Picturing the Bomb: Photographs from the Secret World of the Manhattan Project

This visually compelling collection of private and official photos found in family albums and laboratory archives offers a closer look at the Manhattan Project scientists who built the first atomic bombs, the military men who delivered them to the target and various sites connected with that effort (principally Los Alamos, N.M.; Oak Ridge, Tenn.; and Hanford, Wash.). Included are informal shots of physicists J. Robert Oppenheimer, Enrico Fermi, Niels Bohr and other key figures in the historic project; photos of technical facilities; pictures of the components of the atomic devices; and a stunning graphic record of the first explosion at the Trinity test site. The collection is chillingly rounded off with a series of photos by one of the Los Alamos physicists, Robert Serber, who studied the blast damage of the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Rhodes's introduction, the extended captions and the main text (one of the authors is Enrico Fermi's granddaughter) provide a thorough review of the project from start to finish. Photos. Library of Science Book Club alternate. (Oct.)