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The First War of Physics: The Secret History of the Atomic Bomb, 1939-1949 |  | Author: Jim Baggott
Publisher: Pegasus
Category: Book
List Price: $35.00
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Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 323919
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1St Edition
Pages: 584
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.7
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6 x 2
ISBN: 1605980846
Dewey Decimal Number: 355.82511909
EAN: 9781605980843
ASIN: 1605980846
Publication Date: April 13, 2010
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Product Description
An epic story of science and technology at the very limits of human understanding: the monumental race to build the first atomic weapons. Rich in personality, action, confrontation, and deception, The First War of Physics is the first fully realized popular account of the race to build humankind's most destructive weapon. The book draws 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.
Jim Baggott weaves these threads into a dramatic narrative that spans ten historic years, from the discovery of nuclear fission in 1939 to the aftermath of 'Joe-1,’ August 1949's first Soviet atomic bomb test. Why did physicists persist in developing the atomic bomb, despite the devastation that it could bring? Why, despite having a clear head start, did Hitler's physicists fail? Could the soviets have developed the bomb without spies like Klaus Fuchs or Donald Maclean? Did the allies really plot to assassinate a key member of the German bomb program? Did the physicists knowingly inspire the arms race? The First War of Physics is a grand and frightening story of scientific ambition, intrigue, and genius: a tale barely believable as fiction, which just happens to be historical fact. 32 black-and-white illustrations
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| Customer Reviews:
 It was no "sin" to give democracies the atomic bomb September 9, 2010
Robert F. Holub (Lakewood, CO USA)
I should say up front that I defected from communist Czechoslovakia in 1965, am a nuclear scientist, and we all had to undergo years of Marx-Leninist studies, 1955-1960, at our university (Charles) in Prague. I know quite well what communism is like, in theory and practice.
This book is based, however, on the presumption that USSR had been morally equivalent, equally trustworthy, as the West.
Well, Stalin had murdered 30-50 thousand of surrendered Polish officers and other "class enemies", in 1940, in Katyn (this was not mentioned by Baggot). They surrendered believing they will find refuge in USSR. Stalin was supposedly preparing for the defense against Hitler (Baggott says). Well, by killing Polish officers, potentially his best allies?
Only now the Russians admitted fully they committed this horrible - and stupid - crime, that is after 70 years.
Klaus Fuchs helped the Soviets build the bomb so that they had it as early as 1949. The invasion of South Korea was facilitated by this fact. The communists always believed that their final victory is historically inevitable (similar to Hitler's belief that the Nordic race will conquer the world). The Korean war was also the first attempt to break the "confinement" policy, as outlined by Kennan in his famous long telegram (mentioned by Baggot). Thanks to Truman, and the US/UN forces, they failed.
In 1956 Eisenhower did not help the Hungarians. Then the Soviets gained Cuba. Who would be the next? Turkey? Vietnam? Malaysia?
Oleg Penkovsky, who told Kennedy that Khrushchev did not have very many atomic bombs during the Cuban crisis, and helped so the West, was caught by KGB, and sentenced to death by being slowly cremated alive. The movie of Penkovsky's death is being shown to KGB recruits. It's true the Russians have not owned up to this cruelty yet - well, it's been only 45 years...
Another and more recent case - Litvinenko. His also very painful murder could have been perpetrated only by the Russians who have access to nuclear reactors, to manufacture Po210. The proofs of this crime were beyond doubt. The Russians refused to extradite the murderer to England.
Anglo-Saxon countries had no revolutions or conquests for more than two centuries (England no conquest since 1066, others never). They cannot imagine what it's like to have complete reversals of governments, imposed on them from outside, and to live under the Nazis, or the Communists, etc. And to add insult to injury, many in the West consider us some pathetic East European tribesmen who have some local hard to understand disputes. No. The West was mostly the good guys, and the Communists were mostly the bad ones. I've sided with the good guys (and still do).
I'd add a personal plea, I wish I would not be hearing over and over again how the physicists "have known sin". The sensible ones did their duty - providing their duly elected leaders with the atomic bomb. Its use was exclusively Truman's responsibility. The dear physicists' hands are not "bloodied".
I salute Truman's decision - it saved millions of lives of both countries, and prevented Stalin's conquering parts of Japan
This book deserves the lowest score.
 The Best I've Read August 4, 2010
James Palmer (Minneapolis, MN USA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I agree very much with the previous comments and conclusions of Joe Pardue "Smiley's" review. My only addition would be to say that over the years I have read a good deal about this subject in books by Norris, Herken, Groves, Groueff and Feynman. This is the most complete, and yet concise, version of the story including the efforts in Europe as well as in the United States. Best of all is his unbiased approach and resistance to making moral conclusions about this complicated subject. If I could ever get my son-in-law to read it he might understand all of the facts which lead to the difficult decision to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Compelling read July 1, 2010
Joe Pardue (Hiding out near the Great Smokey Mountains)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
I was born about the time that the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists first featured the Doomsday Clock and lived my formative years under the threat of nuclear annihilation. I can remember many times looking at a contrail in the sky and wondering if this was finally it? As a young adult I worked in Oak Ridge at the X-10 plant and got to see first-hand some of the artifacts of what Baggot calls `The First War of Physics'. I was in awe of the events that could have destroyed civilization. And I've often wondered how we managed not to destroy ourselves. Baggot's book is very well written and follows the important scientific, historical, and political events. His style flows well and at times makes the reading compelling almost like reading a novel. You see the ideas behind the science, the personalities that made the discoveries, and the truly frightening politics of the time. There are many events in this story that could easily lead to moralizing on the part of an author, but Baggot avoids the temptation and fairly expresses the concerns of the folks involved without taking a side. I strongly recommend this book.
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