Bomb: The Race to Build - and Steal - the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon

Sheinkin, Steve. Bomb: The Race to Build - and Steal - the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon. 2012. 266p. ISBN 9781596434875. Available both on the library shelves at 623.4 SHE and as an eBook on Overdrive.

The race to build an atomic bomb began innocently enough when a German chemist accidentally discovered that uranium could be split in two, releasing some energy in a process called fission. This discovery ignited the imagination of physicists around the world, but then the possibilities offered by fission suddenly became frightful. In theory, fission could be used to power a bomb, and it would unleash the most destructive force ever witnessed by man.

The race was on between the Americans and the Germans as to whom would build the first atomic bomb. In the United States, scientists led by Robert Oppenheimer gathered in Los Alamos and raced, worried that German scientists were ahead of them, and that Hitler would use such a weapon to turn the tide of war.

But a group of spies lurked in the background. The Soviet Union also coveted the bomb, and it took extreme steps to acquire American secrets.

This is the story of spies, scientists, and commandoes dedicated to the ultimate goal of being the first to win the atomic race and change the world forever.

If you like this book, you will enjoy Blizzard of Broken Glass, about the largest man-made explosion before the atomic bomb, which happened in 1917 in Halifax, Canada, when a ship carrying millions of pounds of explosives blew up, levelling up entire city blocks and killing thousands.