Rhodes: The Making of the Atomic Bomb

From Scienticity

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Richard Rhodes, The Making of the Atomic Bomb. New York : Simon & Schuster, 1986. 886 pages.

Rhodes' massive volume is an historically precise and comprehensive, yet dramatic telling of the story of the people and events that came together to unleash the power of nuclear fission at the end of World War II. Given my education as a physicist, the scientists portrayed on these pages have iconic significance, and I found it thrilling to see them come so alive through Rhodes' compelling writing; they were portrayed accurately as scientists and as people.

This is the rare sort of book that changes my outlook on the world, and my understanding and approach to interpreting events. I knew this was happening from at least two indicators. One was the excitement I felt while reading, the compulsion to read faster and turn pages faster -- the eight or so pages he devoted to the few minutes before and after the world's first chain reaction rivaled the best thriller. The second was the number of passages I marked to save in some way as notes to myself in the future. Little slips of paper were sticking out out all over the book by the time I had finished; I know I'm not unique because I borrowed the book from a friend, and it came to me already marked it with dozens of notes stuck all over it.

It's difficult for me to choose just one passage to quote, but this extended excerpt, in which he describes the harrowing escape of Enrico and Laura Fermi from fascist Italy in the years just before World War II stands out:

It was also entirely in character, when Fermi came to Copenhagen [in the summer of 1938], that Bohr should lead him aside, take hold of his waistcoat button and whisper the message that his name had been mentioned for the Nobel Prize, a secret traditionally never foretold. Did Fermi wish his name withdrawn temporarily, given the political situation in Italy and the monetary restrictions, or would he like the selection process to go forward? Which was the same as telling Fermi he could have the Prize that year, 1938, if he wanted it and was welcome to use it to escape a homeland that threatened now despite the distinction he brought it to to tear his wife from citizenship. [pp. 243--244]

Laura Fermi woke to the telephone early on the morning of November 10 [1938]. A call would be placed from Stockholm, the operator advised her. Professor Fermi could expect it that evening at six.
[...]
Instantly awake to his wife's message, Fermi estimated the probability at 90 percent that the call would announce his Nobel Prize. As always he had planned conservatively, not counting on the award. The Fermis had prepared to leave for the United Sates from Italy shortly after the first of the year. Ostensibly Fermi was to lecture at Columbia for seven months and then return. For stays of longer than six months the United States required immigrant rather than tourist visas, and because Fermi was an academic he and his family could be granted such visas outside the Italian quota list. The ruse of a lecture series was devised to evade a drastic penalty: citizens leaving Italy permanently could take only the equivalent of fifty dollars with them out of the country. But the plan required circumspection. The Fermis could not sell their household goods or entirely empty their savings account without risking discovery. So the money from the Nobel Prize would be a godsend.
[...]
In the meantime they invested surreptitiously in what Fermi called "the refugee's trousseau." Laura's new coat was beaver and they distracted themselves on the day of the Stockholm call shopping for expensive watches. Diamonds, which had to be registered, they chose not to risk.

[Near six o'clock the phone rang, but it was friends with news that Italy has just that day announced harsh racial laws aimed at Jews. Fermi's wife was Jewish.] The passports of Jews had already been marked. Fermi had contrived to keep his wife's passport clear.
[...]
Fermi took the Stockholm call. The Nobel Prize, undivided, would be awarded for "your discovery of new radioactive substances belonging to the entire race of elements and for the discovery you made in the course of this work of the selective power of slow neutrons." In security the Fermis could leave the madness behind. [pp. 248--250]

-- Notes by JNS