Fermi, Laura. Atoms in the Family: My Life with Enrico Fermi. University of Chicago Press, 1954.

This firsthand account of the life of Enrico Fermi by his wife Laura offers a different view of the man who won a Nobel Prize for his work in physics. With Laura having a background in physics herself, it becomes an advantage to the reader to have the events that transpired under the cloak of secrecy at Los Alamos presented in lay terms. A touching, and many times humorous, tribute to her eccentric, but kind hearted husband who helped propel the world into a new era.

Frank, Richard B., Downfall: The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire. Random House Publishing, 1999.

Richard Frank’s monograph records in a non-biased way the events surrounding the eventual surrender of the Japanese Empire to the United States after the use of two nuclear devices. Drawing on source material not released in Japan until shortly before the book was written, Frank gives his readers new insights into an Imperial regime the behaved as a complete units, not parts of a whole. He explores the idea of Ketsu-Go and its effect on the war in the Pacific, the denial of Japanese leadership to face the truth that their regime was deteriorating, and the consequences that the nation had to face after the nuclear devices were detonated over Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Giovannitti, Len. The Decision to Drop the Bomb. Coward-McCann, Inc., 1965.

In 1965, Len Giovannitti gave to the world the most comprehensive book to date concerning the decision to drop the atomic bomb. Pulling important interviews from members of Harry Truman’s cabinet and examining their diaries allowed Giovannitti to form the conclusion that although the men who dropped the atomic bomb did not do so out of vengeance, they miscalculated the effect of a single bomb, and they did not take into consideration that Japanese communication was in shambles, so news of Hiroshima did not even reach the Emperor until almost 48 hours after the bombing.

Gonzales, Doreen. The Manhattan Project and the Atomic Bomb. Enslow Publishers, Inc., 2000.

Gonzales offers a concise, direct, and fact laden monograph that gives no conclusions based on the material, but rather allows the readers to decide how to react after reading the information presented. Being a short book, Gonzales is only able to give a brief assessment of each step leading to the detonating of the nuclear weapons over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but she does a wonderful job giving a chronology of the events in question.

Kelly, Cynthia. Oppenheimer and the Manhattan Project: Insights into J. Robert Oppenheimer. World Scientific Publishing, 2006.

In the centennial year after J. Robert Oppenheimer’s birth, the people influenced by Oppenheimer gathered together to celebrate his life and his work. What followed is a collection of memories and insights from those people, as well as the author’s own research regarding the man who spearheaded the scientific division of the Manhattan Project. The book also discusses Oppenheimer’s political views, his moral views, and his ideas of atomic use after the world had entered the atomic age.

Kelly, Cynthia. The Manhattan Project. Black Dog and Levinthal Publishers, Inc., 2007.

The Manhattan Project is the premier supply of primary documents, interviews, and biographical information pertaining to the Manhattan Project responsible for building the atomic devices. Documenting stories and intelligence from all four project locations, Kelly gives insight into how people were able to arrive at such an extraordinary new technology while living in secrecy and solitude in Los Alamos, New Mexico.

Lanouette, William and Silard, Bella. Genius in the Shadows: A Biography of Leo Szilard: The Man Behind the Bomb. University of Chicago Press, 1994.

Not much is known about the man who stood behind Oppenheimer, Einstein, Wigner, Teller, and Fermi. Szilard was never very well liked by most of his contemporaries. Despite this, however, Szilard had some of the most amazing ideas whizzing around his mind. He came up with a breeder reactor, a device that produces more fissionable material than it uses while at the same time generating nuclear energy, and the cobalt bomb, a device so radioactively dirty that it would kill everyone on earth (it was the inspiration for the "doomsday device" in the film "Dr. Strangelove"). This biography, co-written by Szilard’s brother, retells the life and times of perhaps the oddest thinker within the Manhattan project’s ranks.

Norris, Margot, Dividing the Indivisible: The Fissured Story of the Manhattan Project Cultural Critique, No. 35 1996-1997.

Norris’s goal is to “reconfigure the master narrative” surrounding the events that happened at Los Alamos, New Mexico. Norris says that the bomb has obtained its own “mythological” sign, bringing with it the same feelings that evoking the name of Shiva, or Prometheus. Norris’s abstract look at the Manhattan Project is useful for someone who needs a different perspective on the underlying events that surround the cataclysmic devices those scientists created.

Norris, Robert S., Racing for the Bomb. Steerforth Press, 2002.

Norris’s meticulously detailed account of the life of Leslie R. Groves gives great insight into the head of the atomic bomb’s development and employment. An enormously researched book, Racing for the Bomb is canon for any historian looking to supplement his or her research into the life of Leslie Groves by adding interviews with his associates, personal letters he wrote, and government documents that he was responsible for.

Oppenheimer’s ‘Security’ The Science News-Letter, Vol. 65, No. 17, 1954.

The original article reporting that J. Robert Oppenheimer’s security clearance had been suspended pending an investigation from the Atomic Energy Commission. Oppenheimer’s direct objection to the hydrogen bomb and his refusal to assemble and research the bomb, along with his persuasion of other scientists to do the same, were the grounds for his being dubbed a “security risk”.

Scherer, Glenn, and Fletcher, Marty, J. Robert Oppenheimer, The Brain Behind the Bomb. Enslow Publishers Inc., 2008.

Offering insight into the personal history and achievements behind Los Alamos’s greatest asset, Scherer and Fletcher chronicle the life of the Oppenheimer both before and after bomb. Even though their book reads like a story rather than a piece of challenging historical material, the authors do succeed in informing the readers about Oppenheimer’s decisions and impacts that he left with the scientific world.

Walker, Samuel J., Prompt and Utter Destruction: Truman and the Use of the Atomic Bombs Against Japan. University of North Carolina Press, 2004.

Walker entertains two different camps of thought in Prompt and Utter Destruction. The first supports the traditional view of the decision to drop the atomic bombs, the other being the revisionist examination about why America dropped the bombs. What Walker finds is that the truth is often in the middle of both two opposite sides. While Walker seems to support the traditional view, he does give merit and consideration to the revisionist camp.