The Devil Reached Toward the Sky

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - A PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST - THE 'MASTERPIECE' DEFINITIVE HISTORY OF THE ATOMIC BOMB 'A comprehensive account... focuses not just on the voices of scientists [but] explores overlooked pieces of the Manhattan Project's history.' -Daily Mail 'This period in history has never been more relevant and frightening than it is today... A masterpiece.'-James Patterson "Comprehensive and engrossing...Excellent oral history."-Kirkus Reviews
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From the international bestselling author of The Only Plane in the Sky, a sweeping oral history of the atomic bomb's creation and deployment April 12, 1945. Less than three months into his vice presidency, Harry Truman is catapulted into the Oval Office following the sudden death of Franklin D. Roosevelt. As he recites the oath, he learns a chilling secret known only to a select few: the United States is on the verge of deploying a weapon of unimaginable power. This weapon could end the war but also herald a new age of global fear and uncertainty. Drawing from over twenty-five oral history archives across the US, Japan, and Europe, Graff has masterfully blended the memories and perspectives from key figures like Harry Truman and J. Robert Oppenheimer, the crews of the B-29 bombers, Enola Gay and Bock's Car, the rescuers who bravely faced the destruction, and the haunting stories of those at ground zero in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, including the experiences of the hibakusha - the 'bomb-affected people'. Enriched by memoirs, diaries, letters, official documents, and news reports, this is an immersive and deeply human account of the Manhattan Project through the end of World War II and the dawning of the Cold War, offering a vivid, multi-dimensional view of events that reshaped the world forever.

Bestselling historian and Pulitzer Prize finalist Garrett M. Graff has spent nearly two decades covering politics, technology, and national security, and is now recognized as one of America's most prolific and wide-ranging journalists and historians. He is the former editor of POLITICO Magazine, a regular writer for publications from Rolling Stone to Esquire to the Washington Post, a contributor to WIRED and CNN, and a regular voice and analyst on NPR, PBS NewsHour and the History Channel. He is the author of a half-dozen award-winning books, including the international bestseller The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11.