Racing for the Bomb
The True Story of General Leslie R. Groves, the Man Behind the Birth of the Atomic Age
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Narrated by:
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Peter Johnson
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By:
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Robert S. Norris
About this listen
In September 1942, Colonel Leslie R. Groves was given the job of building the atomic bomb. As a career officer in the Army Corps of Engineers, Groves had overseen hundreds of military construction projects, including the Pentagon. Until now, scientists have received the credit for the Manhattan Project's remarkable achievements. And yet, it was Leslie R. Groves who made things happen. It was Groves who drove manufacturers, construction crews, scientists, industrialists, and military and civilian officials to come up with the money, the materials, and the plans to solve thousands of problems and build the bomb in only two years. It was his operation, and in Racing for the Bomb, he emerges as a take-charge, can-do figure who succeeds in the face of formidable odds. Revealed for the first time in Racing for the Bomb, Groves played a crucial and decisive role in the planning, timing, and targeting of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki missions. Norris offers new insights into the complex and controversial questions surrounding the decision to drop the bomb in Japan and Groves's actions during World War II, which had a lasting imprint on the nuclear age and the Cold War that followed. Groves's extensive influence on key institutions of postwar America has been overlooked for too long. In this full-scale biography, which includes archival material and family letters and documents and features several previously unpublished photographs, Norris places Groves at the center of the amazing Manhattan Project story.
©2014 Robert S. Norris (P)2014 Audible Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 12 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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The Japanese onslaught on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, devastated Americans and precipitated entry into World War II. In the aftermath, Admiral Husband Kimmel, commander in chief of the Pacific Fleet, was relieved of command, accused of negligence and dereliction of duty, and publicly disgraced. But the admiral defended his actions through eight investigations and for the rest of his long life. The evidence against him was less than solid.
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Great information, Reads like a textbook.
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Admiral Hyman Rickover
- Engineer of Power (The Jewish Lives Series)
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- Length: 9 hrs and 28 mins
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Admiral Hyman George Rickover (1899-1986) remains an almost mythical figure in the United States Navy. A brilliant engineer with a ferocious will and combative personality, he oversaw the invention of the world’s first practical nuclear power reactor. In this exciting biography, historian Marc Wortman explores the constant conflict Rickover faced and provoked, tracing how he revolutionized the navy and Cold War strategy.
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Rickover - No Compromises
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By: Marc Wortman
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Code Warriors
- NSA's Codebreakers and the Secret Intelligence War Against the Soviet Union
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- Narrated by: Mark Deakins
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The National Security Agency was born out of the legendary codebreaking programs of World War II that cracked the famed Enigma machine and other German and Japanese codes, thereby turning the tide of Allied victory. In the postwar years, as the United States developed a new enemy in the Soviet Union, our intelligence community found itself targeting not soldiers on the battlefield, but suspected spies, foreign leaders, and even American citizens.
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Did Vladimir Putin Steal the American Election?
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Joe Rochefort's War
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- Narrated by: Danny Campbell
- Length: 22 hrs and 48 mins
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Elliot Carlson's biography of Captain Joe Rochefort is the first to be written of the officer who headed the U.S. Navy's decrypt unit at Pearl Harbor and broke the Japanese Navy's code before the Battle of Midway. Listeners will share Rochefort's frustrations as he searches in vain for Yamamoto's fleet prior to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and share his joy when he succeeds in tracking the fleet in early 1942 and breaks the code that leads him to believe Yamamoto's invasion target is Midway.
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Amazingly engaging
- By Fletch on 10-19-13
By: Elliot Carlson
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Big Science
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Since the 1930s, the scale of scientific endeavors has grown exponentially. The birth of Big Science can be traced to Berkeley, California, nearly nine decades ago, when a resourceful young scientist pondered his new invention and declared, "I'm going to be famous!" Ernest Orlando Lawrence's cyclotron would revolutionize nuclear physics, but that was only the beginning of its impact.This is the incredible story of how one invention changed the world and of the man principally responsible for it all. Michael Hiltzik tells the riveting full story here for the first time.
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An informative and thought-provoking book
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Blackett's War
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In March 1941, after a year of unbroken and devastating U-boat onslaughts, the British War Cabinet decided to try a new strategy in the foundering naval campaign. To do so, they hired an intensely private, bohemian physicist who was also an ardent socialist. Patrick Blackett was a former navy officer and future winner of the Nobel Prize; he is little remembered today, but he and his fellow scientists did as much to win the war against Nazi Germany as almost anyone else.
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First time science used to fight a war
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Donovan
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The fascinating biography of the man who laid the foundation for the CIA. One of the most celebrated and highly decorated heroes of World War I, a noted trial lawyer, presidential adviser and emissary, and chief of America’s Office of Strategic Services during World War II, William J. Donovan was a legendary figure. Donovan, originally published in 1982, penetrates the cloak of secrecy surrounding this remarkable man. The result is the definitive biography that Donovan himself had always expected Dunlop would write.
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Fascinating Biography
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Robert Oppenheimer
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Robert Oppenheimer was among the most brilliant and divisive of men. As head of the Los Alamos Laboratory, he oversaw the successful effort to beat the Nazis in the race to develop the first atomic bomb – a breakthrough that was to have eternal ramifications for mankind and that made Oppenheimer the “Father of the Atomic Bomb.” But with his actions leading up to that great achievement, he also set himself on a dangerous collision course with Senator Joseph McCarthy and his witch-hunters. In Robert Oppenheimer: A Life Inside the Center, Ray Monk, author of peerless biographies of Ludwig Wittgenstein and Bertrand Russell, goes deeper than any previous biographer in the quest to solve the enigma of Oppenheimer’s motivations and his complex personality.
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A comprehensive biography
- By Jean on 10-17-14
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Churchill's Bomb
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- By: Graham Farmelo
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As award-winning biographer and science writer Graham Farmelo describes in Churchill's Bomb, the British set out to investigate the possibility of building nuclear weapons before their American colleagues. But when scientists in Britain first discovered a way to build an atomic bomb, Prime Minister Winston Churchill did not make the most of his country's lead and was slow to realize the bomb's strategic implications.
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Loved it!! This was great.
- By MAC24211 on 09-08-21
By: Graham Farmelo
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The Dead Hand
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The Dead Hand is the suspense-filled story of the people who sought to brake the speeding locomotive of the arms race, then rushed to secure the nuclear and biological weapons left behind by the collapse of the Soviet Union—a dangerous legacy that haunts us even today.The Cold War was an epoch of massive overkill.
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Eye opening
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The Making of the Atomic Bomb
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Here for the first time, in rich human, political, and scientific detail, is the complete story of how the bomb was developed, from the turn-of-the-century discovery of the vast energy locked inside the atom to the dropping of the first bombs on Japan. Few great discoveries have evolved so swiftly - or have been so misunderstood. From the theoretical discussions of nuclear energy to the bright glare of Trinity, there was a span of hardly more than 25 years.
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Beware limitations of the reader
- By JFanson on 01-01-19
By: Richard Rhodes
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What listeners say about Racing for the Bomb
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- Gautam Satpathy
- 04-07-16
Extraordinary!
A child of the 70s India, I knew about the Scientific side of the Manhattan Project and nothing about the Military side other than a few references in Feynman's books etc. This tale was all the more fascinating as a result. Secondly it gave me a view into the American mind of the early 20th century with it's self centered arrogance which of course is still around today.
Nevertheless it is a fascinating tale and well produced. Well worth the price and the time spent in reading it. Highly recommended.
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- RRMike157
- 12-21-15
Very well done.
I found this looking for an audible version of "The making of the atomic bomb" by Richard Rhodes, a book I had read many years ago. Since it was not available I gave this a chance and found it very entertaining and informative..
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- Mary N
- 06-26-23
Good Foundation
I’ve seen and read many things about Groves and his role in the Manhattan Project and while the book is filled with facts, the narrator had about as much enthusiasm as someone reading a grocery list. Combine that with the authors need to include the most mundane tidbits and the book is a snooze fest, literally, my cat curls up to listen and is instantly asleep.
The book could have done with more editing or a more lively narrator.
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- Jean
- 04-22-15
Fascinating
Over the years I have read many books about the Manhattan Project and biographies mostly of and about the various scientists on the project. This book is about a man that was mentioned frequently in passing in the various books but nothing in-depth. This book is more of a biography of General Leslie R. Groves (1896-1970) than a history of the Manhattan Project.
Norris cover Groves early life, his life at West Point, graduating 4th in his class and after graduation going into the Corp of Engineers, he also explains how Groves developed his exceptional organizational skills and administrative skills. The author covers Groves' time overseeing the building of the Pentagon.
Norris states Groves was responsible for choosing the three key sites, Oak Ridge, Los Alamos, and Hanford and for the construction of the buildings at these sites. The author bogs down the book with too much information as how many miles of corridors there we’re and how many windows etc.
At the end of the book Norris covers Groves’s role in the Cold War. Norris was meticulous with his research and had access to all the detailed information on daily activities, meetings, phone calls and so on kept by Gen. Groves’s secretary Jean O’Leary. The book is well written but does bog down at times. I found the book most fascinating.
If you are interested in World War II history or the Manhattan Project this would be an interesting book for you to read. The audio book is long 23 hours, Peter Johnson narrated the book.
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5 people found this helpful
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- Jonathan R. Zeko
- 03-08-16
A necessary book about General Leslie Grove
Would you consider the audio edition of Racing for the Bomb to be better than the print version?
Yes. The book is so long and full of technical details that having it read, is much more pleasurable than reading.
What did you like best about this story?
Most of the books on the Manhattan Project concentrate on the scientists' contribution to the success of the project. This book focuses on the engineering and industrialization required to make the bomb work. Without Groves' contribution the program would have fizzled.
Which scene was your favorite?
When General Groves contacts the Secretary of Treasury to borrow tons of the US Mint's silver needed to build the magnets to purify Uranium. Anyone wanting to know the story of the Manhattan Project should read this book and Richard Rhoads "The Making of the Atormic Bomb." Both are superb.
Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
The heroic and stoic life of a dedicated patriot.
Any additional comments?
I've always had respect for the Army Corp of Engineers, but this book, which tells the story of a member of that corp. So it tells the story of West Point, the story of the Army Corp and the story of the massive industrial logistics that were necessary to put the great scientific theory into reality.
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- Mike From Mesa
- 10-30-15
More than just the bomb
The book is titled Racing For The Bomb and it seemed reasonable to assume that it discussed the period from Leslie Groves appointment to head the Manhattan Project to the dropping of the bomb or, perhaps, from the first serious decision to try to build the bomb to the dropping of it.I bought this book because I was interested in learning more about how the Manhattan Project was run and how it ended up producing an atomic bomb in only 3 years, a period much shorter than anyone would have expected. Instead this book turns out to be a biography of General Leslie Groves and, of course, spends a great deal of time on Groves' family and his family life. Indeed less than half of the book (approximately 10 1/2 hours) covers the period when he was in charge of the Atomic Bomb program during World War II.
Much of the book that covers the early Groves' life is spend discussing his father's career as a minister and then an Army chaplain as well as his brothers and sisters and their lives. While a standard part of a general biography I found much of this information to be extraneous and dull since it had no bearing on the period of the Manhattan Project and its aftermath, although the period convering his attempts to gain entry to West Point, his life there and his early life as an Army Engineer were more interesting and had a great deal of bearing on how and why he ran the Manhattan Project as he did.
That portion of the book covering his appointment to head the Manhattan Project through the construction, testing and dropping of the bomb were very interesting and covered much more than I would have expected. While there is little discussion of the technical problems involved, there is a great deal on what had to be done to support the project, the interaction between Groves and the scientists doing the research work, surprising information about the effort those associated with the project exerted in Europe to prevent Germany from developing the bomb (until they learned how far behind Germany was) and the effort to round up atomic scientists as the Allies swept toward Germany after July 1944. There are also details of events I never heard of, like the transportation of "Jumbo" to the Alamogordo test site, a very interesting subject in itself.
One of the most interesting parts of the book for me was the coverage on the political events leading to the actual dropping of the bomb. Mr Norris make clear tht there was no real decision to drop the bomb, just the lack of a decision to not drop it, but I found the coverage of the politcal discussions leading up to the actual dropping of the bomb fascinating.
The coverage of Groves' life after the end of World War II seemed anticlimactic and some of the events, like his antagonism toward David Lilienthal, was simply sad. The author makes a very good case that Groves was instrumental in the construction of the bomb and that without him the development effort would have taken much longer and many lives would have been lost in the invasion of Japan.
I felt that the narration of the book was acceptable, but not inspired, and that the book was far too long and too detailed for what I expected it to be. A more aggressive editor might have improved the book by cutting out a great deal of information that was not pertinent, but the book is OK, if not great, as it is.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Brent A Ellis
- 12-30-18
Genius!
Great book about an American Hero and Genius! No other man could have done it.
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- Tianaran
- 03-31-16
Informational
Informational that is all I can say. The book is solid information. Which isn't a bad thin but makes it very dry to listen to. This is a book much better read then listened to.
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- Nick Stuart
- 09-10-18
Great Background on Manhattan Project
If you're interested in the background of the Manhattan Project, you'll be interested in this.
Minor problem with the audio editing. Someone could have gone through and silenced all the times the narrator took a breath. Could have gotten a high school student to do it for minimum wage.
Aside from that minor annoyance, I'm glad I got and listened to this book.
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- Ben Harrison
- 11-12-18
An overdue tribute
It should astonish any reader familiar with military hierarchy that Leslie Groves held the permanent rank of Army Colonel when chosen to head the Manhattan project. As this book illuminates, this fact may explain a measure of Groves’ hubris as well as the reactions of more senior officers when Groves was finally given
three stars.
The book is a little weak in describing the roles of the three main sites and the technical aspects of this massive project. However, arguably Groves’ own earlier book covers these aspects adequately.
An excellent and essential contribution to a full understanding of the atomic age and its principal manager.
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1 person found this helpful