Chapter 1 "Moonshine" Summary

In this Pulitzer Prize winning book, author and historian Richard Rhodes summarizes the lives, decisions, and scientific discoveries involved in making the atomic bomb the United States dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, in Japan, to end the horrible bloodshed of World War II in the Pacific. The book is written after the fact, from the historian's detailed point of view. The author discusses concerns about potential consequences of a multi-national arms race. He intermixes details of scientific discoveries making construction of the bomb possible. He discusses world history and geography, the events of World War II, the process of making the atomic bomb and reasons for using the bomb. Rhodes also highlights the practicalities involved, with detailed biographies of some of the scientists. Some of the biographies have been shortened for this analysis.

In 1933, Leo Szilard, a thirty-five-year-old Jewish...