Review by Choice Review
A history of the Los Alamos project to build the first atomic bombs. The title refers to the "critical assembly" of scientists, engineers, and military personnel collected for this purpose at Los Alamos. Although several other books have been written about the project, the authors claim that this one is of particular significance because it is an "official" Los Alamos history based on all the wartime Los Alamos documents, both classified and unclassified. It discusses for the first time the methodology used on the project, which has served as the basis for the subsequent development of "big science" as now practiced at many of the national laboratories. After a review of the developments before the establishment of Los Alamos, such as the discovery of fission and the early days of the Manhattan Project, the book provides detailed discussion of the many experiments that made up the project, including the implosion and gun assembly programs and the interesting consequences of spontaneous fission in reactor-produced plutonium, and continues with details of the Trinity test and the actual dropping of the bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Detailed footnotes (74 p.) are also provided. Recommended as an important addition to any college or university library. General; undergraduate through professional. R. L. Stearns; Vassar College
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
