History 4000

History 4000 Papers

Earlier 4000 Papers

2285 Attendance

History 2285

Hunter Driscoll

June 26, 2008

Hist 4000

 

Annotated Bibliography

 

Albright, Joseph and Marcia Kunstel. Bombshell: The Secret Story of America’s Unknown Atomic Spy Conspiracy. New York: Random House, 1997.

Bombshell is a highly detailed account of the spy rings within the Manhattan Project.  This scholarly book is mainly oriented towards well interested readers as it can become quite tedious in its details and quickly bore the reader.  It is useful to this writer’s thesis because it shows how risks were taken from a espionage point of view.

 

Cohen, Daniel. The Manhattan Project. Brookfield, CT: Millbrook Press, 1999.

This monograph is a very accessible general resource about the construction of the first atomic bomb.  It is very easy to read and contains many fascinating quotations about risks.  In fact he does a good job of focusing on the risks taken during the project.  This resource is very helpful in focusing my research.

 

Groves, Leslie. Now It Can Be Told: The Story of the Manhattan Project. New York: Harper and Row, 1962.

This is a recollection from General Groves, the Director of the Manhattan Project.  It is a very useful source to cross reference from other books.  To hear what it was like from the man who was there at every step taken towards completion of the bomb.  He can be a bit limited in scope as he only recalls things that he witnessed or was a part of during the project.  Conversely he was a part of almost every aspect of the development.

 

Hacker, Barton.  The Dragon’s Tail: Radiation Safety in the Manhattan Project, 1942-1946. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1987.

This man is the Curator of the Military history division of the National Museum of American History of the Smithsonian.  This book is the perfect resource for unearthing information about the medical risk undertaken during the quest for the atomic bomb.  It is very informative about the risks taken without going into excessive details about medicine.

 

Hales, Peter Bacon. Atomic Spaces: Living on the Manhattan Project. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1997.

This giant book is full of vivid accounts of the day to day life at Los Alamos.  Hales is a professor at the University of Illinois Press in Art History.  He offers something different from the other authors on the life of Los Alamos.  He is very detailed and hopefully will show risks in security.

 

Hull, McAllister. Rider of the Pale Horse: A Memoir of Los Alamos and Beyond. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2005.

Hull does a unique thing and discusses the moral implications of the development of the bomb.  He also talks about the development of the bomb in this general narrative.  It is a good book for formulating a thesis.

 

Kelly, Cynthia C., ed. The Manhattan Project: The Birth of the Atomic bomb in the Words of Its Creators, Eyewitnesses, and Historians. New York: Black Dog and Leventhal Publishers, Inc., 2007.

This is one of the most useful books in existence on the subject of the Manhattan Project.  Using excerpts from countless books, Kelly weaves an intricate story chronicling the development of the atomic weapon.  With an extensive bibliography, her book will be an invaluable guide in discovering more useful research.

 

Nichols, K. D. The Road to Trinity. New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1987.

The words of the chief aide to General Groves are very informative.  This book will contain many unique insights into the mind of Groves and the other administrative leaders of the Manhattan Project.  One major setback will be his lack of knowledge about scientific risks the developers had to endure.

 

Turabian, Kate L. A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996.

This invaluable resource will guide me through the complex task of citing and formatting my paper.  The eleventh edition will carry the most up to date information on formatting historical papers.  This book will contain many unique insights into the mind of Groves and the other administrative leaders of the Manhattan Project.

 

Wilson, Jane and Charlotte Serber, eds. Standing By and Making Do: Women of Wartime Los Alamos. Los Alamos, New Mexico: The Lost Alamos Historical Society, 1988.

This is a collection of stories from various women of Los Alamos.  The editors did a expert job when they selected different stories and tied them all together in a way which exposed the life in New Mexico.  Wilson has a special insight as she is one of the women who worked at Los Alamos.