Manhattan Project

Manhattan Project Stephane Groueff 429pp.

Stephane Groueff’s Manhattan Project is a wonderful history of the Manhattan Project, the United State’s four year project to create, test, and deliver an atomic bomb. Groueff’s prose is so engaging that you almost forget you’re reading about the creation of the worst weapon of mass murder ever developed. The book is pervaded by the tension surrounding every experiment, every attempt in the process of enriching uranium as well as the looming and largely unspoken danger of an enemy power beating the United States to the bomb.

During World War II the United States faced the unimaginable threat of Nazi Germany creating an atomic weapon and using it to wipe out the allies. In response to this, President Roosevelt created the Manhattan Engineering District-a massive project to understand the science behind nuclear fission and achieve the incredibly difficult industrial tasks standing in the way of creating a usable atomic weapon. It is that latter aspect that dominates Groueff’s text.

Groueff writes his history in a very effective manner. Rather than adopting the stance of a distant, third-person narrator, he chooses to follow the leader of the Manhattan Engineering District, Brigadier General Leslie Groves. Every piece of information, every bit of knowledge we gain about the progress of the Manhattan Project is fed to us as Groves travels around the country, leading the project to its ultimate conclusion. Manhattan Project does not, however, slip into great man history. Rather, Groueff focuses on the uncounted contributions of thousands of scientists and industrialists around the country, all collaborating to create the atomic bomb. Interestingly, only about a dozen people knew what they were working towards. A few hundred knew that they were working on the enrichment of uranium. The rest, numbering in the thousands, had absolutely no notion what they were working towards creating.

Manhattan Project was fascinating, impossible to put down. For as long as I can remember, I have had a vague understanding of the scientific work undertaken to develop the atomic weapon. However, until I read Manhattan Project I had never given a consideration to the tremendous industrial challenge that pursuing such a weapon required. To give an example: the creation of an atomic bomb requires several kilograms of either uranium-235 or plutonium. Prior to the Manhattan Project, plutonium was simply a theoretical element, no one had ever observed it. Uranium-235 composes roughly .7% of the natural state of that element. The question then, is how to separate the necessary uranium-235 from the overwhelming prevalence of uranium-238.

At the outset of the project, there were five separate methods placed on the table: centrifuges, electromagnetic separation, gaseous diffusion, and two methods of plutonium production. No one knew which technique would prove to be the best method, so Groves pursued the simplest solution available to him: full steam ahead on all five methods. As the project wore on, different methods ran into difficulties and were cancelled, until finally the gaseous diffusion technique was settled on.

If you enjoy reading about history and are interested in the tremendous challenges that the United States overcame in the Manhattan Project, or simply want to gain a layman’s understanding of the processes a country goes through to become a nuclear power, a recurring theme in world politics, Manhattan Project is a book well worth your time.

Would I recommend Manhattan Project? Yes.

Score: 4.3/5

Would I keep this on my bookshelf? I haven’t quite decided. It was riveting, a tour de force of history, but I don’t yet know if I will come back to it.

-Mr. Cheddar