Dawn over Zero: The Story of the Atomic Bomb

by William Leonard Laurence

This volume contains the report of the New York Times writer who was assigned to cover all aspects of the atom bomb from its inception, development, and secret trials, to the final use on the cities of Japan.

Genres: History

289 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1946

About the author

born 1888

Reviews

[Judy P. Sprout · Rating 3 out of 5]

RIGHT NOW I am the only person to have rated this book, moo haa haa. Such power!

I would rather have read a compendium of Laurence's news stories than his attempt at a book, because the parts where he's news-ing at us are the best ones. As it was I skimmed some boring parts, mostly where he gets carried away with numbers and lists of names.

The language and idiom is of its time, and often over the top. Lots of editorializing. Take a shot every time he mentions Prometheus. There is serious use of the words "menfolk," "long-hairs," and "short-hairs."

If you're interested in history, this is a good one.

Nuclear power plants, they'll never work. Pff.

[David Campana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting look at the origin of atomic energy

While I received some of this information in my college physics class, this was a good refresher. Interesting to see what small quantities of plutonium and uranium 235 were originally produced. I previously read Countdown 1945 and this was mentioned, so I took a chance to read it.

[David Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

First person accounts of both the trinity test and the drop on nagasaki.

[Grayson]

This was an interesting book. Laurence was a New York Times reporter who ending up covering the development of the atomic bomb while the project was still secret. He saw in person the Trinity test in New Mexico and the drop over Nagasaki.

I read the first edition first published in 1946. Some may find shortcomings in that the book is not a broad historical overview of the Manhattan Project, but seeing as the was published right after the war ended Laurence does a good job of covering all bases. These include early scientific discoveries, the decisions to develop the bomb, the scientific and military personalities, the building of the various sites that produced the atomic material, the test-firing, and the dropping of the bombs themselves. Also interesting is a discussion of the hopes and fears of atomic energy and atomic weapons for the then-future decades.

Perhaps my favorite chapter was an account of a military operation to sabotage German heavy water plants in Norway, a mission that I hadn't read about before.

I have yet to read Richard Rhodes' The Making of the Atomic Bomb from 1986 which should give a better historical overview due to the passage of time. All in all, though, I enjoyed the book. It provides a solid account from the time period of the Manhattan Project.