The Making of the Atomic Bomb - Does it pick up?

Submitted by vincentx99 t3_y0mpxk in books

So I've started reading this. I expected it to be similar to a book that I read about the founding of skunkworks, where it talks about how the people involved came together to accomplish something incredible.

Instead, I'm getting these mini biographies on scientists. But Oppenheimer hasn't even entered the picture yet! From philosophical musings about their life (not related to the bomb) to their complete educational histories, and lots of details about their families and friends they made along the way.

Lots of talk about scientific societies, and how they started off learning one subject then changed to another etc.

Literally the most exciting part of the book has been about the discovery of the Neutron, but so far no one except for one scientist has even considered it's use as a weapon, and I feel that even that realization was more of a footnote then anything.

I want to stick with it, I really do, but I'm not sure if I can tough out 1400 more pages of NOT trinity, Manhatten project, hydrogen bomb, Hiroshima etc.

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Jack-Campin t1_irsnvo5 wrote

It's as much a social history of science as a military history. It's telling a complicated story and if you really want understand what happened, yes it does take that long. And the scientists involved did have amazing life stories. You'll find he persuades you as it goes along.

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Pretend_Tourist_8770 t1_irsqdnk wrote

It does pick up. Worth the read in the end. The beginning was a tough read.

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Buybch t1_irt4f7p wrote

I’m about 80% through this book, and actively working on finishing it. All I can say is, all of my preconceived notions about the building of the atomic bomb were incorrect, and for that reason I’ve enjoyed reading it. Could it have been done in a better way or more concise way, sure, maybe, but I doubt I’ll be able to find a book that that has taught me this much

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bhbhbhhh t1_irwp63v wrote

Tell me about your preconceptions. I always find it so thrilling when my imagined idea of how a technical or organizational problem is handled is nothing compared to the intricacy of the actual solutions.

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chortlingabacus t1_irtaz49 wrote

I don't know the book but it has from what you say the loud ring of a book about science/history/mathematics e.g. written by a journalist, mostly likely a Yank one: the long irrelevant globs of text about researchers' past, physical appearance, families, preferences ('His favourite T-shirt is a blue-violet one asking the question, in pink-typefaced binary code, "Can You Take A Selfie Next To A Black Hole?") etc. etc. If that's that sort of book this is, why not skim through the stupid stuff till you get to the good part, i.e. the actual work on the atomic bomb? and once you've reached it, you can skim through the stuff like 'Teller noticed with a glance that Oppenheimer was suppressing a yawn; he could not have known at the time that both of them were at that moment longing for a submarine sandwich' to get, you know, hopefully, actual information.

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vincentx99 OP t1_irtprnz wrote

You nearly killed me with the Oppenheimer fanfic. I think I'll just keep on roughing it for a while. From the sounds of it, it will eventually pick up.

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bhbhbhhh t1_irwpis2 wrote

It’s so funny that this is the dark mirror image of the comments on reddit that insist that chraacter and emotion are all that matter in books and everything else is irrelevant.

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