In the following review, Wang calls The Making of the Atomic Bomb "a most up-to-date and surely most readable version of the exciting story."

This Pulitzer and National Book Prize-winning work (for 1987) by Richard Rhodes is an exceptionally well-written account of the building and use of the first nuclear weapons. Rhodes presents an extensive historical exploration of the scientific and political background to the bomb that focuses on people—the scientists, engineers, and administrators. He synthesizes a large amount of material, most of it published, and ably weaves various lines of development together to render a most up-to-date and surely most readable version of the exciting story.

Starting with Ernest Rutherford's 1911 discovery of the atomic nucleus, the first third of the book is mostly devoted to the history of nuclear physics before World War II. By narrating the milestone events in the field up to the discovery...