Helen Plum Library

An account of the race to build history's most destructive weapon to date

J. Robert Oppenheimer is one of the iconic figures of the twentieth century, a physicist who led the effort to build the atomic bomb for his country in a time of war, and who later found himself confronting the moral consequences of scientific progress. In this biography twenty-five years in the making, Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin capture Oppenheimer's life and times, from his early career to his central role in the Cold War. --From publisher's description...

A "behind-the-scenes account of the 116 days leading up to the Americans attack on Hiroshima"--Dust jacket flap April 12, 1945: America is stunned by the death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Vice President Harry Truman, who has been kept out of war planning, must assume command of a nation at war on multiple continents. Wallace tells the gripping true story of the turbulent days, weeks, and months leading up to August 6, 1945, when Truman gives...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “The suspense novel for all others to beat . . . [a] must read.”—The Denver Post
WINNER OF THE EDGAR AWARD FOR BEST FIRST NOVEL
It is the spring of 1945, and in a dusty, remote community, the world’s most brilliant minds have come together in secret. Their mission: to split an atom and end a war. But among those who have come to Robert Oppenheimer ’s “enchanted...

"In this gripping follow-up to The Time of Jacob's Trouble, bestselling author Donna VanLiere explores the end-times prophecies in the journeys of Emma, Zerah, and others who cling to hope even as danger closes in and civilization crumbles on an unprecedented scale"--Provided by publisher

In August 1945, the world was transformed in the blink of an eye when American forces dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and then Nagasaki. The destruction was unprecedented and the bombings precipitated the end of World War II. Contains archival footage and stunning photography. Interviews are from both Japanese survivors and the Americans who believed that their involvement would help end a brutal conflict

"Documents the Allied raid against occupied Norway's Vemork hydroelectric plant, the world's only supplier of an essential ingredient needed by the Nazis to build an atomic bomb, citing the teamwork of British Special Ops, a brilliant scientist and refugee Norwegian commandos that foiled Hitler's nuclear ambitions,"--NoveList It's 1942 and the Nazis are racing to be the first to build a weapon unlike any known before. They have the physicists, they...

"This suspenseful and propulsive account of the days leading up to the end of World War II, is told through the stories of three men: Henry Stimson, the Secretary of War, who had overall responsibility for decisions about the atomic bomb; Gen. Carl "Tooey" Spaatz, head of strategic bombing in Europe and the Pacific, who was in charge of actually dropping the bombs; and Shigenori Tōgō, the Japanese Foreign Minister, who was the only one in Emperor...

"Their average age was twenty-five. They came from Berkeley, Cambridge, Paris, London, Chicago--and arrived in New Mexico ready for adventure, or at least resigned to it. But hope quickly turned to hardship as they were forced to adapt to a rugged military town where everything was a secret, including what their husbands were doing at the lab. They lived in barely finished houses with P.O. box addresses in a town wreathed with barbed wire, all for...