Brotherhood of the Bomb, Gregg Herken
Brotherhood of the Bomb, Gregg Herken
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Brotherhood of the Bomb
The Tangled Lives and Loyalties of Robert Oppenheimer, Ernest Lawrence, and Edward Teller

Author: Gregg Herken

Narrator: Perry Daniels

Unabridged: 15 hr 17 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 05/21/2024


Synopsis

Gregg Herken's Brotherhood of the Bomb is the fascinating story of the men who founded the nuclear age, fully told for the first time

The story of the twentieth century is largely the story of the power of science and technology. Within that story is the incredible tale of the human conflict between Robert Oppenheimer, Ernest Lawrence, and Edward Teller—the scientists most responsible for the advent of weapons of mass destruction.

How did science—and its practitioners—enlisted in the service of the state during the Second World War, become a slave to its patron during the Cold War? The story of these three men, builders of the bombs, is fundamentally about loyalty—to country, to science, and to each other—and about the wrenching choices that had to be made when these allegiances came into conflict.

Gregg Herken gives us the behind-the-scenes account based upon a decade of research, interviews, and newly released Freedom of Information Act and Russian documents. Brotherhood of the Bomb is a vital slice of American history told authoritatively—and grippingly—for the first time.

About Gregg Herken

Gregg Herken is emeritus professor of modern American diplomatic history at the University of California. He previously taught at Oberlin, Caltech, and Yale. He is the author of The Winning Weapon, Counsels of War, and Cardinal Choices and received a MacArthur grant for Brotherhood of the Bomb. He lives with his family in Santa Cruz, California.


Reviews

Goodreads review by David on November 06, 2023

Brotherhood of the Bomb is an outstanding book on many of the individuals responsible during the Manhattan Project for the creation of the first atomic bomb and later the hydrogen bomb as well as the endless debates on the use of atomic energy and the desire to increase or eliminate testing and the......more

Goodreads review by Eugene on July 04, 2015

Read this book when it came out. It's an above average history; and I can say that because of Badash's class before Richard Rhoades. I also met Gregg Herken when introduced to him by Ceruzzi when both were at the Natl. Air and Space Museum before he took his prof-ship at UC Merced. I noted a interest......more

Goodreads review by Roger on August 27, 2018

It’s likely been 16 years since I purchased this book. At the time I worked for the Department of Energy at the Hanford Site, home to the plutonium that was dropped on Nagasaki to ostensibly end the war in the Pacific. I worked for the department for 18 years retiring in 2010. I was assigned to thre......more

Goodreads review by Lukasz on September 15, 2015

"Physicists have known sin." (J. Robert Oppenheimer) Gregg Herken's "Brotherhood of the Bomb" (2002) is the story of three preeminent American physicists, Ernest Lawrence, J Robert Oppenheimer, and Edward Teller, whose work was crucial for the American nuclear program in the 1940s and 1950s, which led......more

Goodreads review by Bob on August 24, 2021

As with much of history, most people are unaware of how atomic weapons were developed. Once Einstein showed how matter and energy are equivalent, it was only a matter of time before matter would be turned into energy with atomic bombs. The concept of atomic fission was defined in the 1930s and the d......more