Manhattan Project

Though thousands of articles and books have been published on various aspects of the Manhattan Project, this book is the first comprehensive single-volume history prepared by a specialist for curious readers without a scientific background. This project, the United States Army's program to develop and deploy atomic weapons in World War II, was a pivotal event in human history. The author presents a wide-ranging survey that not only tells the story of how the project was organized and carried out, but also introduces the leading personalities involved and features simplified but accurate descriptions of the underlying science and the engineering challenges. The technical points are illustrated by reader-friendly graphics. .

Bruce Cameron Reed is the Charles A. Dana professor of Physics at Alma College (Michigan), emeritus. He has published four textbooks and over 50 journal papers and semi-popular articles on the Manhattan Project; two of the texts are with Springer. In 2009 he was selected as Fellow of the American Physical Society in recognition of his contributions to promoting understanding of the history and physics of the Project.

Introduction: An Overview of the Manhattan Project.- Background: A Brief but Friendly Tour of Nuclear Physics.- Organization: Coordinating Government and Army Support.- Design: The Los Alamos Laboratory.- Production: Uranium and Plutonium.- Testing: Project Trinity.- Deployment: Hiroshima and Nagasaki.- Legacy: The Cold War, the Nuclear Landscape, and Possible Futures.