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The Apocalypse Factory: Plutonium and the Making of the Atomic Age
Maybe someday
49
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
62/100Critics
36/100Scholars
Author:
Steve Olson
Publisher:
W. W. Norton Company
Date:
July 28, 2020
A narrative of scientific triumph, decades of secrecy, and the unimaginable destruction wrought by the creation of the atomic bomb.
What The Reviewers Say
Olson writes lucidly, making even the most recondite details of the science involved clear to a nonscientist. And he’s eloquent in his chronicling of the lives affected — and sometimes destroyed — by the invention and use of the world’s most deadly weapon.
Olson buttresses his argument for Hanford’s significance with historic facts such as these, but also with personal anecdotes and present-day insights.
I wish that Mr. Olson had spent some time discussing the problems that the Los Alamos people had working with plutonium.
In accessible prose, [Olson] explores all the scientific complexities, offering a vivid picture of the dawning nuclear age.
