Drawing on declassified material such as MI6's Farm Hall transcripts, coded Soviet messages cracked by American cryptographers in the Venona project, and interpretations by Russian scholars of documents from the Soviet archives, Atomic presents a brilliant new account of the race to build humankind's most destructive weapon.
Jim Baggott is an award-winning science writer. A former academic chemist,he runs an independent management consultancy practice but maintains a broad interest in science, philosophy and history and continues to write on these subjects in his spare time, for, amongother publications, New Scientist magazine. His previous bookshave been widely acclaimed and include A Beginner's Guide to Reality (Penguin, 2005) and Beyond Measure: Modern Physics,Philosophy and the Meaning of Quantum Theory (OUP, 2004).
I [have] read everything on the subject that I could lay my hands
on, but I never read such a good, comprehensive account as Jim
Baggott's... Highly recommended.
*Reader’s Digest*
High drama... fascinating reading.
*BBC Focus Magazine*
Grimly compelling. Thorough and accessible.
*Daily Telegraph*
The best popular science book of the year to date by far.
*Popular Science*
Baggott's investigation is an accessible account of the race to
build the world's first atomic weapons. Compelling.
*Good Book Guide*
Atomic is the tale of the creation of the Atomic bomb during
wartime, and the political fallout from the realization of these
powerful weapons... Most importantly Atomic is about the people and
personalities behind the bomb... It's a disturbing book - simply
because it's a very disturbing story.
*Book Geeks*
Comprehensive and clear-flowing book by Jim Baggott... the real nub
of this thriller of a book: the human brain is the thing that fills
you wit fearful awe.
*Diplomat Magazine*
This is an excellent example of popular science, explaining a
series of difficult concepts clearly and coherently, but without
sacrificing accuracy. When combined with the personal stories of
the scientists the result is an excellent study of the development
of the first atomic bomb.
*History of War*
Jim Baggott's clear, elegant prose never falters, whether unveiling
the scientists and spies who raced to unlock the secrets of the
atom bomb, or describing the sub-atomic particle which drove the
physicists on to what J Robert Oppenheimer later called 'sin'.
*Telegraph*
An excellent introduction to a vast and complicated topic.
*Michael Dobbs, New York Times*
Atomic provides a popular but informed and compelling account of
the international competition to produce atomic weapons.
*Chemistry World*
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