By: Richard Rhodes
Narrated by: Holter Graham
Series: Richard Rhodes’ Nuclear Histories
Length: 37 hrs and 16 mins

Who controls the power you create. As Americans, we have often chosen to personify the way we live as a way of opportunity with the power over our own destiny. In the passages through this book, Rhodes starts us on a path of discovery, watching physicists interrogating the radiation of heat and the ever-shrinking structure of the atom through this journey he highlights the critical turning points and important actors. Closing with their agency taken away, and seeing the monster they created used for great destruction.

Rhodes starts with scientific theory and transitions to its application; along the way portraying people who chart the map, and those who walk the path as linked but separate individuals. The actors and events feel alive as he relays these scientists’ backgrounds and the unique role each of them plays.

One continuing thread that he weaves with purpose is the insensitivity of politicians: portraying them as people who use the power created by others for their own ends, without regard for those who created it. He continues to stitch this line and concludes with an ending that I thought did not fit the story of this book. To me, it demonstrates a misunderstanding of the times: fitting scientists as potential saviors of mankind but ultimately ripping away the agency over their own creation.

The conclusion ends up with a listing of people who died and a description of how they died after the bombing of Hiroshima in Japan. Trying to convey the truth that thousands of people died is hard. A quote oft attributed to Stalin, “A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic” illustrates how it is difficult to grasp the death of thousands. I found the monotone palate he chose to portray the deaths of thousands to be ineffective. Indeed it sits juxtaposed at the end of a fascinating trail: a vista without a view. It feels like he is trying to get across a point, that using the bombs was wrong, he made me feel like he was wasting my time.

Overall I appreciated the book but would recommend reading it alongside other discussions that bring perspective to the war: the Massacre of Manila and the firebombing of Tokyo are examples of elements to incorporate into this discussion. Ultimately, no one knows what would’ve happened had the bomb not been used, but I think that by choosing to use the bomb on a few, many more lives were saved. One evaluation done by William Shockley for the war department estimated that invading Japan would cost 400,000–800,000 American military deaths, and 5,000,000 to 10,000,000 Japanese military and civilian deaths. The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki cost an estimated 200,000 Japanese deaths, mostly civilians. Thus, using the bomb was a more humane thing to do for both the Americans and the Japanese.