Dark Sun; The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb

New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 1995. First printing [stated]. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. Nancy Crampton (Author photograph). 731, [3] p. Illustrations. Notes. Glossary of Names. Bibliography. Index. Cover has some wear and soiling. Inscribed by author on second fep. Richard Lee Rhodes (born July 4, 1937) is an American journalist, historian, and author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Making of the Atomic Bomb, and most recently, The Twilight of the Bombs. He has been awarded grants from the Ford Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation among others. He frequently gives lectures and talks on a broad range of audiences, including testifying before the U.S. Senate on nuclear energy. Rhodes was admitted to Yale University and received a Scholarship, which awarded him full tuition, room, board, and other expenses for four years. He published 23 books and many articles for national magazines. This book is published as part of an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Program, the Sloan Technology Series. Derived from a Kirkus review: It becomes clear that the battle between J. Robert Oppenheimer and Edward Teller over the development of the hydrogen bomb and the direction national policy would take in the 1950s is a significant focus. Their battle for the soul of the American public was Oppenheimer's tragic undoing, stripped him of his security clearances, and removed him from US policy-making. Teller's semi-Pyrrhic victory left him a virtual pariah in the world of physics. Rhodes brings to that story sound judgment, a sharp eye for intrinsically fascinating detail, and a nice way with words. His down-to-earth manner also leads Rhodes to nose out little-remarked nuggets, telling us, for example, that the famous atomic spy Klaus Fuchs and mathematician John von Neumann filed a patent together for the H-bomb in 1946. Rhodes manages to fit in a wealth of interesting detail.