The books in this section are usually hardcover and in decent condition, though we'll sometimes offer hard-to-find books in lesser condition at a reduced price. Though we often put images of the book with their original dust jackets, the copies here won't always (or even often) have them. If that is important to you, please call ahead or say so in the order comments!
On the sunlit morning of August 6, 1945, a bomb burst over the Japanese industrial city of Hiroshima. In the split micro-second of its flash, Hiroshima was reduced to a flaming ruin. The first atomic bomb had been exploded in war. Behind this weapon lay the greatest military and scientific gamble of World War II. Ahead lay a future in which the bomb could mean the end of mankind or the end of all wars.
This book tells the incredible story of the men and the billions of dollars it took to produce the world's first atomic bomb...a project so huge, it employed half a million scientists and workers, entailed the construction of three complete cities in remote parts of the United States, and managed to be one of the greatest and best kept secrets in history.
It is a story of agonizing suspense, of hope and fear, of patriotism and treason and of the momentous decision made by the President of the United States as he ordered a remodeled B-29 bomber, with its specially trained crew and its deadly payload, to take to the air on its fateful mission.
Objective in its examinations of the many sensitive problems raised by atomic weapons since Hiroshima, it does more than illumine the past. It offers vital understanding of the force representing the greatest peril -- and the greatest promise -- in the world today.
*Maps by Barry Martin
—from the dust jacket
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