the final minute, the quiet grew more intense," he remembered. "I thought only of what I would do if, when the countdown got to zero,nothing happened."
"Zero minus one minute."
"As the time interval grew smaller and changed from minutes to seconds the tension increased by leaps and bounds," recalled General Farrell.
Unable to stay still a moment longer, George Kistiakowsky jumped up and ran to the top of the bomb shelter. "I put on dark glasses and turned away from the tower," he said. "I didn't think anything would happen to me."
"Zero minus ten seconds, nine, eight, seven..."
Oppenheimer lay on the ground in the bunker. His brother Frank lay on one side of him, General Farrell on the other.
"We were lying there, very tense, in the early dawn," said Isidor Rabi. "You could see your neighbor very dimly. Those ten seconds were the longest ten seconds that I ever experienced."
"Four, three, two..."
"Oppenheimer, on whom had rested a very heavy burden, grew tenser as the last seconds ticked off," remembered Farrell. "He scarcely breathed. He held on to a post to steady himself. For the last few seconds he stared directly ahead."
Allison shouted, "Zero!"
The story is framed, ending with the same line with which it began: He had a few more minutes to destroy seventeen years of evidence.
The narrative is particularly gripping because Sheinkin chose to tell not only the story of the creation of the bomb, but all of the cloak and dagger maneuvers happening around the world to keep others from doing the same. Through this large picture story the reader is able to see at how many moments the slightest difference in one person's actions or people placed where they were could have changed the course of events. Sheinkin has tight control over his narrative from start to finish and the result is a truly powerful story.
BUT THEN it is also everything a good novel should be. Intense, enthralling, suspenseful, and complete with a tragic hero.
The book tells the story of the building of the atomic bomb: the research, the process, the scientists, the espionage, the outcome. All of it in 236 extremely interesting pages. Extremely. Sheinkin does this by doling out his knowledge slowly, only giving the reader exactly as much information as is needed at any given moment. He chooses his quotes and sets up his scenarios to build exactly the right amount of tension for the scene he is unfolding. One example being the countdown to the Trinity test:
Groves lay on the ground ina separate bunker, his eyes facing away from the blast site. "As we approached the final minute, the quiet grew more intense," he remembered. "I thought only of what I would do if, when the countdown got to zero,nothing happened."
"Zero minus one minute."
"As the time interval grew smaller and changed from minutes to seconds the tension increased by leaps and bounds," recalled General Farrell.
Unable to stay still a moment longer, George Kistiakowsky jumped up and ran to the top of the bomb shelter. "I put on dark glasses and turned away from the tower," he said. "I didn't think anything would happen to me."
"Zero minus ten seconds, nine, eight, seven..."
Oppenheimer lay on the ground in the bunker. His brother Frank lay on one side of him, General Farrell on the other.
"We were lying there, very tense, in the early dawn," said Isidor Rabi. "You could see your neighbor very dimly. Those ten seconds were the longest ten seconds that I ever experienced."
"Four, three, two..."
"Oppenheimer, on whom had rested a very heavy burden, grew tenser as the last seconds ticked off," remembered Farrell. "He scarcely breathed. He held on to a post to steady himself. For the last few seconds he stared directly ahead."
Allison shouted, "Zero!"
The story is framed, ending with the same line with which it began: He had a few more minutes to destroy seventeen years of evidence.
The narrative is particularly gripping because Sheinkin chose to tell not only the story of the creation of the bomb, but all of the cloak and dagger maneuvers happening around the world to keep others from doing the same. Through this large picture story the reader is able to see at how many moments the slightest difference in one person's actions or people placed where they were could have changed the course of events. Sheinkin has tight control over his narrative from start to finish and the result is a truly powerful story.
October 21, 2019
This is an excellent fast read on the atom bomb and the successful effort on the part of the Soviets to steal the technology. There is a dual-thread covering both the efforts in Los Alamos to build the first atomic bomb and then the story of the three individuals (Klaus Fuchs, Ted Hall, and David Greenglass) at Los Alamos who individually gave atomic bomb secrets to Soviet spies.
***** Spoiler *****
The USSR received complete atom bomb blueprints and instructions independently from both Hall and Fuchs and thus were able to confirm that the the Manhattan project plans were authentic and not part of a U.S counter-intelligence ploy. As a result of the spy-work and within months of Japan’s surrender the Soviets began the work to build a Little Boy, identical to the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Furthermore the highly ingenious implosion technique developed at Los Alamos, perhaps the most original and secret method, was also stolen. Within four years the Soviets, at a tiny fraction of the cost and with a fraction of the brainpower that comprised the Manhattan Project, detonated a nearly exact replica of Little Boy.
This is a really well written book. Although it is in the young adult genre, at 250 pages, it is perhaps the best overview on the race for the atom bomb development that I’ve come across. Richard Rhodes “The Making of the Atomic Bomb” and Kai Bird’s “American Prometheus” have both won Pulitzers and are much more in-depth books on the atomic bomb program. Neither of these works however cover the successful efforts of the Soviets to steal the technology.
It is an interesting bit of history to note that Fuchs, a high level physicist who knew the bomb details intimately, and was living in England a few years later, confessed when confronted by American and British officials. Fuchs was imprisoned in England for several years but spared the death penalty. Greenglass also confessed to providing atom bomb secrets. In the process he implicated the Rosenbergs, Ethel Rosenberg was his sister. Greenglass was only a machine tooler so his information was not as useful to the Soviets. He was imprisoned in America for several years and released on parole in the 1960’s. Ted Hall, was a wunderkind physicist from Harvard and only 19 at the time he left for Los Alamos, and had also been implicated by Greenglass. Hall refused to confess and was never charged since Greenglass had only heard Hall’s name discussed. Without a confession, the evidence against Hall was thin for a conviction. The messages sent from his Soviet handler back to Moscow were only decoded by American cryptologists in 1949 and the only tangible evidence the CIA had. But it would have been problematic if the American’s decoding operations made it into the media and back to the Russians. It is of note that Julius Rosenberg and Ethel Rosenberg, were executed during the Red Scare for deeds that were of little damage to the U.S. and pale in comparison to the acts outlined in this book.
***** End of Spoiler *****
5 stars. Highly recommended.
***** Spoiler *****
The USSR received complete atom bomb blueprints and instructions independently from both Hall and Fuchs and thus were able to confirm that the the Manhattan project plans were authentic and not part of a U.S counter-intelligence ploy. As a result of the spy-work and within months of Japan’s surrender the Soviets began the work to build a Little Boy, identical to the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Furthermore the highly ingenious implosion technique developed at Los Alamos, perhaps the most original and secret method, was also stolen. Within four years the Soviets, at a tiny fraction of the cost and with a fraction of the brainpower that comprised the Manhattan Project, detonated a nearly exact replica of Little Boy.
This is a really well written book. Although it is in the young adult genre, at 250 pages, it is perhaps the best overview on the race for the atom bomb development that I’ve come across. Richard Rhodes “The Making of the Atomic Bomb” and Kai Bird’s “American Prometheus” have both won Pulitzers and are much more in-depth books on the atomic bomb program. Neither of these works however cover the successful efforts of the Soviets to steal the technology.
It is an interesting bit of history to note that Fuchs, a high level physicist who knew the bomb details intimately, and was living in England a few years later, confessed when confronted by American and British officials. Fuchs was imprisoned in England for several years but spared the death penalty. Greenglass also confessed to providing atom bomb secrets. In the process he implicated the Rosenbergs, Ethel Rosenberg was his sister. Greenglass was only a machine tooler so his information was not as useful to the Soviets. He was imprisoned in America for several years and released on parole in the 1960’s. Ted Hall, was a wunderkind physicist from Harvard and only 19 at the time he left for Los Alamos, and had also been implicated by Greenglass. Hall refused to confess and was never charged since Greenglass had only heard Hall’s name discussed. Without a confession, the evidence against Hall was thin for a conviction. The messages sent from his Soviet handler back to Moscow were only decoded by American cryptologists in 1949 and the only tangible evidence the CIA had. But it would have been problematic if the American’s decoding operations made it into the media and back to the Russians. It is of note that Julius Rosenberg and Ethel Rosenberg, were executed during the Red Scare for deeds that were of little damage to the U.S. and pale in comparison to the acts outlined in this book.
***** End of Spoiler *****
5 stars. Highly recommended.
September 29, 2012
This story, without a doubt, is a masterpiece. If Sheinkin's previous title, The Benedict Arnold, set a new standard for how non-fiction should be written for children; Bomb raises that bar.
Fact can be stranger than fiction. So why is it so difficult to get kids reading it? As Steve notes on the author flap, he's a former text book writer trying to atone for his sins. Shienkin prides himself as a story detective, taking a factual event and teasing it into a gripping retelling. Benedict Arnold was utterly compelling throughout it's first half. While the political climate is an essential element to the plot, it definitely slows the story before coming to a very satisfying conclusion.
Bomb is an overwhelming success from the first page to the last. Commensurate with Sheinkin's style, the story of the atomic bomb open's at the close. From there he seamlessly stitches together multiple subplots, each more exciting than the next. The climax is perfectly placed at the point where bomb is tested. My heart beat with the dedicated scientists as they anxiously awaited the result of years of theoretical physics. You know you're in the hands of true talent when you're on the edge of your seat even though you knew the outcome before you even cracked the cover.
The true merit of this account is in how quickly Sheinkin takes you from jubilation over the success of the science to utter heartbreak over that same reality.
Bomb has some inherent advantages over Arnold's story, namely, the language. While Sheinkin always assisted his young readers in understanding the language of the time period, Bomb doesn't require that same bridge. And it free's Sheinkin to let loose this immense story at a rip-roaring pace. I've seen others describe it as a James Bond novel, but more precisely it reads like a James Bond novel written by Michael Bay.
Fact can be stranger than fiction. So why is it so difficult to get kids reading it? As Steve notes on the author flap, he's a former text book writer trying to atone for his sins. Shienkin prides himself as a story detective, taking a factual event and teasing it into a gripping retelling. Benedict Arnold was utterly compelling throughout it's first half. While the political climate is an essential element to the plot, it definitely slows the story before coming to a very satisfying conclusion.
Bomb is an overwhelming success from the first page to the last. Commensurate with Sheinkin's style, the story of the atomic bomb open's at the close. From there he seamlessly stitches together multiple subplots, each more exciting than the next. The climax is perfectly placed at the point where bomb is tested. My heart beat with the dedicated scientists as they anxiously awaited the result of years of theoretical physics. You know you're in the hands of true talent when you're on the edge of your seat even though you knew the outcome before you even cracked the cover.
The true merit of this account is in how quickly Sheinkin takes you from jubilation over the success of the science to utter heartbreak over that same reality.
Bomb has some inherent advantages over Arnold's story, namely, the language. While Sheinkin always assisted his young readers in understanding the language of the time period, Bomb doesn't require that same bridge. And it free's Sheinkin to let loose this immense story at a rip-roaring pace. I've seen others describe it as a James Bond novel, but more precisely it reads like a James Bond novel written by Michael Bay.
August 5, 2021
Although it was a bit slow, I enjoyed this book on several levels. I learned a lot about the science behind the bombs - the chemistry and physics which I didn't know much about. It was interesting to follow the process and the scientists to see how it all came about.
Plus, there were the stories about the spies, and why they gave information to the Russians. It wasn't the money, as you might think. I believe they thought they were doing the right thing, either because they sympathized with the Communists or because they felt the technology was too powerful for a single country to have, and it needed to be balanced to prevent world domination.
I also understand some of the sympathy for the Russians, who suffered greatly by being the ones directly fighting in the harsh conditions without resources while the people in the US sat back and waited to see what happened. But then they had Stalin, who was pretty ruthless, so giving them access to nuclear technology at that particular time was perhaps not a great idea.
Plus, there were the stories about the spies, and why they gave information to the Russians. It wasn't the money, as you might think. I believe they thought they were doing the right thing, either because they sympathized with the Communists or because they felt the technology was too powerful for a single country to have, and it needed to be balanced to prevent world domination.
I also understand some of the sympathy for the Russians, who suffered greatly by being the ones directly fighting in the harsh conditions without resources while the people in the US sat back and waited to see what happened. But then they had Stalin, who was pretty ruthless, so giving them access to nuclear technology at that particular time was perhaps not a great idea.
July 1, 2022
Non-fiction about building the atomic bomb, and the espionage activities associated with it. It is told in chronological order, and covers the development of uranium, plutonium, and (later) hydrogen bombs. The author does a nice job of weaving together the events of history to show how they all fit together. The narrative explains the reasons behind the Cold War. It flows well and entertains as it educates. The dialogue is taken from researched sources. It is touted as a book for children or young adults, but unless you are an expert in WWII history, I daresay anyone can learn something. It is a good reminder to be cautious in our use of technology.
November 28, 2021
Just reread this, inspired by Fallout. This is impressive stuff. Terrifying, gripping, spy-centric, can-this-be-nonfiction stuff. I can’t imagine how it must have felt to live through all this, from the pressures of war to the fear of the Nazis to the spread of Communism to the arresting of spies… It’s a lot.
June 9, 2013
Read this book. It's been a long time since I've recommended a book to everyone and anyone - but I'm recommending this one to you. YOU!
Look, I understand if you're an adult - and you're a little embarrassed to go into the young adult (ok, ok... Children's... yes I found this in the CHILDREN'S) section of the book store (or library) and pick up a non-fiction book. I get that. But it's worth it.
*Dear Publishing Companies:
You can make a TON of money if you market this book to adults. A TON. This is the stuff most of us want to read anyway. I'm bound to remember more from this than any of the mega-biographies I've read... Why? Because it gives me the good stuff, and it keeps it interesting.
Thanks,
Philip*
Atomic energy is scary stuff.The bomb THE bomb is a terrifying thought in anybody's hands. Now think of Hitler getting the bomb before the Allies... Fun stuff, huh?
And fission was discovered by Otto Hahn and Lise Meitner in 1938... in Germany. I'll give you one guess as to who was in power in Germany in 1938. *Hint: It wasn't Churchill.*
This gave Germany an insane head-start in the race to build the bomb.
Listen - there's so much good stuff in this book. SO MUCH! Spies and intrigue. Some light treason. Some not-so-light treason. And of course, one country actually ended up using this devastating "gadget." (But, again, I won't spoil it for you by telling you who it was.)
And I haven't even mentioned my favorite characters: Knut and Dr. J.
Again, the book is great. Goodreads needs to add more stars.
(This isn't mentioned in the book, but I'm pretty sure that if anybody travels through time, it's Oppenheimer and Einstein. Guys, if you do: invite me along, I'd love to go. I'm a friend of the future. Give me a call today. Wait. Call me before I write this review. Maybe, pretend to be someone named... Brian. Call about a canoe or kayak trip or something...)
*EDIT* YOU MIGHT NOT BELIEVE THIS, BUT MY WIFE TELLS ME WE GOT A CALL TODAY FROM A BRIAN ABOUT A KAYAK TRIP IN HUNTINGTON, IN. SHE JUST TOLD ME!!!!!!! SHE SAYS SHE HAS NO IDEA WHO THE GUY IS!!!! *END EDIT*
I can't believe I missed the call.
Look, I understand if you're an adult - and you're a little embarrassed to go into the young adult (ok, ok... Children's... yes I found this in the CHILDREN'S) section of the book store (or library) and pick up a non-fiction book. I get that. But it's worth it.
*Dear Publishing Companies:
You can make a TON of money if you market this book to adults. A TON. This is the stuff most of us want to read anyway. I'm bound to remember more from this than any of the mega-biographies I've read... Why? Because it gives me the good stuff, and it keeps it interesting.
Thanks,
Philip*
Atomic energy is scary stuff.
And fission was discovered by Otto Hahn and Lise Meitner in 1938... in Germany. I'll give you one guess as to who was in power in Germany in 1938. *Hint: It wasn't Churchill.*
This gave Germany an insane head-start in the race to build the bomb.
Listen - there's so much good stuff in this book. SO MUCH! Spies and intrigue. Some light treason. Some not-so-light treason. And of course, one country actually ended up using this devastating "gadget." (But, again, I won't spoil it for you by telling you who it was.)
And I haven't even mentioned my favorite characters: Knut and Dr. J.
Again, the book is great. Goodreads needs to add more stars.
(This isn't mentioned in the book, but I'm pretty sure that if anybody travels through time, it's Oppenheimer and Einstein. Guys, if you do: invite me along, I'd love to go. I'm a friend of the future. Give me a call today. Wait. Call me before I write this review. Maybe, pretend to be someone named... Brian. Call about a canoe or kayak trip or something...)
*EDIT* YOU MIGHT NOT BELIEVE THIS, BUT MY WIFE TELLS ME WE GOT A CALL TODAY FROM A BRIAN ABOUT A KAYAK TRIP IN HUNTINGTON, IN. SHE JUST TOLD ME!!!!!!! SHE SAYS SHE HAS NO IDEA WHO THE GUY IS!!!! *END EDIT*
I can't believe I missed the call.
May 4, 2023
Atomic Bombs? WWII? FDR? Truman? Oppenheimer? KGB? CIA? Check! check! check!
I absolutely loved this book, part because it's great, part because I'm a history nerd. I would highly recommend this if you want to learn more about the making of the atomic bomb and the hydrogen bomb. It gave me such a great perspective of the enormous danger of the bomb and the responsibility the scientist's felt.
Cleanliness: 🧼🧼🧼🧼/5 language: b-h, b-d, h-
I absolutely loved this book, part because it's great, part because I'm a history nerd. I would highly recommend this if you want to learn more about the making of the atomic bomb and the hydrogen bomb. It gave me such a great perspective of the enormous danger of the bomb and the responsibility the scientist's felt.
Cleanliness: 🧼🧼🧼🧼/5 language: b-h, b-d, h-
February 16, 2024
Exciting, suspenseful, chilling, and sad. Great book - history that reads like an action-story.
September 18, 2012
Excellent. The research, the writing, the plotting, the settings --- this book has it all. I am in awe of how Sheinkin managed to do the work (his sourcing looks to be impeccable), sift down to the material he ended up using, keep the multiple narrative threads going effectively, fantastic character development and write with such incredible verve. As others have pointed out parts of this are better than any thriller, say the Norwegian actions. I know bits and pieces of the story, but Sheinkin has done them fresh for a new audience. One of my favorite thing was the way he would pull such funny and human quotes. Say from page 79: "There was back-slapping," Haukelid said of the happy moment, "and much strong hearty cursing." This is the stuff that is especially appealing to the child audience (on the older end of the Newbery range, I'd say). I absolutely agree with all the other raves on this one. Still thinking about it. My blog review here.
February 28, 2023
Great book! I read this for Battle of the Books, and it does not disappoint. (***Spoilers***) It shows the true nonfiction story of the construction and theft of the atomic bomb, told in story format. My message to people who don't want to read it, you should definitely try it, because I was not excited to read this book, until I read the first few pages.
January 15, 2022
I am loving middle grade non fiction. It allows me to delve into a topic or story I'm interested in without feeling like I have to dedicate 900 pages and a month of my life to. This is my first book by Steve Sheinkin and it won't be my last. Well researched and readable, I learned so much about the history of the atomic bomb & the scientists behind it. It also explained the science in a relatable way. I enjoyed it so much, I started it again already-this time with my kids listening too.
May 3, 2016
the book is very good bc it goes into some very good. details about ww2 and how they beat japan in ww2 and so on i rate it 5 outta 5
April 18, 2013
When Harry Gold heard FBI agents knocking on his door, he scrambled to flush evidence of his treasonous actions down the toilet, but when they examined his office, and the map spilled on the floor, he knew the spy game was up. Thus begins this true story of the building of the atomic bomb. Stop right there. Time out. Imagine ear-piercing weather sirens giving you a split second warning before your body gets sucked (hands first) into the inky black vortex of an oncoming tornado. Don't say I didn't warn you! Books like these make me walk and read at the same time; falling down steps, walking into trees, and burning every meal that requires a flip of a burner switch. A tornado could come and I wouldn't even know it - nada, zippo, zilch.
Nothing like a bit of melodrama to jack up a review, don't you know. Not that this book is melodramatic. Shoot we are dealing with physicists. Oppenheimer is such a dippo that he goes on a date with a girl, parks the car with her, tells her he is going for a walk and completely forgets her in his car. She calls the police thinking something has happened to him and they find Oppie asleep in his bed at home. He explains that he forgot about her while contemplating theoretical physics. Uff da, and I thought my brain was scattered. Trust me, this is just one of many delicious details you'll eat up in this nonfiction story.
My journalism side admires Steve Sheinkin's creative use of quotations mixed with descriptive writing to create a strong sense of suspense and characterization. The description of Carl Eifler gives a clear picture of the character, "The thirty-seven-year-old Eifler already had a reputation for reckless bravery. Wounded by flying metal scraps earlier in the war, he'd pull out his pockektnife and dug the steel from his thigh. His idea of fun was to shoot cigarettes out of his friends' mouths." On his way to the CIA headquarters, Eifler spots a lawyer who once criticized him in a report and he "seized him by his jacket, lifted him off the floor, and smacked his back into the wall. Eifler leaned in close, glaring in the man's eyes. 'Listen, you son of a bitch,' he growled. 'If you ever interfere in my activities again, I'll kill you.' Eifler set the lawyer down, turned, and walked to his meeting. Eifler is then given the assignment to kidnap a top German physicist and escape to Switzerland. He asks the CIA officer what his orders are if the Swiss police capture him and the German. "'Very simple, Colonel,' said Buxton [CIA]. 'You are to deny Germany the use of his brain.' 'The only way to do that is to kill him,' said Eifler. 'So I kill him, and the Swiss police arrest me - what then?' 'Then we've never heard of you.'" Chalk this up as one of many "Mission Impossibles" planted in this nonfiction text that hit me like typhoon debris. Shucks, Sheinkin has such an extensive list of source quotes in the appendixes (this came from the book, "The Deadliest Colonel," by Thomas Moon and Carl Eifler) that I wanted to scream, "Ahhhh...stop it!" Stop giving me more books to add to my already bottomless book list that itches like an irritated mosquito bite.
The intertwined plot shows the Germans, Americans, and Soviets racing to build the bomb. Subplots such as the heavy water needed by the Germans to build the bomb and the Russians as tentative allies who like to steal from the Americans, are just a few elements that help build uncertainty and suspense. Bomb-making is not in my knowledge database and the author makes the fare anything but boring. The suspenseful description of scientists creating a chemical chain reaction with uranium on a cold day in a stadium, reveals the danger and tension as the silent crowd listens to the clickety-clack of the neutron counter hoping they can stop the reaction and not blow up Chicago. The chapter ends on the suspenseful question of one scientist thinking to herself, "When do we get as scared as we ought to?" These fictional elements elevate this book from what could be a dry expository text to a narrative, fast-paced read. Add to that the author's clarity in explaining the physics of building an atomic bomb and not once did my eyes cross or get glossy.
While reading I did have questions that came up. I wondered if the Germans did anything to Knut Haukelid's tough mother, how the radiation affected people on the project and those living around the town, what Oppenheimer did after being forced out, how does the gun assembly work, how did the absent-minded Oppenheimer find a wife and have an affair, and more. I don't see this as a flaw. It is good to have more questions and Sheinkin cannot possibly answer them all. Plus, it would sidetrack the book and would have steered it toward an older audience. Sheinkin wisely sticks to his overall message of the moral issues and political intrigue. Is it right to build a weapon that can destroy the human species? He shows that even the physicists who worked on bomb questioned what they had done at the end. Oppenheimer, in particular, had horrible doubts about this weapon of mass destruction. Even the double-agents who could easily have been one-dimensional villains are multifaceted. I was surprised to feel sympathy for the physicists and double-agents, even though I didn't agree with their actions. This type of character development is not one I expect in a nonfiction book and I appreciated Sheinkin's attempt to create such well-rounded characters. Not to mention the sober punch in the arm ending that details how many countries now have nuclear weapons and how easily humans can destroy the planet if a nuclear war breaks out.
A little two year old is torpedoing through the library yelling, "Jie Jie! JieJie!" over and over in Chinese causing a ruckus. Mom is a short distance behind but she can't seem to catch the little roadrunner. It sounds like "Gee Gee" and the celebratory ring suits my mood after reading this book. I have half a mind to join her sprint chanting, "Read! Read!"
Nothing like a bit of melodrama to jack up a review, don't you know. Not that this book is melodramatic. Shoot we are dealing with physicists. Oppenheimer is such a dippo that he goes on a date with a girl, parks the car with her, tells her he is going for a walk and completely forgets her in his car. She calls the police thinking something has happened to him and they find Oppie asleep in his bed at home. He explains that he forgot about her while contemplating theoretical physics. Uff da, and I thought my brain was scattered. Trust me, this is just one of many delicious details you'll eat up in this nonfiction story.
My journalism side admires Steve Sheinkin's creative use of quotations mixed with descriptive writing to create a strong sense of suspense and characterization. The description of Carl Eifler gives a clear picture of the character, "The thirty-seven-year-old Eifler already had a reputation for reckless bravery. Wounded by flying metal scraps earlier in the war, he'd pull out his pockektnife and dug the steel from his thigh. His idea of fun was to shoot cigarettes out of his friends' mouths." On his way to the CIA headquarters, Eifler spots a lawyer who once criticized him in a report and he "seized him by his jacket, lifted him off the floor, and smacked his back into the wall. Eifler leaned in close, glaring in the man's eyes. 'Listen, you son of a bitch,' he growled. 'If you ever interfere in my activities again, I'll kill you.' Eifler set the lawyer down, turned, and walked to his meeting. Eifler is then given the assignment to kidnap a top German physicist and escape to Switzerland. He asks the CIA officer what his orders are if the Swiss police capture him and the German. "'Very simple, Colonel,' said Buxton [CIA]. 'You are to deny Germany the use of his brain.' 'The only way to do that is to kill him,' said Eifler. 'So I kill him, and the Swiss police arrest me - what then?' 'Then we've never heard of you.'" Chalk this up as one of many "Mission Impossibles" planted in this nonfiction text that hit me like typhoon debris. Shucks, Sheinkin has such an extensive list of source quotes in the appendixes (this came from the book, "The Deadliest Colonel," by Thomas Moon and Carl Eifler) that I wanted to scream, "Ahhhh...stop it!" Stop giving me more books to add to my already bottomless book list that itches like an irritated mosquito bite.
The intertwined plot shows the Germans, Americans, and Soviets racing to build the bomb. Subplots such as the heavy water needed by the Germans to build the bomb and the Russians as tentative allies who like to steal from the Americans, are just a few elements that help build uncertainty and suspense. Bomb-making is not in my knowledge database and the author makes the fare anything but boring. The suspenseful description of scientists creating a chemical chain reaction with uranium on a cold day in a stadium, reveals the danger and tension as the silent crowd listens to the clickety-clack of the neutron counter hoping they can stop the reaction and not blow up Chicago. The chapter ends on the suspenseful question of one scientist thinking to herself, "When do we get as scared as we ought to?" These fictional elements elevate this book from what could be a dry expository text to a narrative, fast-paced read. Add to that the author's clarity in explaining the physics of building an atomic bomb and not once did my eyes cross or get glossy.
While reading I did have questions that came up. I wondered if the Germans did anything to Knut Haukelid's tough mother, how the radiation affected people on the project and those living around the town, what Oppenheimer did after being forced out, how does the gun assembly work, how did the absent-minded Oppenheimer find a wife and have an affair, and more. I don't see this as a flaw. It is good to have more questions and Sheinkin cannot possibly answer them all. Plus, it would sidetrack the book and would have steered it toward an older audience. Sheinkin wisely sticks to his overall message of the moral issues and political intrigue. Is it right to build a weapon that can destroy the human species? He shows that even the physicists who worked on bomb questioned what they had done at the end. Oppenheimer, in particular, had horrible doubts about this weapon of mass destruction. Even the double-agents who could easily have been one-dimensional villains are multifaceted. I was surprised to feel sympathy for the physicists and double-agents, even though I didn't agree with their actions. This type of character development is not one I expect in a nonfiction book and I appreciated Sheinkin's attempt to create such well-rounded characters. Not to mention the sober punch in the arm ending that details how many countries now have nuclear weapons and how easily humans can destroy the planet if a nuclear war breaks out.
A little two year old is torpedoing through the library yelling, "Jie Jie! JieJie!" over and over in Chinese causing a ruckus. Mom is a short distance behind but she can't seem to catch the little roadrunner. It sounds like "Gee Gee" and the celebratory ring suits my mood after reading this book. I have half a mind to join her sprint chanting, "Read! Read!"
July 13, 2019
This book is about the race to build one of the most dangerous weapons ever built. It is about how the Allies struggled on the atomic bomb and the plots to stop the Germans from building their own. The plots began as bad, then good, then terrific and finally awesome. Then in the end about the building of the mighty grandson of the atomic bomb, the hydrogen bomb, capable of destroying whole countries. The book also tells about the great arms race between the USA and USSR. These fellows were doing no good, still doing no good and always be doing no good. Today we have all sorts of crazy things, like ballistics missiles (though I secretly love them), ballistic subs (also love them) and nuclear reactors.
And since it was also a race to steal, hundreds of thousands of millions of billions of spies were involved. The KGB, the FBI and the Gestapo were all involved (at least their countries were). Japan was super devastated. There is a part where the Japanese Emperor, Hirohito asked an engineer whether six months was enough to build an atomic bomb and the engineer replied - "I don't think even six years will do".
And finally, when the bomb was ready, the man in charge of building, J Robert Oppenheimer it said, "Now I become death, the destroyer of worlds".
And since it was also a race to steal, hundreds of thousands of millions of billions of spies were involved. The KGB, the FBI and the Gestapo were all involved (at least their countries were). Japan was super devastated. There is a part where the Japanese Emperor, Hirohito asked an engineer whether six months was enough to build an atomic bomb and the engineer replied - "I don't think even six years will do".
And finally, when the bomb was ready, the man in charge of building, J Robert Oppenheimer it said, "Now I become death, the destroyer of worlds".
July 12, 2025
Genre: Nonfiction/History
Rating: 5 stars
Do I recommend it? Yes!
Gonna try to keep this pretty short. This was a nonfiction book about the creation and discovery of nuclear power and the atomic bomb.
This book was pretty eye opening to me as I had never realized the truly horrifying truth about what nuclear power could mean for our future. I highly recommend reading this book.
This book was completely clean besides a bit of war violence and maybe some mild cussing like “damn”. Not even sure if that word is in there but if so that’s the extent of it.
I was afraid this book would be boring seeing as how it's a nonfiction about a scientific discovery but this book was not boring at all. I’m definitely going to read more of Steve Sheinkin’s books in the future. It was so well written!
Rating: 5 stars
Do I recommend it? Yes!
Gonna try to keep this pretty short. This was a nonfiction book about the creation and discovery of nuclear power and the atomic bomb.
This book was pretty eye opening to me as I had never realized the truly horrifying truth about what nuclear power could mean for our future. I highly recommend reading this book.
This book was completely clean besides a bit of war violence and maybe some mild cussing like “damn”. Not even sure if that word is in there but if so that’s the extent of it.
I was afraid this book would be boring seeing as how it's a nonfiction about a scientific discovery but this book was not boring at all. I’m definitely going to read more of Steve Sheinkin’s books in the future. It was so well written!
October 16, 2025
Very good book - does a great job simplifying something as complex as atomic bombs. Did a good job blending the story lines of America’s production of an atomic bomb, prevention of Germany building an atomic bomb and the rise of KGB spies/relay of information to the USSR
March 7, 2017
As a writer of textbooks in his previous career, Steve Sheinkin (pronounced "Shen-kin") had the expertise to craft tight, informationally correct nonfiction, but Bomb: The Race to Build—and Steal—the World's Most Dangerous Weapon proves that his abilities range far beyond that. Bomb was inundated with major youth media awards and nominations (including a 2013 Newbery Honor as well as that year's Robert F. Sibert Medal) for good reason: it's one of the most complexly interwoven nonfiction accounts I've read, probably the most complicated I've seen attempted for young readers, yet Steve Sheinkin adroitly keeps the waters from getting muddied despite all the names, places, and international rivalries that vie for the reader's attention. Bomb is an ambitious book and Steve Sheinkin knew it from the start, masterfully plotting its course for maximum clarity and impact, a monumental task that reaped rich rewards. The practical and philosophical takeaways from this book are virtually limitless, following a particularly volatile fault line of twentieth-century history and extracting the lessons to be learned while thrilling us with the buildup to the unveiling of the deadliest weapon to that point in human history. The climax is well worth the one-hundred-seventy-five-page wait.
Otto Hahn's accidental discovery of nuclear fission in 1938 opened the door for diverse applications of the atom-splitting process, and scientists quickly realized that the most ominous of these applications was the hypothetical atomic bomb, an explosive of much greater power than previously deemed possible. A detonation triggered by uranium fission could wipe out any city on the planet, the largest metropolises not excluded. When Albert Einstein, who fled Germany as Adolf Hitler rose to power, wrote to United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt to express concern over this advanced weaponry falling into the wrong hands, Roosevelt heeded the message and compiled an elite team of American scientists to explore the possibility of creating an atom bomb. Because Otto Hahn, a German physicist, had discovered fission, America had to assume Hitler was closer to obtaining a uranium bomb than any other world leader, and that meant the outcome of World War II would not be assured until Germany was completely neutralized. The war was trending in the Allies' favor, but a few atomic bombs could swing the balance in a matter of hours. It was imperative to prevent Hitler from getting his hands on weaponry of this magnitude.
"If the baby doesn't cry, the mother doesn't know what he needs...Ask for anything you need. There will be no refusals!"
—Joseph Stalin, Bomb, P. 202
President Roosevelt assembled his team of super-scientists in the remote landscape of Los Alamos, New Mexico, headed by one of the brilliant minds of his day: skinny, physically unimposing J. Robert Oppenheimer, a science prodigy who was chomping at the bit to aid the American war effort. Oppenheimer's team included premier scientists from the U.S. and abroad, gathered on the Roosevelt administration's dime to solve the lingering problems of nuclear fission and beat Hitler to the punch in creating an atomic weapon. Not every member of the team was interested in helping the Allies defeat the Axis powers, however. The Soviet Union was as desperate as the U. S. to win the race to create an atomic bomb, but had fallen hopelessly behind the other Allies. While officially a friend of the U.S., Great Britain, and France in World War II, the Soviet Union—headed by Joseph Stalin, whose goal was the worldwide spread of communism—was opposed to the democracy of those countries. The only way to leapfrog to the vanguard of weapons technology would be for the Soviet Union to place spies in America who could gain security clearance to work on the teams at Los Alamos and elsewhere and relay what they learned back to their mother country. The U.S. government knew this was going on and kept close watch on suspected Soviet sympathizers nationwide, so their espionage had to be conducted near flawlessly, for anyone caught helping the enemy would likely be executed. As the race commenced between the U.S. and Germany to finish the world's first atomic weapon, the spy contest between the Soviet Union and United States also began.
Bomb takes us around the world to listen in on clandestine meetings between spies, dogged by special agents charged with apprehending them. Any slip-up by a spy could mean their own death, and failure by government agents to disrupt their operation could undo the intensive work performed by Oppenheimer and associates in the New Mexico desert. At the same time, another spy game was going on: convinced that Germany was way ahead in the bomb race, Norwegian agents were dispatched to thwart the Führer's quest for nuclear supremacy, targeting Germany's heavy-water processing plant in the snowy Norwegian wilderness for sabotage. This heavy-water facility was the only one of its kind worldwide, and destroying it would delay Hitler in his race to procure the atom bomb. Special-ops skiers zoomed over the snowy Norwegian landscape to mount a covert assault on the plant, but Germany was ready, and a chess match ensued between subversives bent on destroying Hitler's priceless resource and the German government, determined to protect what they had. The ski-clad Norwegians spent many tense nights sneaking through the darkness to put one over on their adversary, knowing they would be violently executed if caught. But if they could cease the flow of heavy water to German scientists who needed it for nuclear testing, the risk of their own lives was acceptable to them.
"A man who is a man goes on until he can go no further—and then goes twice as far."
—An old Norwegian saying, quoted on P. 57 of Bomb
As Oppenheimer and his fellow geniuses closed in on the formula for a uranium bomb, they had no idea their research was being funneled to the Soviet Union. Scientists Ted Hall and Klaus Fuchs were the eyes and ears of the Soviet Union in Los Alamos, so as America verged on the greatest discovery in military history, the Soviets weren't far behind, avoiding many dead-ends that Oppenheimer lost time on. But even as the Allies took down Germany, the need for an atomic bomb did not lessen: Japan would not concede defeat in the war, and the U.S. president also knew he had to make a show of strength to put Joseph Stalin on notice. What better way to accomplish both ends than dropping the world's first atomic bomb? Even Stalin would blanch at the prospect of a weapon that could burn a city like Moscow off the map. The technology finally in place—at least theoretically—after years of grueling intellectual labor by Oppenheimer and his support staff, a test was scheduled for the new bomb. Would the science work in real life?
The scenes leading up to what happened at the Trinity Test Site feel like a dramatic film climax, the clock ticking down to unimaginable destruction as Oppenheimer and the other scientists crouched behind protective layers six miles away. Would their hard work bear fruit, or was the bomb functional only in the abstract? And which outcome was preferable for the scientists as human beings who knew how many lives the bomb could be used to snuff out? The moment of detonation comes across as though we were hunkered right beside Oppenheimer, fearful of the monster that had been awakened and could never be slain, feeling the scorching heat from the blast on our face as we're surrounded by jubilant men of science who had devoted years of their lives to making this happen. The world could never be the same again.
Yet the emotion of that night dims next to the fear of the bomb being used for real as Japan continued to reject demands that they surrender. A mainland invasion of Japan could cost the U.S. hundreds of thousands of soldiers' lives, and newly inaugurated President Harry Truman refused to sign off on that if he had an alternative. Warning the Japanese government of mass destruction in the Land of the Rising Sun if they persisted in fighting, Truman gave the order to drop the new secret weapon by airplane on the city of Hiroshima. Details of the flight are relayed with breathless immediacy, putting us in the aircraft as it delivered its devastating payload to a metropolis full of unsuspecting civilians. The moment is haunting in its gravitas. Everything that comes before this in Bomb is but prelude to the Hiroshima strike, a tragedy of biblical proportions visited on a country that didn't know such an attack was possible. Even the Los Alamos scientists were distraught at the destruction they had helped engineer: hundreds of thousands of dead and mutilated Japanese, with more perishing daily from radiation poisoning. And the horror was not over. Still refusing to capitulate to the Allies' demand for unconditional surrender, Japan was hit by an atomic bomb in Nagasaki that killed hundreds of thousands more, and Emperor Hirohito had seen enough. Overriding his intransigent military advisers, the emperor decreed Japan's surrender. They would accept whatever consequences there were for their part in the war.
World War II was over, but Oppenheimer's role in weapons design was not. Unnerved by the effects of the atomic bomb, Oppenheimer argued for conciliatory talks with the Soviet Union, pointing out that they would be capable of creating uranium bombs sooner or later. In fact, the Soviets were closer to an atomic bomb than Oppenheimer imagined; their spies at Los Alamos had given them such an advantage that the Soviets were able to test their own atom bomb just four years after World War II ended. The U.S. government was dumbfounded; how were their estimates of Soviet nuclear advancement so far off the mark? Closer scrutiny gave indication of the spying at Los Alamos, and the FBI was brought in to ferret out the perpetrators. Klaus Fuchs, Ted Hall, and others found themselves stalked by agents years after they gave up espionage; the government would not be appeased by vague answers and denials of wrongdoing. Over the next several years many American and international spies who leaked classified data to the Soviets were brought up on charges and convicted, imprisoned for decades or executed in some cases. Even Oppenheimer, who'd shown interest in the Communist Party in the 1930s, was investigated, though there was no evidence he did anything wrong. Atomic technology grew more extreme, evolving into the hydrogen bomb, which worked by nuclear fusion rather than fission, much like stars. The first hydrogen bomb tested by the U.S. was equal to ten million tons of TNT explosives; in comparison, the uranium bomb tested at Trinity was equivalent to only twenty thousand tons of TNT. The arms race between the U.S. and Soviet Union escalated as both sides built bigger and bigger hydrogen bombs at faster and faster rates, enough to destroy the world many times over. Pandora's Box had been opened, and the planet would never be quite as safe again. What will the future of nuclear energy hold?
"The peoples of this world must unite or they will perish."
—J. Robert Oppenheimer, Bomb, P. 215
The strength of Bomb isn't just its compelling central storylines, but all the bits and pieces that merit contemplation. The engineering at Los Alamos of the first atomic weapon was a marvel of human intelligence and cooperation, but how was it achieved? Among serious thoughts about the global ramifications of atomic warfare, there are anecdotes that highlight the quirkiness of the scientists who worked on the project. These were brilliant men with eccentric minds—if they didn't think differently from others, how could they come up with innovative ideas?—and their behavior at Los Alamos showed it. To accomplish anything as momentous as what they were attempting, weird minds have to be in the mix: diverse, odd, original thinkers whose mental energy melds into something otherwise inconceivable. The default setting of average minds is to denounce those they consider strange: to marginalize, ostracize, and banish them to their own devices, but huge leaps in progress don't occur without extraordinary minds. Society needs offbeat thinkers who make us uncomfortable if we're to unlock our full potential; we hurt ourselves every time we succumb to the knee-jerk reaction to shoot down strange birds. They often fly to destinations uncharted and unconsidered, and we need them to challenge our assumptions.
Spy rings are intriguing, heart-pounding fun, which is why we love movies, television series, and books about them. The more daring and intricate the plot, the better. But there are heavy consequences for spying, and Bomb recounts some of them for our edification. People are jailed, murdered, their personal lives torn apart by their forays into espionage. It's a dark thrill when you're getting away with it, but you have to live with your actions for the remainder of your life, dreading reprisal if you're found out by authorities who have a bone to pick with you. Harry Gold, a spy we meet in the prologue to Bomb, learned this lesson the rough way: his relationship with the love of his life was wrecked by anxiety that his past indiscretions on behalf of the Soviets could be uncovered at any time. He wanted to marry his beloved, but what kind of future could he offer? The spy game isn't just unflappable operatives outsmarting the best counteragents of powerful countries; mostly it's real people facing the music for acts considered treasonous by sovereign entities, and treason typically spells death for those involved. Bomb illuminates not only the excitement of spying, but the inglorious consequences.
Steve Sheinkin doesn't take a political position on the arms race issue, but he makes clear that it's a problem when any nation has the capability to make war on a scale that could render the planet unlivable for people. That troubling scenario is the descendent of Oppenheimer's experiments at Los Alamos, pacifist though he was at his core. Sanguinary as the American Civil War and World War I were, they were still just humans killing each other with guns, but atomic warfare changed that. Mankind as a species now had the power to commit suicide, and as nuclear arms proliferated globally, they came into the hands of unstable leaders whose next actions were anyone's guess. In the words of Paul Tibbets, who piloted the Enola Gay on its mission to take out Hiroshima, "We were sobered by the knowledge that the world would never be the same...War, the scourge of the human race since time began, now held terrors beyond belief." Can we survive our own worst impulses? It's an open-ended question, as are so many raised by Bomb. We reveal the answer day by day, year by year, century by century, and hope the answer will still be to our liking tomorrow.
"In the end, this is a difficult story to sum up. The making of the atomic bomb is one of history's most amazing examples of teamwork and genius and poise under pressure. But it's also the story of how humans created a weapon capable of wiping our species off the planet. It's a story with no end in sight.
And, like it or not, you're in it."
—Bomb, P. 236
Newbery Honor citations are rare for nonfiction, but was Bomb deserving? The book is definitely Newbery quality, in my opinion—I would rank it ahead of Katherine Applegate's The One and Only Ivan, which won the 2013 Newbery Medal— but there are a number of books I'd put ahead of Bomb for the 2013 Newberys. I can't even say it's the year's best junior nonfiction offering; that would probably be Abraham Lincoln & Frederick Douglass: The Story Behind an American Friendship by Russell Freedman, who was the king of juvenile nonfiction for more than four decades. But Bomb is topnotch literature, and we're lucky to have it. Steve Sheinkin's approach is that of a sensitive storyteller, not just a provider of information, and we benefit from his insight into the race among the world's powers for the first atomic arsenal. For readers interested in dramatic history characterized by subplots and high stakes, Bomb is the book for you.
Otto Hahn's accidental discovery of nuclear fission in 1938 opened the door for diverse applications of the atom-splitting process, and scientists quickly realized that the most ominous of these applications was the hypothetical atomic bomb, an explosive of much greater power than previously deemed possible. A detonation triggered by uranium fission could wipe out any city on the planet, the largest metropolises not excluded. When Albert Einstein, who fled Germany as Adolf Hitler rose to power, wrote to United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt to express concern over this advanced weaponry falling into the wrong hands, Roosevelt heeded the message and compiled an elite team of American scientists to explore the possibility of creating an atom bomb. Because Otto Hahn, a German physicist, had discovered fission, America had to assume Hitler was closer to obtaining a uranium bomb than any other world leader, and that meant the outcome of World War II would not be assured until Germany was completely neutralized. The war was trending in the Allies' favor, but a few atomic bombs could swing the balance in a matter of hours. It was imperative to prevent Hitler from getting his hands on weaponry of this magnitude.
"If the baby doesn't cry, the mother doesn't know what he needs...Ask for anything you need. There will be no refusals!"
—Joseph Stalin, Bomb, P. 202
President Roosevelt assembled his team of super-scientists in the remote landscape of Los Alamos, New Mexico, headed by one of the brilliant minds of his day: skinny, physically unimposing J. Robert Oppenheimer, a science prodigy who was chomping at the bit to aid the American war effort. Oppenheimer's team included premier scientists from the U.S. and abroad, gathered on the Roosevelt administration's dime to solve the lingering problems of nuclear fission and beat Hitler to the punch in creating an atomic weapon. Not every member of the team was interested in helping the Allies defeat the Axis powers, however. The Soviet Union was as desperate as the U. S. to win the race to create an atomic bomb, but had fallen hopelessly behind the other Allies. While officially a friend of the U.S., Great Britain, and France in World War II, the Soviet Union—headed by Joseph Stalin, whose goal was the worldwide spread of communism—was opposed to the democracy of those countries. The only way to leapfrog to the vanguard of weapons technology would be for the Soviet Union to place spies in America who could gain security clearance to work on the teams at Los Alamos and elsewhere and relay what they learned back to their mother country. The U.S. government knew this was going on and kept close watch on suspected Soviet sympathizers nationwide, so their espionage had to be conducted near flawlessly, for anyone caught helping the enemy would likely be executed. As the race commenced between the U.S. and Germany to finish the world's first atomic weapon, the spy contest between the Soviet Union and United States also began.
Bomb takes us around the world to listen in on clandestine meetings between spies, dogged by special agents charged with apprehending them. Any slip-up by a spy could mean their own death, and failure by government agents to disrupt their operation could undo the intensive work performed by Oppenheimer and associates in the New Mexico desert. At the same time, another spy game was going on: convinced that Germany was way ahead in the bomb race, Norwegian agents were dispatched to thwart the Führer's quest for nuclear supremacy, targeting Germany's heavy-water processing plant in the snowy Norwegian wilderness for sabotage. This heavy-water facility was the only one of its kind worldwide, and destroying it would delay Hitler in his race to procure the atom bomb. Special-ops skiers zoomed over the snowy Norwegian landscape to mount a covert assault on the plant, but Germany was ready, and a chess match ensued between subversives bent on destroying Hitler's priceless resource and the German government, determined to protect what they had. The ski-clad Norwegians spent many tense nights sneaking through the darkness to put one over on their adversary, knowing they would be violently executed if caught. But if they could cease the flow of heavy water to German scientists who needed it for nuclear testing, the risk of their own lives was acceptable to them.
"A man who is a man goes on until he can go no further—and then goes twice as far."
—An old Norwegian saying, quoted on P. 57 of Bomb
As Oppenheimer and his fellow geniuses closed in on the formula for a uranium bomb, they had no idea their research was being funneled to the Soviet Union. Scientists Ted Hall and Klaus Fuchs were the eyes and ears of the Soviet Union in Los Alamos, so as America verged on the greatest discovery in military history, the Soviets weren't far behind, avoiding many dead-ends that Oppenheimer lost time on. But even as the Allies took down Germany, the need for an atomic bomb did not lessen: Japan would not concede defeat in the war, and the U.S. president also knew he had to make a show of strength to put Joseph Stalin on notice. What better way to accomplish both ends than dropping the world's first atomic bomb? Even Stalin would blanch at the prospect of a weapon that could burn a city like Moscow off the map. The technology finally in place—at least theoretically—after years of grueling intellectual labor by Oppenheimer and his support staff, a test was scheduled for the new bomb. Would the science work in real life?
The scenes leading up to what happened at the Trinity Test Site feel like a dramatic film climax, the clock ticking down to unimaginable destruction as Oppenheimer and the other scientists crouched behind protective layers six miles away. Would their hard work bear fruit, or was the bomb functional only in the abstract? And which outcome was preferable for the scientists as human beings who knew how many lives the bomb could be used to snuff out? The moment of detonation comes across as though we were hunkered right beside Oppenheimer, fearful of the monster that had been awakened and could never be slain, feeling the scorching heat from the blast on our face as we're surrounded by jubilant men of science who had devoted years of their lives to making this happen. The world could never be the same again.
Yet the emotion of that night dims next to the fear of the bomb being used for real as Japan continued to reject demands that they surrender. A mainland invasion of Japan could cost the U.S. hundreds of thousands of soldiers' lives, and newly inaugurated President Harry Truman refused to sign off on that if he had an alternative. Warning the Japanese government of mass destruction in the Land of the Rising Sun if they persisted in fighting, Truman gave the order to drop the new secret weapon by airplane on the city of Hiroshima. Details of the flight are relayed with breathless immediacy, putting us in the aircraft as it delivered its devastating payload to a metropolis full of unsuspecting civilians. The moment is haunting in its gravitas. Everything that comes before this in Bomb is but prelude to the Hiroshima strike, a tragedy of biblical proportions visited on a country that didn't know such an attack was possible. Even the Los Alamos scientists were distraught at the destruction they had helped engineer: hundreds of thousands of dead and mutilated Japanese, with more perishing daily from radiation poisoning. And the horror was not over. Still refusing to capitulate to the Allies' demand for unconditional surrender, Japan was hit by an atomic bomb in Nagasaki that killed hundreds of thousands more, and Emperor Hirohito had seen enough. Overriding his intransigent military advisers, the emperor decreed Japan's surrender. They would accept whatever consequences there were for their part in the war.
World War II was over, but Oppenheimer's role in weapons design was not. Unnerved by the effects of the atomic bomb, Oppenheimer argued for conciliatory talks with the Soviet Union, pointing out that they would be capable of creating uranium bombs sooner or later. In fact, the Soviets were closer to an atomic bomb than Oppenheimer imagined; their spies at Los Alamos had given them such an advantage that the Soviets were able to test their own atom bomb just four years after World War II ended. The U.S. government was dumbfounded; how were their estimates of Soviet nuclear advancement so far off the mark? Closer scrutiny gave indication of the spying at Los Alamos, and the FBI was brought in to ferret out the perpetrators. Klaus Fuchs, Ted Hall, and others found themselves stalked by agents years after they gave up espionage; the government would not be appeased by vague answers and denials of wrongdoing. Over the next several years many American and international spies who leaked classified data to the Soviets were brought up on charges and convicted, imprisoned for decades or executed in some cases. Even Oppenheimer, who'd shown interest in the Communist Party in the 1930s, was investigated, though there was no evidence he did anything wrong. Atomic technology grew more extreme, evolving into the hydrogen bomb, which worked by nuclear fusion rather than fission, much like stars. The first hydrogen bomb tested by the U.S. was equal to ten million tons of TNT explosives; in comparison, the uranium bomb tested at Trinity was equivalent to only twenty thousand tons of TNT. The arms race between the U.S. and Soviet Union escalated as both sides built bigger and bigger hydrogen bombs at faster and faster rates, enough to destroy the world many times over. Pandora's Box had been opened, and the planet would never be quite as safe again. What will the future of nuclear energy hold?
"The peoples of this world must unite or they will perish."
—J. Robert Oppenheimer, Bomb, P. 215
The strength of Bomb isn't just its compelling central storylines, but all the bits and pieces that merit contemplation. The engineering at Los Alamos of the first atomic weapon was a marvel of human intelligence and cooperation, but how was it achieved? Among serious thoughts about the global ramifications of atomic warfare, there are anecdotes that highlight the quirkiness of the scientists who worked on the project. These were brilliant men with eccentric minds—if they didn't think differently from others, how could they come up with innovative ideas?—and their behavior at Los Alamos showed it. To accomplish anything as momentous as what they were attempting, weird minds have to be in the mix: diverse, odd, original thinkers whose mental energy melds into something otherwise inconceivable. The default setting of average minds is to denounce those they consider strange: to marginalize, ostracize, and banish them to their own devices, but huge leaps in progress don't occur without extraordinary minds. Society needs offbeat thinkers who make us uncomfortable if we're to unlock our full potential; we hurt ourselves every time we succumb to the knee-jerk reaction to shoot down strange birds. They often fly to destinations uncharted and unconsidered, and we need them to challenge our assumptions.
Spy rings are intriguing, heart-pounding fun, which is why we love movies, television series, and books about them. The more daring and intricate the plot, the better. But there are heavy consequences for spying, and Bomb recounts some of them for our edification. People are jailed, murdered, their personal lives torn apart by their forays into espionage. It's a dark thrill when you're getting away with it, but you have to live with your actions for the remainder of your life, dreading reprisal if you're found out by authorities who have a bone to pick with you. Harry Gold, a spy we meet in the prologue to Bomb, learned this lesson the rough way: his relationship with the love of his life was wrecked by anxiety that his past indiscretions on behalf of the Soviets could be uncovered at any time. He wanted to marry his beloved, but what kind of future could he offer? The spy game isn't just unflappable operatives outsmarting the best counteragents of powerful countries; mostly it's real people facing the music for acts considered treasonous by sovereign entities, and treason typically spells death for those involved. Bomb illuminates not only the excitement of spying, but the inglorious consequences.
Steve Sheinkin doesn't take a political position on the arms race issue, but he makes clear that it's a problem when any nation has the capability to make war on a scale that could render the planet unlivable for people. That troubling scenario is the descendent of Oppenheimer's experiments at Los Alamos, pacifist though he was at his core. Sanguinary as the American Civil War and World War I were, they were still just humans killing each other with guns, but atomic warfare changed that. Mankind as a species now had the power to commit suicide, and as nuclear arms proliferated globally, they came into the hands of unstable leaders whose next actions were anyone's guess. In the words of Paul Tibbets, who piloted the Enola Gay on its mission to take out Hiroshima, "We were sobered by the knowledge that the world would never be the same...War, the scourge of the human race since time began, now held terrors beyond belief." Can we survive our own worst impulses? It's an open-ended question, as are so many raised by Bomb. We reveal the answer day by day, year by year, century by century, and hope the answer will still be to our liking tomorrow.
"In the end, this is a difficult story to sum up. The making of the atomic bomb is one of history's most amazing examples of teamwork and genius and poise under pressure. But it's also the story of how humans created a weapon capable of wiping our species off the planet. It's a story with no end in sight.
And, like it or not, you're in it."
—Bomb, P. 236
Newbery Honor citations are rare for nonfiction, but was Bomb deserving? The book is definitely Newbery quality, in my opinion—I would rank it ahead of Katherine Applegate's The One and Only Ivan, which won the 2013 Newbery Medal— but there are a number of books I'd put ahead of Bomb for the 2013 Newberys. I can't even say it's the year's best junior nonfiction offering; that would probably be Abraham Lincoln & Frederick Douglass: The Story Behind an American Friendship by Russell Freedman, who was the king of juvenile nonfiction for more than four decades. But Bomb is topnotch literature, and we're lucky to have it. Steve Sheinkin's approach is that of a sensitive storyteller, not just a provider of information, and we benefit from his insight into the race among the world's powers for the first atomic arsenal. For readers interested in dramatic history characterized by subplots and high stakes, Bomb is the book for you.
November 17, 2021
“It was the chill of knowing they had used something they loved—the study of physics—to build the deadliest weapon in human history.”
“It was extremely solemn,” Oppenheimer recalled. “We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried. Most people were silent.”
This book is written for a younger audience, so the vocabulary and sentences may seem a bit simple, but it is extremely well researched.
Totally captivating.
“It was extremely solemn,” Oppenheimer recalled. “We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried. Most people were silent.”
This book is written for a younger audience, so the vocabulary and sentences may seem a bit simple, but it is extremely well researched.
Totally captivating.
May 6, 2024
Really the big thing that made this 3 stars was the fact that I had to read it for school. We just had to take notes upon notes and there was so much information in the book that I didn't know what was important and what wasn't.
But speaking from a non-school perspective, I actually really enjoyed this. Like, it surprised me how much I enjoyed it. The way it was written as if it were a fictional story was very nice. I've only read one other book like that, and I liked that one too. The information was a lot, but not too much and not too overwhelming.
Overall, it was a fairly quick non-fiction read that was very informational and I did enjoy. I wish I had not read it for school because that would have made the experience much more positive, but even then I still liked it.
But speaking from a non-school perspective, I actually really enjoyed this. Like, it surprised me how much I enjoyed it. The way it was written as if it were a fictional story was very nice. I've only read one other book like that, and I liked that one too. The information was a lot, but not too much and not too overwhelming.
Overall, it was a fairly quick non-fiction read that was very informational and I did enjoy. I wish I had not read it for school because that would have made the experience much more positive, but even then I still liked it.
April 18, 2021
I made it about halfway through a book and the language became too foul for my personal standards. This time it was profanity that made me quit. Before that though, I was starting to wonder if the author was maybe a little sympathetic to those who chose to betray their nation's secrets to the Soviet Union. He certainly portrayed them in much more nuanced, even sympathetic, detail than the men who tried to prevent them.
August 12, 2024
wow...
i love it soo much
i love it soo much
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