The Making of the Atomic Bomb

“This is, of course, the gold standard for that story. It won a Pulitzer Prize, a National Book Award and a whole bunch of other awards. And even though it was published in 1986, it still holds up. I’ve written a lot about nuclear weapons and atomic bombs, so I’ve read basically every book that’s available on it—from the earliest postwar stuff to the present—and Rhodes is just the master at putting it all together. He tells the entire story, from its very beginnings in quantum physics in the early 20th century, and even before that, and how it developed into the atomic bomb. All the figures are in there, all the important physicists. He’s also masterful at explaining the science…If you’re going to read one book on the atomic bomb, that’s the book to read.” Read more...

The best books on The History of Physics

Mark Wolverton, Science Writer

“It’s a history of the Manhattan Project, the US effort to build an atomic bomb to defeat Nazi Germany. This is the best history of the greatest minds in science alive at the time, or maybe ever, and how they were brought together to build this bomb. I hope humanity can come together again in the same way but with a more positive goal.” Read more...

The best books on Being Inspired by Science

Tom Clarke, Journalist