This groundbreaking book--the first of its kind--collects the writings and thoughts of the original participants in the Manhattan Project, along with pieces by the most important historians and interpreters of the subject. It is a rich and comprehensive compilation of documents, essays, articles, and excerpts from histories, biographies, plays, novels, letters, oral histories, and more, and is the freshest, most multi-faceted exploration yet of the topic. Including material by and about J. Robert Oppenheimer, Leo Szilard, Albert Einstein, Richard Feynman, Leslie Groves, Klaus Fuchs, Henry Stimson, Vannevar Bush, Harry S. Truman, Niels Bohr, and many other key figures, it also collects the writings and testimony of those in the trenches at the Project, their families, and local eyewitnesses. Finally, the book includes thoughts and concerns about the bomb, set down in the aftermath of its deployment, by politicians, writers, artists, and others who saw that the world would never again be the same.
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Background Information
The project to develop the first atomic bomb during World War II was known as the Manhattan District, or informally the Manhattan Project. J. Robert Oppenheimer was the chief scientific adminstrator during the Manhattan Project and later the victim of suspicions against all those with politically questionable friends. Albert Einstein revolutionized science with his theory of relativity, first published in 1903, and was influential in persuading FDR of the potential for atomic weapons in World War II. Henry Stimson was a US diplomat.