Brighter Than a Thousand Suns - A Personal History of the Atomic Scientists

Based on interviews with the major participants and on official focuments and transcripts, this is an account of the remarkable scientists who discovered that nuclear fission was possible and then became concerned about its implications. They were an international fraternity, freely exchanging the fruits of their research, until the beginnings of WW2, when a number of physicists were forced to flee Hermany and neighbouring countries. Several important German physicists were left behind during the way, raising the crucial question of how long would it take for Germany to develop an atom bomb. It is laid out here how President Roosevelt was persuaded to enter the race to build a bomb, and how scientists later failed to stop the use of the bomb, illuminated especially by the controversial case of J. Robert Oppenheimer...