Amazon.com
If the first 270 pages of this book had been published separately, they would have made up a lively, insightful, beautifully written history of theoretical physics and the men and women who plumbed the mysteries of the atom. Along with the following 600 pages, they become a sweeping epic, filled with terror and pity, of the ultimate scientific quest: the development of the ultimate weapon. Rhodes is a peerless explainer of difficult concepts; he is even better at chronicling the personalities who made the discoveries that led to the Bomb. Niels Bohr dominates the first half of the book as J. Robert Oppenheimer does the second; both men were gifted philosophers of science as well as brilliant physicists. The central irony of this book, which won a National Book Critics Circle Award, is that the greatest minds of the century contributed to the greatest destructive force in history.
Book Description
Here for the first time, in rich, human, political, and scientific detail, is the complete story of how the bomb was developed, from the turn-of-the-century discovery of the vast energy locked inside the atom to the dropping of the first bombs on Japan.
Few great discoveries have evolved so swiftly -- or have been so misunderstood. From the theoretical discussions of nuclear energy to the bright glare of Trinity there was a span of hardly more than twenty-five years. What began as merely an interesting speculative problem in physics grew into the Manhattan Project, and then into the Bomb with frightening rapidity, while scientists known only to their peers -- Szilard, Teller, Oppenheimer, Bohr, Meitner, Fermi, Lawrence, and yon Neumann -- stepped from their ivory towers into the limelight.
Richard Rhodes takes us on that journey step by step, minute by minute, and gives us the definitive story of man's most awesome discovery and invention. The Making of the Atomic Bomb has been compared in its sweep and importance to William L. Shirer's The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. It is at once a narrative tour de force and a document as powerful as its subject.
Customer Reviews:
Is this the best non-fiction book ever written?.......2007-08-03
Read this one. It has that wonderful and rare convergence of a fantastic story, great science, and distinguished writing and storytelling. Richard Rhodes learned a lot for this, then distilled it down, synthesized the information, and made it fascinating. I don't have a single complaint, it's just great. Just read it again for the first time in twenty years. Only "tickling the dragon's tail" came back, which is dropping a slug of U235 thru a hole in another similar mass, an early experiment.
From soup to nuts.......2007-04-21
I had been looking for a complete history of the making of the atomic bomb for many years. Imagine my pleasure at discovering this Pulitzer Prize winning tome on the budget rack at my local book store. Most books on this subject focus on only one aspect, the scientists, the science, Groves but this book brilliantly covers all aspects of the making of the bomb. Even more fascinating was the development of the theories and discoveries which led the leading scientists of the day to the understanding that the splitting of the atom and the awesome release of power that this would engender, was even possible. At over 900 pages you might think that this read would be tedious, but it is impossible to put this book down.
How do you define "Making"?.......2007-03-21
It's not what I thought it would be but I'm struggling to come up with a suitable title. "Fusion - Epiphany to Actuality - The Lead-Up to the Atomic Bomb" is about the best I can do. It should have stopped at the first critical mass.
The actual 'Making' happened after the theory/experimentation, which is this book's primary focus. The actual 'making' was what I was primarily interested in learning about - Los Alamos, Oak Ridge, etc., where the gadget was actually 'made'. Incredibly very short-shrift is given to this despite the length of the book.
"The Making of the Atomic Bomb" is remarkable in it's own right. But while we're not supposed to judge a book by its cover I thought we might at least have a reasonable chance at judging the topic by its title. Apparently not.
atomic bomb.......2007-01-17
The Atomic Bomb
By Dakota Moxon
Why did Japan surrender? If you guessed that it was when the United States dropped the atomic bombs on Japan you are right. Do you know why we decided to drop the atomic bombs on Japan? I chose the atomic bomb because it brought the biggest war to an end.
I think World War 2 was the biggest war in the world. I thought this was the scariest war when the United States dropped the atomic bombs. World War 2 had claimed many lives on both sides before Germany surrendered. President Truman now wanted to end the war in Japan. Before the start of World War 2 Albert Einstein contacted President Franklin D. Roosevelt and made him aware that a great bomb could be made. After much thought and prayer, President Truman made the decision to use an atomic bomb instead of invading. President Truman knew that many more Americans and Japanese would die if we invaded. American war planners thought that about one million Japanese soldiers and people would be killed and about 500,000 Americans would be killed.
President Truman had airplanes drop little pieces of paper warning the people to get out of the city. He contacted the Japanese and asked them to surrender so we would not have to drop the atomic bomb. They did not surrender. On August 2nd, 1945 the first atomic bomb named "Little Boy" was dropped on Hiroshima. The Japanese would still not surrender so we dropped the second atomic bomb named "Fat Man" on Nagasaki on August 9th. Finally, on August 14th, Japan announced its surrender.
I think it was sad because many people died when we dropped the atomic bombs. Even though many people died, many people were saved because we did not invade. Many more people would have died if we did. I hope we do not have to drop another atomic bomb again. If I had to be in war I would hope that it would be the last war in history.
interesting, thorough history.......2007-01-12
awesome read! though it is many pages long, it is pretty easy to read, and it is very detailed. the pictures in the book do an excellent job showing the damage. the personal accounts of the survivors of the bombs are so moving and really make you think.
Book Description
Filigree is easier than it looks--with help from Silver Threads
* 12 beautiful "you made this?" projects
* Step-by-step instructions and photos introduce the basics and more advanced techniques
For thousands of years, cultures around the world have made filigree: delicate jewelry, decorative objects, even furniture. The intricate curls and twists mislead people into thinking that filigree is difficult to make--but it's much easier than it looks, with help from Silver Threads. This book demystifies the process of creating filigree jewelry. First, basic silverworking techniques are paired with an overview of tools and materials. Then readers learn to make simple filigree shapes, used in 12 stunning projects ranging from simple pendants and earrings to more complex necklaces with gemstone settings. Detailed instructions, illustrations, and full-color photos guide readers through the learning process--and into planning and creating their own unique filigree designs.
Customer Reviews:
silver creations.......2007-07-14
Book is both well writen and well illustrate. Directions for making various items are clear and easily understandable. Also includes locations for purchasing supplies and materials.
Good beginning book for using twisted wire.
Make lace with wire!.......2007-07-01
Jeanne Rhodes-Moen does a terrific job of explaining the steps to making filigree jewelry, breaking them down and de-mystifying them in the process. Even her introduction soothes worries. Filigree was the first jewelry she made; she says she "didn't know filigree was supposed to be difficult."
There's plenty of eye candy here; photos are large, clear and abundant. Eye candy isn't what the book is about, though. Be sure to read the Basics and Tools and Supplies sections thoroughly. In them, you'll find detailed instructions of skills needed for successful filigree. Make some of your own, specialized tools, like a wire-measuring tool that's invaluable for speedily measuring lots of short lengths of wire. Rhodes-Moen shows you how to make your own filigree wire and even gives a diagram of a convenient workbench setup. The Shaping and Polishing section covers more necessities, and breaks those intricate filigree patterns down into their basic components.
As I expected, the projects were mostly pendants with earrings, a ring and a couple of necklaces thrown in. The last section even points you toward creating your own, beautiful designs. What a terrific resource!
Silver Threads.......2007-05-13
This is a wonderfully well written book on the art of filigree. I have been using it like a work book and have learned so much. Thank you for sharing your gift with me and all the others who are benifactors.
Silver Threads:Making Wire Filigree Jewelry.......2007-03-12
The book is excellent and will keep me busy for a long time.
Great book!.......2007-03-03
I am an advanced wire worker but really only an intermediate at best solderer so I was a little nervous, but after getting this book yesterday I made one of the projects and it was so EASY! And so QUICK! Couldn't get over it, and now I have a beautiful silver filigree and amber pendant, made in under an hour.
I cheated as well: filigree wire is next to impossible to find here in Australia so I used my ordinary twisted square wire from wire working (21 gauge) and it came out just beautiful.
Customer Reviews:
Concrete Countertops.......2007-08-06
I liked this Book and I would indicate with certainty this book for another person.
Making Concrete Countertops.......2007-05-14
The step-by-step pictures made the assembly easy to follow along with and the illustrations of the countertops were fantastic.
Average customer rating:
- Delinsky does not fail to provide another good read
- Vintage Violets; Wine At Its Best
- Another enjoyable book by Barbara Delinsky
- Trite, trite, trite - HELP!
- Real and Gritty
|
The Vineyard: A Novel
Barbara Delinsky
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
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ASIN: 0684864843
Release Date: 2000-06-06 |
Amazon.com
Like a glass of good pinot noir, Barbara Delinsky's The Vineyard is best enjoyed slowly. The Vineyard follows the triumphs and tragedies of the Seebrings, a wealthy family of vintners in Rhode Island. The story begins when recently widowed, 76-year-old Natalie Seebring announces her scandalous engagement to none other than the vineyard manager, Carl, whose social standing is, needless to say, several notches beneath the Seebrings'. Natalie's children, Susanne and Greg, are furious with their mother for marrying the help, and only six months after their father's death.
Besides her remarriage, Natalie is working on a family history project, one she hopes will explain all the love and loss she has endured before reaching happiness at long last. She recruits Olivia Jones to help with the project, and Olivia and her daughter Tess move out to the vineyard for the summer. Tension builds with the summer heat as the wedding approaches. To make matters worse, Carl's son Simon, the new vineyard manager, is coldly resentful of Olivia and Tess, who remind him of the wife and daughter he has lost. But amidst all this, Natalie Seebring's long-buried past is slowly revealed, and like a summer storm, the truth blows through the vineyard, leaving everything different in its wake.
Barbara Delinsky says she was influenced by Tom Brokaw's The Greatest Generation in writing The Vineyard, and Natalie Seebring is a fine tribute to the strong, silent Americans who made so many sacrifices during World War II. Keep a hankie close by when reading this one. Family tragedy, unlikely romance, and old wrongs finally made right will have you laughing and crying. --Francine McBride
Book Description
In The Vineyard, New York Times bestselling author Barbara Delinsky (Lake News, Coast Road, Three Wishes) has written her most complex and emotionally rewarding novel: a story of two women, a generation apart, each of whose dream becomes bound with the other's.
To her family, Natalie Seebring is a woman who prizes appearances. She is exquisitely mannered, socially adept, a supportive wife, and head of a successful wine-producing enterprise. So when she announces plans to marry a vineyard employee mere months after the death of her husband of fifty-eight years, her son and daughter are stunned. Faced with their disapproval, Natalie decides to write a memoir. There is much that her children don't know about her life -- about her love of the vineyard, her role in fighting to build it up, and the sacrifices she made for her family.
Olivia Jones is a dreamer, living vicariously through the old photographs she restores. She and her daughter, Tess, have no one but themselves, so they cling to the fantasy that a big, happy family is out there somewhere, just waiting to welcome them home. When Olivia is hired by Natalie to help with her memoir, a summer at Natalie's beautiful vineyard by the sea seems the perfect opportunity to live out that fantasy -- an elegant home by the shore, a salary that allows her to hire a tutor for her dyslexic daughter, a job that is creative, hours spent with a woman who has led a charmed life.
But all is not as it seems, Olivia and Tess discover when they arrive at Asquonset, the vineyard in Rhode Island. While welcoming, Natalie is not quite the mothering type, as is quickly evident in the hostility her daughter and son have toward her -- it's a hostility that Olivia must buffer. Another dose of stark reality comes in the form of Simon Burke, who runs the vineyard's day-to-day operation and sees in Olivia and Tess an unwelcome reminder of the wife and daughter he tragically lost. And then there is the cruel reality of Olivia's own life -- the mother who never wanted her, and a career that has floundered.
Natalie's story, intended for her own children, enlightens Olivia as well. The lives of these two women of different generations, parallel in so many ways, become, in The Vineyard, a powerful and moving story as the fantasy of an idealized life, complete with perfect romance, crashes headlong into reality.
Download Description
When Natalie Seebring, seventy-six, announces plans to marry within months of the death of her husband of fifty-eight years, her son and daughter are stunned. In the face of their disapproval, Natalie decides it's time to talk about the past and reveal the secrets she has kept for decades. She hires Olivia Jones, an incorrigible dreamer, to help write her memoir and invites Olivia and her daughter Tess to spend the summer at the family vineyard. As summer deepens and the vineyard's crop ripens, Natalie's story unfolds and startles one family member after another. While Olivia's fantasy of finding a welcoming family for herself and Tess remains as tenuous as the success of the season's crop, Natalie's unraveling life story offers lessons for her, too. Perhaps most important is learning to accept the reality of a good life over the fantasy of one that will always seem better. Ultimately, in a tale that mirrors the vineyard summer, days of hope and fear lead to a sweet harvest for all.
Customer Reviews:
Delinsky does not fail to provide another good read.......2006-05-07
So far, every book I've read by Delinsky (Coast Road, Three Wishes and Lake News) has been one I've had a hard time putting down. And one well worth the read.
There is something about the stories and characters that Delinsky weaves....they instantly pull you in, you care about what will happen to them and you enjoy the journey.
The Vineyard is mainly about family, those that have family and those that don't. It shows that even though you may have family, you may not get along with them, but perhaps it's better to be grateful, since some people don't have any family at all! It's also about courage and strength that people manage to find within themselves to carry them through out the obstacles and tough times in their lives. It's about opening up to other people and finding a good friend. It's about the old saying, "don't judge a book by it's cover"- as each of the characters prove of themselves.
Good read- recommended!
Vintage Violets; Wine At Its Best.......2005-03-10
After enjoying FLIRTING WITH PETE and LAKE NEWS I wasn't planning to read more Barbara Delinsky novels right away, since I believed I had already read the ones with themes related to my pursuits or interests.
Then I read THE VINEYARD excerpt at the end of my LAKE NEWS paperback.
I was captured with the ingenious way each main character was introduced by his/her reaction to a wedding invitation from a couple in their 70's and 80's. Of course I wanted to read more; curiosity was precisely stirred from the contrast of negative and positive reactions to this unusual situation.
I bought and read THE VINEYARD, becoming fully involved and pleasantly satisfied with the story, even though I hadn't known I would be so thoroughly engrossed in a family owned vineyard. Was concerned that I might find the history interjections boring and the writing style of an older generation focus a bit too forced (not many writers can capture the beauty and graceful vitality of age until they've arrived there and developed the graciousness).
But, BD handled all with just the right amount of detail, genuine warmth, and ingeniously natural intrusion techniques. For me this book was a reader kidnap, from the first page on.
I have mountains of positive input on this exquisite novel, but I'm testing the effect of short and sweet, instead of writing my typical epistle on a novel. Since I've already slipped on a banana peel heading smack into too long and savory, I'll ...
Another enjoyable book by Barbara Delinsky.......2004-11-09
THE VINEYARD by Barbara Delinsky
November 8, 2004
I've read a number of books by Barbara Delinsky, most of which I enjoyed a lot. THE VINEYARD is not going to be one of my favorites, but I think I'm going to remember it mainly because I had a hard time liking the main character.
Olivia Jones restores old photographs for a living. She's a single mother, with a daughter (Tess) who has a learning disability. The reader will discover that Olivia is a person that deals with a rough reality by hiding behind daydreams. She in particular finds herself dreaming about the people in the photographs she restores, including a series of them sent to her boss, Otis, by a woman who runs a vineyard.
Natalie Seebring is Otis' client, a woman who is in her twilight years and needs an assistant to help write her life story. Olivia accidentally comes across this request for Otis to recommend someone to fulfill this task, and soon she is dreaming of being that assistant, imagining what each person in those photographs is like. Believe it or not, she soon finds herself working for the matriarch of this family, and she and Tess move to the vineyard to spend the summer there.
The story takes on two main plots. While the story of Natalie's life is being told, the reader will learn about her childhood, how she meets her deceased husband Alexander, as well as how she met her current fiancé, Carl. The second plot involves Olivia, and a man she meets at the vineyard, Simon, who also happens to be Carl's son. Simon and Olivia seem to have something in common, and that is, they are both afraid to venture forth into a relationship with the opposite sex. But both are obviously attracted to each other, and their romance evolves slowly as the story moves on.
Other characters come into play, in particular the grown children of Natalie, Susanne and Greg, and a third child, Brad, who remains a mystery throughout most of the book. His story comes out at the very end, and although I had suspected some of what was to be revealed, I was still somewhat shocked, just as the characters in the book were, too.
While I don't recommend this book as a first time reader to Barbara Delinsky's books, I believe that those who enjoyed her more recent books may enjoy this one. The irritating characters of Olivia and Tess, however, may grate on some nerves, as it did mine. Olivia is a very weak, naive, type of person, and I found it very difficult to feel sorry for a woman that dealt with reality by hiding in daydreams and believing them to be true. Her daughter was a bratty young girl who unfortunately got picked on a lot by her peers, mostly because of her attitude and inability to make friends with others, and not by her disability as mother and daughter are led to believe.
On the other hand, I think an author is doing a good job if a reader can feel intense dislike or like for an invented character. I had no problems with the writing. And I looked forward to reading each chapter as I read about Natalie's life story. Overall, I enjoyed THE VINEYARD and as always, look forward to reading more by Barbara Delinksy.
Trite, trite, trite - HELP!.......2004-01-07
I struggled through this book - my first Delinsky book. I read it because my book club wanted to read it. I almost didn't make it through the entire book and I wonder what the other book club members will have to say. For me, it was like sitting in front of the TV watching a bad daytime soap opera. I found it to be a waste of time and I was happy that the length of the book was the only real challenge for me. I thought Olivia's character - she sleeps with Simon after only a month of staring at one another from across the lawn - was weak and uninteresting, sappy and whiny. To top it off, she and Simon sleep in the same bed with the 10 year old daughter in the next room and this is considered a great romance!! Pullease. I can't think of a single thing other than perhaps the discussion of how the grape vines ripen that was interesting to me. Yuck. I'm on to The Da Vinci Code - THANK GOD!
DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME - READ A GOOD BOOK.
Real and Gritty.......2003-12-22
I really like Barbara Delinsky's style of writing. You feel as if you are an actual part of the story rather than "remote viewing" as is the case in nearly every other romance fiction writer.
Nor is there any sordid, soft porn sex scenes to tittilate voyeuristic lust. She builds her love scenes as a gradual, gentle and deeply insightful awakening. She reveals romance in an elegant, classy and very tasteful manner that engages the reader in the reality of the eventual mating without grossing out the reader with the vulgarity found in Stephanie Laurens or even Nora Roberts show-all-tell-all graphic manner that forces some readers to skip those "steamy" pages. Delinsky's books are like opening a box of treasures and never being disappointed or repelled by the contents.
Delinsky also has a wonderful sense of philosophy about family relationships and the manner in which to build strong ones despite setbacks and condemnation by said family or friends. In this book she examines the greatly flawed assumptions that middle aged children dump on their elderly 76 year old mother when she elects to marry her vineyard manager and childhood lover after the death of her husband and father of the kids.
Also this fascinating story is about the labor intensive work of farming a vineyard and the whole issue of sacrifices made by a very strong woman for her entire life to ensure a long term goal of security which makes this story very empowering to women.
I did not care for the manipulative, self pitying, pathological liar Olivia, a photo restorer, who happens through connection to her retiring boss to find a position in the vinyardist's own household for the summer to help organize memoirs, restore old photos and write the book that will explain to Natalie's adult children why she is marrying Carl and the truth about their biological father. Olivia's learning disabled and dysfunctional child dropped into the mix is just plain annoying, but the author deals with this difficult topic in an informed and proactive way. Then, there is Simon, the sour, recalcitrant, rejecting vineyard co-manager whose lost his mother, wife and child in a freak sailing accident caused by drunken sailors in another watercraft. After 4 years he is still wallowing in anger and self pity. Both Simon and the child Tess make the book grating at times, especially the kid's rebellion against authority and her special education teachers. Then there is Olivia's whining about her long lost alcoholic mother whose rejection has forced her to live in fantasyland her entire life. She even fantasizes that she is a long lost member of Natalie's household. This is all a bit much.
However, I do recommend this book for the elegant prose and style that the author brings. She makes me think of Guy Gavriel Kay's exquisite writing style as she unfolds a story in a rich tapestry of life in a microcosm. I will definitely read more of her stories.
Amazon.com
An engrossing history of the scientific discoveries, political maneuverings, and cold-war espionage leading to the creation of mankind's most destructive weapon.
Includes 94 archival photographs and a glossary with brief descriptions of the hundreds of people interviewed and discussed in the book. Author Richard Rhodes won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award for his previous atomic tome, The Making of the Atomic Bomb.
Book Description
Here, for the first time, in a brilliant, panoramic portrait by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Making of the Atomic Bomb, is the definitive, often shocking story of the politics and the science behind the development of the hydrogen bomb and the birth of the Cold War. Based on secret files in the United States and the former Soviet Union, this monumental work of history discloses how and why the United States decided to create the bomb that would dominate world politics for more than forty years.
Customer Reviews:
Not an Impressive Follow-up.......2007-08-07
The Pulitzer Prize-winning treatise "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" (1987) was the well-deserved claim-to-fame for American journalist and historian Richard Rhodes. The deservedly eminent nuclear pundit's follow-up book, Dark Sun (1995), attempts to provide an accurate historical account of the hydrogen bomb's development. The book is written for a non-expert audience, yet still provides enough technical information to give the reader a basic understanding of nuclear technology without inducing a migraine headache. Dark Sun aims to elucidate the technical achievement, political chicanery, and ethical controversy surrounding the production of thermonuclear weapons.
In the first section of the book, Rhodes uses declassified U.S. archive documents to trace the historical development of the hydrogen bomb from the discovery of fission to the first thermonuclear detonation in 1952. Rhodes does not focus on the ethical dilemmas per se; nonetheless, three of them feature prominently throughout the book. The first of those questions is probably the most obvious: given their indiscriminate and immensely destructive nature, should these weapons ever have been developed in the first place? Repeating a similar discussion from "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" (almost verbatim) he recounts the Scientists' understandably conflicted feelings. But Rhodes makes no effort to disguise his obvious disdain for both Edward Teller and his brainchild, believing the bomb's only function to be committing "omnicide".
The second portion of Dark Sun deals with the Soviet's nuclear espionage program, whose roots extend back to World War II. Rhodes argues that Soviet technical advancement depended almost entirely on espionage; as such, he uses newly (early 1990s) declassified KGB documents to show how effective the Soviets were in assuring that virtually every American breakthrough was quickly mirrored in the Soviet Union. Rhodes argues that this seemingly fluid transfer of technology and the subsequent success of the Soviet program would only have been possible with the help of certain individuals. He argues that Klaus Fuchs, the Rosenbergs and/or "Perseus" were sending the Soviets fusion-bomb designs (mainly Teller's) as early as 1946. During the early 1990s, former NKVD agent Pavel Sudoplatov alleged that Robert Oppenheimer himself was a source of information, but Rhodes goes out of his way to convince the reader that, contrary to Teller's allegations, Oppenheimer was an innocent victim of the political brouhaha accompanying the McCarthy-driven "red scare". The espionage section culminates in the Rosenberg's execution in 1953 for treason, a sentence Rhodes finds murderously unfair. Nevertheless, it should be pointed out that the execution was in fact a political memorandum to the Soviets stating that the United States' takes its national security seriously. In hindsight, failure to exact harsh punishment would have demonstrated a lack in resolve and would have been viewed as proof-positive that the U.S. is so weak that it cannot even bring known spies to justice. This in-turn would probably have resulted in a dramatic increase in Soviet espionage activity.
The concepts of espionage and technology transfer gives rise to the first moral quandary: horizontal proliferation. Rhodes does a brilliant job of recounting the ethical dilemmas faced by scientists and policy makers at the time. The willingness of American scientists to "betray their country" and pass on nuclear secrets to the Soviets can be understood if one pictures the geopolitical attitudes at the time (the US and Russia just fought a war as allies) and if one viewed nuclear hegemony as catastrophically destabilizing. For policy makers the primary question was (and still is) one of usage: against whom and under what conditions should these weapons be used? Rhodes does a marvelous job of describing the personal sentiments and interpersonal relationships of those involved. The political struggle between Oppenheimer and Teller regarding leadership and nuclear policy is discussed ad nauseam. Nevertheless, Rhodes makes a very convincing argument that Teller's obstinate refusal to compromise on bomb design severely jeopardized the H-bomb's development. In fact the project would have been scrapped, were it not for Marshall Holloway, Cornelius Everett, Carson Mark, and Stanislaw Ulam.
Dark Sun's final section concerns events during the Cold War, from the blockade of Berlin to the Korean War and how these incidents set the tone for the ensuing arms-race. While it is relatively clear that neither side wished for war, many on both sides perceived the looming cataclysm as all but inevitable. Rhodes makes some controversial assertions about U.S. Cold War military doctrine, specifically, what he regards as the potentially catastrophic risks run by the Strategic Air Command. He suggests that General Curtis E. LeMay had the ability to start World War III at a whim, a notion that unrealistically marginalizes the available safety protocols and represents a fundamental misunderstanding of contingency measures.
Contrary to the rest of his historically accurate exposition, Rhodes' hypothesis that the world teetered on the brink of nuclear holocaust during the first decade of the Cold War is both logically flawed and historically inaccurate. In point of fact, the scarcity of deliverable Soviet nuclear weapons in the ten years following WWII suggests that the only ones facing potential annihilation were the Soviets, at least until 1955 (W. Lambers - Nuclear Weapons). By Rhodes own admission, it was during that particular period of time that the United States' arsenal grew to several thousand deliverable nuclear weapons. This overwhelming advantage encouraged hawkish leaders like General LeMay to consider a preemptive strike against the Soviet's infantile nuclear capability. The possibility of a preventative strike against the budding Soviet arsenal delineates one final ethical dilemma that one might derive from Dark Sun: Would a preemptive strike against Soviet nuclear facilities in the late 1940s or early 1950s have been preferable to a Cold War that endured for half a century, risked the lives of millions (possibly billions), and left most of the Eurasian continent in economic shambles? Not to mention the number of under-developed countries around the world, formerly in one of the "spheres of influence" that still struggle with economic stagnation and relentless civil-conflict, fueled by the deluge of surplus Russian small-arms. Is all of that worth 100,000 lives? 200,000? Half a million? Opinions will vary; needless to say Dark Sun does not have the answer.
Rhodes takes on the ambitious task of trying to show both the American and Soviet perspectives. This was a mistake because it resulted in the sacrifice of coherency in favor of inclusivity. Dark Sun's discussion of the Soviet perspective suffers from a dire lack of supporting documentation, which only serves to detract from the book's overall quality. Rhodes should have limited his coverage of the Soviet program to the American point of view. Stalin and the Bomb by David Holloway does a much better job of analyzing the Soviet experience.
While its simultaneous coverage of American and Soviet endeavors to acquire a fusion weapon is unparalleled, Rhodes falls short of his reputed narrative brilliance evinced in "The Making of the Atomic Bomb". The primary reason for this dearth in quality is the lack of information actually pertaining to thermonuclear weapons or their technical development.
Dark Sun has its shortcomings and does not contain much information that has not already been covered by scholars like Eric Rosenberg or Lawrence Freedman. Nevertheless, Rhodes makes excellent use of interviews and declassified documents, successfully demonstrating that the H-Bomb was not a spontaneous development, but rather the culmination of a series of technical achievements, strategic perceptions and policy directives.
Very disappointing; where was the story of the H-bomb?.......2006-08-18
The title of this book is a misnomer as there is very little about the making of the hydrogen bomb in it. I can't remember the last time I was this disappointed in a book. There are hundreds of pages spent detailing the Soviet spy program during WWII while the USA was trying to build the atomic bomb. The scientists and their contacts and where they met and what they said to each other and what the Soviet scientists did with the information and on and on in mind-numbing minutiae. This information is all well and good, but that's not why I bought the book. The hydrogen bomb isn't touched on for 350 or 400 pages and then it still seems to spend more time on the Soviets and their attempts to catch up to the American program.
The writing is fine, if not stimulating, it just seems to be off track most of the time. I wanted to read about Teller, Oppenheimer, Ulam, Feynman and all the rest and their conversations, disagreements, failures and ultimate successes in creating the hydrogen bomb. What I got was a heavy dose of Klaus Fuchs and the rest who stole every item they could and sold it to the Russians. This is an important story, but it's not the one I wanted to read about and not the story the book purported to tell.
THREE DIFFERENT STORIES IN ONE.......2006-04-03
While I did not agree with many of the author's opinions and analyses, I must say 'Dark Sun' was a fairly enjoyable read. Rhodes really tells it as three different stories in one volume: a story of science, a story of espionage, and one of cold war history.
The scientific history traces the making of the bomb itself and culminates with the sucessful test of the first bomb by the US in 1952; a blast which turned out to be far larger than expected. I am not very technical, so I can't vouch for accuracy here, but the explanations were about as clear as can be given to the non-expert.
The espionage history begins in WWII itself and concludes with the execution of the Rosenbergs in 1953. Rhodes sides with many others in finding the executions unfair, but it seems to me that those who give secrets to foreign agents deserve what they get. The spies should not get off the hook because the Soviets were allies during the war. Stalin's Russia was committed to our destruction and so could never be considered a true ally, and the prosecuters were right that commuting the sentence would send the wrong message to the Soviets - that we were too weak to even execute known spies.
The third part of this book covers the cold war during the period. We learn how tensions from the Berlin blockade to China and then Korea accelerated the race for a super bomb. Neither side wished for war, but felt one was perhaps inevitable.
Rhodes does not like Teller or the hydrogen bomb and believes the project was unnecessary, as we had plenty of A-bombs. But would it have helped our image or sense of security had the Russians got the super first? Would US restraint have stopped the Soviets? I doubt it. Truman was right to approve the plan quickly and override the scientists' objections. The hydrogen bomb was inevitable.
Necessary Differences of Style.......2006-01-10
Rhodes' "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" is my favorite nonfiction book. I hesitated to read this one for several years only because of reviews that slammed the book for dwelling too much on Soviet espionage and atomic bomb development and not enough on the actual physics of thermonuclear weapons design.
The criticism is accurate inasmuch as this book is much less about physics than its predecessor. "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" took the reader through the major breakthroughs of atomic physics, the relationships between the most influential scientists of the twentieth century, and finally how all of these brilliant individuals influenced, directly or indirectly, the Manhattan Engineering Dist. and allied atomic bomb research.
The story of Dark Sun is much different. "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" told the story of scientists and nations coming together to defeat the Axis powers. "Dark Sun" tells the story of how weapons of mass destruction polarized scientists, nations, military sects, and political mindsets (Edward Teller and E.O. Lawrences pro-thermonuclear detterence and Oppenheimer's international control camps, Soviets vs. Western powers, etc.).
It is this polarization that is the primary concern of Rhodes. Having covered the issue of nuclear fission in his previous book, all that is left scientifically is the fusion of the light elements, the use of radiation implosion, and some other admittedly difficult engineering breakthroughs necessary to sustain a thermonuclear reaction. The result was merely to boost weapons already designed for mass industrial bombing to even more terrifying megaton proportions.
Faced with the fact that after the war Los Alamos ceased to be a barracks of every influential scientific mind in the United States and became a sort of post-war arms race machine, Rhodes takes the emphasis off the scientists and puts it onto the socio-political mindset that leads to the idea of detterence, of keeping a peace-time nuclear arsenal of tremendous strength, of treating a former wartime ally as a deadly threat.
So while the focus of the book is different, I feel that it was different, not so much in a way that makes "Dark Sun" more interesting than "Making the Atomic Bomb", but in a way that was necessary and makes for perhaps a more historically relevent read. Rhodes analysis is top notch and the espionage reading is actually quite interesting, particualy as it disrobes the kind of sophisticated James Bond style clandestine operative most people continue to associate with spy-work.
I feel this book is an essential follow-up to "Making the Atomic Bomb".
gripping history read.......2005-10-27
Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb is a fascinating historical work that reads almost like a novel; perhaps a particularly technical Clancy novel, but a novel nevertheless. It targets a general audience and balances the consequent need for clarity with depth and technical detail, and with great success.
Rhodes starts by taking us through America's Manhattan Project, a subject he dealt with in depth in his earlier book, The Making of the Atomic Bomb. This time he focuses on the political elements of the project and with Soviet espionage. Klaus Fuchs is a major character in Dark Sun; in TMAB, which deals in much more depth with the scientific and technical problems behind atom bomb development, Fuchs has only a minor role. Here the scene switches back and forth between the U.S. and the USSR, where Igor Kurchatov takes charge of the Soviet nuclear program under secret police head Lavrenti Beria.
The early focus on espionage and Soviet work is important in this book; the subtitle, The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb, refers to the political impetus behind the bomb, not the scientific and technical issues. There were formidable technical difficulties in the design of the first hydrogen bomb, but nothing that would warrant the same in-depth examination of basic science that appears in the earlier book. It becomes clear in the course of Dark Sun that the making of thermonuclear weapons was driven by politics, not military need or science (not to minimize the role of politics in atomic bomb development, but that was also the result of extravagantly brilliant scientists pursuing basic and often unexpected research in physics). And much of that political impetus was the result of American shock that the Soviets detonated an atomic bomb as soon as they did, years sooner than American scientists and policy makers believed that they could. Hence the importance of Fuchs and Beria.
Also prominent in this book is Edward Teller. His obsession with thermonuclear weapons seems a powerful force behind American policy development. It's always seemed to me that Ulam was as much the father of the hydrogen bomb as Teller, but Rhodes convinces me that Teller deserves that sobriquet on the basis of his political efforts more than on the basis of his technical efforts. As the making of the atomic bomb was the result of extraordinary scientific and technical achievement, the making of the hydrogen bomb was the result of extraordinary political will. Much of that will was Teller's.
That will was also destructive. The book closes with an examination of the fallout from obsession with the Soviet threat and the way that bomb research was pursued in this country. I think that Rhodes overestimates the costs of the nuclear arms race by misallocating them, and he draws too strong a link between thermonuclear research and America's fraying infrastructure. He also gives short shrift to the case that our obsession with the Soviet threat was almost inevitable and necessary given Soviet behavior and the opacity of their motives at the time. I think Rhodes' treatment of Teller betrays a certain bias. If there's a villain in this book it isn't Fuchs, but Teller. Teller's role in the destruction of Oppenheimer wasn't meaningless and it wasn't an episode of which he should be proud, but Teller wasn't the devil. He was a man motivated by fear, and it was a fear of forces and events he didn't create. Teller was even less responsible for the cold war than he was the scientific father of the hydrogen bomb. I think Rhodes could have found a better villain.
In the context of the book I think these objections are small points; putting them aside, I think this book is very good.
Book Description
As academic disciplines, public administration and public policy programs have struggled to link theoretical and conceptual grounding with practical application. Students often have discrete courses in human resources, finance, organizational behavior, policy analysis, and planning, but rarely are they offered an opportunity to pursue these through actual cases and problems facing public managers.
The Public Manager Case Book is a collection of eight public administration cases that allows students to practice the decision-making skills they will need in their jobs as public managers. Each case focuses on the local administrative issues managers most often face in their day-to-day responsibilities, and each encourages students to collaborate with others in order to gain the necessary cooperation and information. The cases are multi-dimensional and challenge students and professors to draw from a variety of knowledge areas to develop alternative recommendations, decisions, or actions.
An instructor's manual is available for useful background material, references, theoretical and conceptual framework, and teaching tips.
About the Editor
Terrel L. Rhodes is Professor of Public Administration and Vice Provost for Curriculum and Undergraduate Studies at Portland State University.
Book Description
John James Audubon came to America as a dapper eighteen-year-old eager to make his fortune. He had a talent for drawing and an interest in birds, and he would spend the next thirty-five years traveling to the remotest regions of his new country–often alone and on foot–to render his avian subjects on paper. The works of art he created gave the world its idea of America. They gave America its idea of itself.
Here Richard Rhodes vividly depicts Audubon’s life and career: his epic wanderings; his quest to portray birds in a lifelike way; his long, anguished separations from his adored wife; his ambivalent witness to the vanishing of the wilderness. John James Audubon: The Making of an American is a magnificent achievement.
Customer Reviews:
Tenacity Incarnate.......2007-06-19
In its own way, this book reveals as much about the early 'natural history' years of the nation's founding as "Roots" does about early 'social history' years of Americans' tangled involvement with its imported slave population. Just as a national audience sat transfixed before TV sets watching a human drama unfold, so too, a reader following Audubon's manic treks back and forth from the East Coast to Louisiana to capture and sketch American birds, and his inspired obsession develop and finance a folio of ornithological plates by selling subscriptions in England, would marvel first at his tenacity, second at his self-awareness, and finally recognize that we live in a much less fecund animal world than the one he captured.
Audubon was an innovator of the first rank, in devising a systematic methodology (wire-frame supports) for accurately posing the bird in its natural setting, and a keen observer of the world he was both illustrating and helping to eradicate. Throughout his collecting and drafting career, he noted the transformations of habitats and ranges, and recognized that the 'natural' world he knew would look very different after his death. Large-scale conversion of woodlands to other uses, and the relentless pressure of colonization, exerted a profound impact on the distribution and range of avian species, and Audubon watched it happen in real time. His descriptions of the 'bird counts' he conducted tell the story. Repeatedly, he describes flocks that 'blacken the sky' - something we'll never see today.
Rhodes' biography is exhaustive, and a review should note that there is quite a bit of superfluous detail brought into the description of his early years. Furthermore, Rhodes in this effort did not turn out to be a great prose stylist, so some serious editing for length would have helped. Those criticisms aside, the Rhodes biography succeeds in bringing to life a vanished world, one in which colonists, pioneers and settlers were surrounded by 'wild nature,' and most of the people could actually name the animals (and birds) they saw!
Fascinating, Encyclopedic Study of Audubon and Early America.......2007-03-31
In the tradition of the great biographers, Rhodes leaves no stone unturned in his exploration of this remarkable fellow. The author carries us through the journey of the quintessential self-made man as he comes into maturity with his new country, the United States.
This is a study of a man, not an ornithological treatise. We all have seen the beautiful portraits of birds (terrific color plates in the paperback edition I have) and, through Rhodes efforts, discover Audubon's ingenuity in rendering them with the sort of lifelike quality he hoped to achieve. He earned his passage on many early excursions as the boat's hunter and trapper requiring lone forays into the hinterland. He clearly absorbed everything in his environment while he was making his way. His love for wildlife extended beyond avian society to all flora and fauna contained in the natural environment. He painted other animals and plants, as well. In his waning years, he executed a series of North American mammals with his sons. He had hoped to do much more.
Audubon's history is entwined with early America. He surely enjoyed his notoriety in European courts but always longed for his wild territory. In his later years (he died a decade before the Civil War), his assessment of the burgeoning nation was that it was becoming too crowded, overpopulated; ruined. THAT America was gone before Audubon died but Mr. Rhodes allows us an almost palpable glimpse at it as he illuminates one of it's most colorful citizens. Who would be a better guide into the young U.S. than this great naturalist, so skillfully revealed by this delightful writer?
Excellent book not just for birdwatchers!.......2007-01-22
If you want to really gain a great deal of insight into the forming of the American Frontier...read this book! It is really far more about that than it is about JJ Audobon although he is a very interesting character all by himself. A fascinating person at a fascinating time in history. I highly recommend it.
James James Audubon: The Father of American Ornithology chronicled in a fine biography by Richard Rhodes.......2007-01-21
John James Audubon (1785-1851) was born illegitimate in what is today the nation of Hati. He grew up in Nantes but his father sent him to Pennsylvania as a way to escape service in the army of Revolutionary France. Audubon came from a prosperous family and lived on a Pennyslvania farm owned by his family. He wed Lucy Bakewell an English girl who had immigrated to the United States from England.
The biography tells how Audubon operated a mill in Henderson,Ky. which went bankrupt. He was a constant traveler in the eastern United States drawing his beloved birds. Audubon traveled widely in Europe seeking to sell his lifework "The Birds of North America." Along the way he became famous meeting President Andrew Jackson; his literary idol Sir Walter Scott and being the second American to become a member of the Royal Society. Audubon was a complex man who loved America becoming a naturalized citizen. He was generally kind but could become volatile. Late in life he enjoyed drinking and profanity.
Audubon's life with Lucy was a great love story. His constant travel did put a strain on the marriage. His two surviving children were John and Victor. Audubon loved his family and was faithful to his wife.
Audubon pioneered painting birds in their natural habitat. His monumental "Birds of North America" shows him to be a supreme artist.
Pulitzer Prize winner Richard Rhodes quotes several journal entries and letters sent by Audubon during his lifetime. The book is well illustrated containing a section of beautiful Audubon prints.
This was a very interesting book for me and for anyone interested in
American history; art; ornithology and pioneer life. Recommended.
Unlikely Genius .......2006-10-25
My wife and I happened upon a complete 'Birds of America' exhibit at the National Gallery last year. I was mesmerized at the loving care put into these paintings and the exquisite variety of birds in America. Who was this artist, Audubon? I had seen greeting cards with his pictures and had heard of the Audubon Society, but who was he?
Audubon was self-taught immigrant from France who went into business on the frontier and failed at it because of the fragility of the economy and all the fits-and-starts associated with a new country. His avocation was painting birds, something he did in his spare time. Finally, he decided that it was what he was best at and the most likely means of supporting his family. At great personal cost and inconvenience, he spent lots of time away from his family to document these birds, both in picture, and in observation of their habits. He became the leading naturalist in the world for birds, came to meet President Andrew Jackson, the King of England, and was feted wherever he went, after he was established. He came out of nowhere to become an international celebrity.
Richard Rhodes does a remarkable job of piecing the story together. He was able to do so in large measure because Audubon spent so much time away and had to write to keep in touch. By the way, he barely kept his family together during these absences because of frequent miscommunications back and forth, partly because English was his second language. Rhodes won the Pulitzer Prize for 'The Making of the Atom Bomb', which I also read and found superb. 'Audubon' and 'The Making of the Atom Bomb' are remarkably different in subject matter, but both are handled with the same care that Audubon put into his painting.
A side benefit of this book is the chance to explore the early U.S. by living with Audubon and his family: the people he knew, the cities he went to, and especially the wilds where he painted (which were disappearing even in the early 19th century).
He was an ardent American, and transferred his citizenship at first opportunity when he got here as a young man in the early 1800's. He loved this country, as well as the birds he painted, and it shows.
I recommend reading this book while sitting at a computer so that you can access Google images of what is being discussed. It's a truly fascinating and worthy story, and the paintings are phenomenal.
Average customer rating:
- Well, something else, obviously
- Sometimes a Cigar is Not Just a Cigar
- A Real Eye Opener -- Even Makes Me Look "Normal"
- One of the best books on sexuality in existence
- Shockingly frank personal sexual history of author.
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Making Love: An Erotic Odyssey
Richard Rhodes
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
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ASIN: 0671782274 |
Customer Reviews:
Well, something else, obviously.......2001-12-16
The number one lesson I learned from this sexual memoir is the extensive role that an industrial-made lubricant could or perhaps even should - who knows ? - play in man's approach to a woman.
Sometimes a Cigar is Not Just a Cigar.......2001-11-06
Richard Rhodes thinks about sex--a lot! (Well, who doesn't?) This book is one-of-a-kind in that it is an in-depth, thoughtful and frank essay on everyone's favorite topic, and it doesn't veer into the pornographic or the clinical.
In the hands of a less-skilled writer, this book could have become silly or creepy. Rhodes, though, doesn't shy away from observations that put his most intimate experiences under a microscope. This is not a gossipy book; it's a sincere exploration of sensuality.
His first sexual encounter, masturbation, issues of sexual identity: it is all here. Rhodes doesn't exploit these subjects, and he doesn't offer them for the reader's approval. Instead, he describes his sexual history in the context of his life, which has had its ups and downs. It's a pretty brave book.
The most shocking part, to me, was not what he did sexually, but the fact that his daughter commented on it, which means she has read it! Well, I guess she is under no illusions that her parents were Rob & Laura Petrie!
I'd like to see a book of this calibre told from a woman's perspective.
A Real Eye Opener -- Even Makes Me Look "Normal".......1998-07-05
A friend (that's you, Jack) sent this book to me. Otherwise I would have never voluntarily purchased it. I had already read his Pultzer prize winning "Atomic Bomb" book and was thus willing to give this one a go. I am glad I did. I read it in two days. I would recommend it to anyone interested in widening their sexual perspective. This is not an instruction book, it is a partial overview of human sexuality at its most emotional level. Rhoades respects no boundaires -- everything is fair game. Personally, I thought the last 1/3rd of the book was the best.
One of the best books on sexuality in existence.......1998-06-28
In connection with preparing to run a conference on sexuality, I have read a number of books in the area, ranging from scholarly to popular relational junk. This is one of the most honest, open and best-crafted books in the area, by a brilliant writer who cares and thinks about what he feels, who he is and why, and explores what it is to be a man who wants both the deepest intimacy in his personal relationships and is also completely turned on by just plain old mind-bending sex, but knows that's nothing to be ashamed of. I understand Rhodes got a lot of criticism for writing this book; instead, he should be praised to the heavens for his bravery. I think it's a terrible thing that it has gone out of print.
Shockingly frank personal sexual history of author........1995-11-23
Very frank and open discussion of the author's sexual history.
Especially helpful for male readers.
First 2/3's is the best.
Highly recommend this book if you are not offended by
frank discussions about sexual preferences and behavior.
Book Description
From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Making of the Atomic Bomb: the story of the entire postwar superpower arms race, climaxing during the Reagan-Gorbachev decade when the United States and the Soviet Union came within scant hours of nuclear war—and then nearly agreed to abolish nuclear weapons.
In a narrative that reads like a thriller, Rhodes reveals how the Reagan administration’s unprecedented arms buildup in the early 1980s led ailing Soviet leader Yuri Andropov to conclude that Reagan must be preparing for a nuclear war. In the fall of 1983, when NATO staged a larger than usual series of field exercises that included, uniquely, a practice run-up to a nuclear attack, the Soviet military came very close to launching a defensive first strike on Europe and North America. With Soviet aircraft loaded with nuclear bombs warming up on East German runways, U.S. intelligence organizations finally realized the danger. Then Reagan, out of deep conviction, launched the arms-reduction campaign of his second presidential term and set the stage for his famous 1986 summit meeting with Gorbachev in Reykjavik, Iceland, and the breakthroughs that followed.
Rhodes reveals the early influence of neoconservatives and right-wing figures such as Richard Perle, Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, and Paul Wolfowitz. We see how Perle in particular sabotaged the Reykjavik meeting by convincing Reagan that mutual nuclear disarmament meant giving up his cherished dream of strategic defense (the Star Wars system). Rhodes’s detailed exploration of these and other events constitutes a prehistory of the neoconservatives, demonstrating that the manipulation of government and public opinion with fake intelligence and threat inflation that the administration of George W. Bush has used to justify the current “war on terror” and the disastrous invasion of Iraq were developed and applied in the Reagan era and even before.
Drawing on personal interviews with both Soviet and U.S. participants, and on a wealth of new documentation, memoir literature, and oral history that has become available only in the past ten years, Rhodes recounts what actually happened in the final years of the Cold War that led to its dramatic end. The story is new, compelling, and continually surprising—a revelatory re-creation of a hugely important era of our recent history.
Books:
- The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography (Oprah's Book Club)
- The New Media Reader
- The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't
- The Science of Star Wars: An Astrophysicist's Independent Examination of Space Travel, Aliens, Planets, and Robots as Portrayed in the Star Wars Films and Books
- The Screenwriter's Bible: A Complete Guide to Writing, Formatting, and Selling Your Script
- The Secret
- The Simpsons One Step Beyond Forever: A Complete Guide to Our Favorite Family...Continued Yet Again (Simpsons (Harper))
- The Star Trek Encyclopedia
- The Women Who Raised Me: A Memoir
- The Works of William Wells Brown: Using His "Strong, Manly Voice" (Collected Black Writings)
Books Index
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