Churchills Bomb, Graham Farmelo
Churchills Bomb, Graham Farmelo
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Churchills Bomb
How the United States Overtook Britain in the First Nuclear Arms Race

Author: Graham Farmelo

Narrator: Clive Chafer

Unabridged: 14 hr 20 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/08/2013


Synopsis

Perhaps no scientific development has shaped the course of modern history as much as the harnessing of nuclear energy. Yet the twentieth century might have turned out differently had greater influence over this technology been exercised by Great Britain, whose scientists were at the forefront of research into nuclear weapons at the beginning of World War II. As award-winning author Graham Farmelo describes in Churchills Bomb, the British set out to investigate the possibility of building nuclear weapons before their American colleagues. But when scientists in Britain first discovered a way to build an atomic bomb, Prime Minister Winston Churchill was slow to realize the bombs strategic implications. This was oddhe prided himself on recognizing the military potential of new science and, in the 1920s and 1930s, had repeatedly pointed out that nuclear weapons would likely be developed soon. In developing the bomb, however, he marginalized some of his countrys most brilliant scientists, choosing to rely mainly on the counsel of his friend Frederick Lindemann, an Oxford physicist with often wayward judgment. Churchill also failed to capitalize on Franklin Roosevelts generous offer to work jointly on the bomb and ultimately ceded Britains initiative to the Americans, whose successful development and deployment of the bomb placed the United States in a position of supreme power at the dawn of the nuclear age. After the war, President Truman and his administration refused to acknowledge a secret cooperation agreement forged by Churchill and Roosevelt and froze Britain out of nuclear development, leaving Britain to make its own way. Churchill came to be terrified by the possibility of thermonuclear war and emerged as a pioneer of dtente in the early stages of the Cold War. Contrasting Churchills often inattentive leadership with Franklin Roosevelts decisiveness, Churchills Bomb reveals the secret history of the weapon that transformed modern geopolitics.

About Graham Farmelo

Graham
Farmelo is
a former senior executive at the Science Museum in London. He is currently a
by-fellow at Churchill College, University of Cambridge, and an adjunct
professor of physics at Northeastern University in Boston. Winner of the 2009
Costa Book Award for Biography and the 2009 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for
Science & Technology for The Strangest Man,
he lives in London, England.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Julian on February 25, 2023

A cool history on how the United States overcame the UK in terms of nuclear technology. A series of blunders, not understanding the technology, and the fear of the use of the Atom Bomb as a weapon of war gave way to the United States being the premier nuclear power. A fascinating story really was an......more

Goodreads review by Antony on December 13, 2017

A thorough biography of the British atomic bomb project and the not always wise decisions made by Churchill during it. Interestingly the author makes the most introspection about Professor Lindemann rather than Churchill, and how the scientific advisor influenced government policy about Britain's nu......more

Goodreads review by Tech on December 30, 2017

To anyone trying to get a full history of the development of the atomic bomb in the west, this book is a valuable addition. While the author is no Richard Rhodes, he does add historical context of why the British lost the lead in developing the first atomic bomb. The background of Churchill's life lo......more

Goodreads review by John on May 20, 2014

An in-depth tour of Britain's initial lead in nuclear science through the detonation of its own H bomb after that lead has been lost told from a perspective of the personalities involved. The most outsized, of course, were Churchill, Lindemann & Wells, but Farmelo has a knack for the character sketc......more

Goodreads review by Steve on July 27, 2021

Very absorbing, if maybe just a little rambling at times - going into the minutiae of some aspects of the subject that, while interesting, didn't really add much to the overall thread. But that is a personal view, slightly churlish, and does not detract from a fascinating trip through British involv......more