Heisenberg and the Nazi atomic bomb project : a study in German culture /

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Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:	Rose, Paul Lawrence.
Imprint:	Berkeley, Calif. : University of California Press, ©1998.
Description:	1 online resource (xx, 352 pages) : portrait
Language:	English
Subject:	Heisenberg, Werner, -- 1901-1976 -- Views on atomic bomb. Heisenberg, Werner, -- 1901-1976 Physicists -- Political activity. Atomic bomb -- Germany -- History. Nuclear Warfare -- history. Physics -- history. Atomic bomb. Physicists -- Political activity. Politics and government Germany -- Politics and government -- 1933-1945. Germany. History.
Format:	E-Resource Book
URL for this record:	http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/11112338

Hidden Bibliographic Details
ISBN:	9780520927162 0520927168 0585321906 9780585321905 0520210778 9780520210776 0520210778
Notes:	Includes bibliographical references (pages 325-345) and index. English. Print version record.
Summary:	Digging deep into the archival record among formerly secret technical reports, Rose examines early thinking about the atomic bomb not only on the German side but also among Allied scientists. He finds that the early history of fission bomb physics had no shortage of false starts and fumbles in both camps. But, whereas the Allied physicists' ideas crystallized into a realistic prospect for a bomb toward the end of 1940. Heisenberg's basic misconceptions persisted, influencing the German leaders not to push for atomic weapons. In fact, Heisenberg never had to face the moral problem of whether he should design an actual bomb for the Nazi regime. Rose's exploration of the German mentality that made it quite reasonable for "unpolitical" scientists to support the regime in power, whatever its form, shows the extent to which Heisenberg and others could devote themselves to research they regarded as patriotic.
Other form:	Print version: Rose, Paul Lawrence. Heisenberg and the Nazi atomic bomb project. Berkeley, Calif. : University of California Press, ©1998 0520210778
Standard no.:	9780520210776

Table of Contents:

Preface: why Heisenberg?
A note on historical terminology of the first nuclear age, 1939-45
Prologue: the Heisenberg problem: deception and self-deception
pt. I. History: the Heisenberg version and its critics. The Heisenberg version and its first critic, 1945-49
Elaborating the Heisenberg version, 1945-76
Criticizing the version, 1948-94
pt. II. Science: conceptions and misconceptions of physics. The atomic bomb problem, 1939
The Frisch-Peierls solution, 1940
Heisenberg's false foundations, 1939
The bomb as reactor: the u[subscript 235] bomb misconceived, 1940
The reactor as bomb: explosive reactor-bombs, 1940
The reactor and the bomb: plutonium, 1940-41
The reactor-bomb patent and the Heisenberg/Bohr drawing, 1941
The Weapons Research Office report of 1942: plutonium and the reactor-bomb
The two conferences of 1942: loose details, non-decisions, and pineapples
Reactor-bombs, plutonium bombs, and the SS: the report of activities of 1944
The truth: Farm Hall, August 1945
pt. III. Culture: German patriotism, German morality, and the truth of physics
The German context: unpolitical politics
The unpolitical Heisenberg: patriot and physicist, 1918-33
Collusion and compromise under Hitler, 1933-37
The Himmler connection: Heisenberg's "honor," 1937-44
Justifying Nazi victory, 1941-45
Decency and indecency at Farm Hall, 1945
Heisenberg's peculiar way, 1945-48.

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