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Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb |  | Author: Richard Rhodes
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Category: Book
List Price: $18.95
Buy Used: $0.94
as of 7/31/2010 14:01 MDT details
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Seller: metismedia
Rating:  55 reviews
Sales Rank: 39642
Media: Paperback
Pages: 736
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.9
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.4
ISBN: 0684824140
Dewey Decimal Number: 623.45119
EAN: 9780684824147
ASIN: 0684824140
Publication Date: August 6, 1996
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com Review
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.
Product 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.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 55
 Dark and Sinister Heart of Darkness July 17, 2010
scholarboy (NYC)
It took me a long time to finish this book, as it is much less a narrative, albeit exciting, story as is Rhodes much praised Making of the Atomic Bomb, which I had read twice previously. As some commentators have said, this is in many ways a more important, and more frightening story. In addition to the scientific story, this is also a political, psychological, and diplomatic thriller. The portrayals of Edward Teller and Curtis LeMay are alone worth the cost of the book. It is perhaps not as well organized as "Making", as Rhodes is trying to tell many stories in one, and suffers from a bit too much moralising. Nevertheless, anyone interested, and concerned about the course that history has taken since 1945, and the US "military-industrial complex" should put this book on their "must read" list.
Dark Sun July 5, 2010
Dr. Monkeywrench
The product arrived in a timely manner. It was advertised as used and obviously was used, but it was in good shape.
I have been pleased with my purchases from Amazon.
Interesting and Scary March 8, 2010
C. Finks (Santa Rosa, CA USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The book, Dark Sun - The Making Of The Hydrogen Bomb, by Richard Rhodes gives a history of the making of the first atomic weapons. The book covers a span of time from 1939, just prior to World War I, up to the late 1950's. Rhodes shows us how U.S. politics played an important role in speeding up the research of the bomb, both fission and fusion, by providing large amounts of money for equipment, materials, facilities, and scientific personnel. The science, technology, and problems encountered in the design and manufacture of atomic weapons and nuclear reactors are covered and examples are kept simple enough for the non-scientist (like me) to understand. Perhaps the most important topic of the book was the controversy surrounding the creation of such a powerful bomb, and the costly Cold War arms race that it started between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, which lasted for fifty years.
This book relies upon a variety of sources to back up its arguments. For example, the Cold War arms race actually began during WWII when Russian spies began infiltrating the United States, and other countries, in an effort to gain information to build atomic weapons. The main supporting document for this spy activity was given by the Soviet intelligence agency called the KGB, and published in a Russian journal Problems in the History of Science and Technology. Rhodes uses this journal, confessions from Russian spies (Klaus Fuch, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, and others,) FBI records, and decoded wartime cable intercepts, to fill in a timeline of espionage events. Rhodes also used a declassified diary of the commanding general of the U.S. Strategic Air Command (SAC), Curtis LeMay, another important character of the Cold War, to show us how power hungry and dangerous he was. As SAC commander, he wanted the ability to control and launch U.S. nuclear weapons and recommended we bomb Korea (during the Korean War) or Russia if need be. Atomic weapon information was obtained from declassified documents. A hydrogen bomb called Mike, tested in1952, is shown cut-in-half, on page 506 in Dark Sun, it is a simple explanation of how the H-bomb works. Also included in the book are a variety of black and white pictures of scientists, politicians, and military commanders and of the bombs themselves (before and during detonation.)
Overall, the book was scary. It's hard for me to imagine the destructive power of an atomic weapon, and harder still to imagine the heavy price that Japanese citizens paid when the U.S. dropped atomic bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima. I thought it was very wrong and also extremely sad that nations, like the U.S. and Russia, would spend so much money, time, and effort on the development of nuclear weapons. Rhodes explains that the arms race debt eventually caused the collapse of the Soviet Union and the U.S. to end up with a four trillion dollar deficit - imagine all the other things that money might have been used for! What was most terrifying to me was the story about Curtis Lemay, the commanding general of SAC, and how he used his persuasive power to get atomic bombs to Guam, and have these bombs placed under his command, so that he might use them upon Korea. The most confusing thing about the book for me, was the number of scientists, spies, and government and military officials - there were too many to keep track of and I thought it might have been helpful to have a diagram showing how people were connected to each other.
This book does a good job of explaining the history of the atomic bomb. It is interesting, and scary. I believe its main focus is to show us how dangerous and un-winnable a nuclear war is, and I think it hits the target.
First Responder October 25, 2009
Shelley D. Palmer
A must read. Gives insight into a period that we seem not to have remembered. Full of technical history of how to build nuclear weapons.
This book is fascinating. September 22, 2009
Cynthia Klingler
I read the making of the atomic bomb by the same author and remianed fascinated for 800 pages. This book is equally marvelous. The previous book dealt with the advances in science and the people who made them, beginning in the 19th century. The hydrogen bomb was conceived during the epoch subsequent to the making of the atomic bomb and its promoter, Edward Teller, was not a popular person at the time; he encountered resistence. The author describes the personalities who were working on these weapons, famous scientists, and their quirks and weaknesses. Also, all of the science that goes on. I did stop to study a bit.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 55
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