Heisenberg's War: The Secret History Of The German Bomb |
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Heisenberg's War: The Secret History Of The German Bomb
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by Thomas Powers
Sales Rank: 126553
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Discount: 10 %
$5.25
At Amazon
on 6-18-2008.
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Features
Cover Type: Paperback with 644 pages
Published by: Da Capo; New Ed edition July 1, 2000
Written in: English
ISBN 10 Number: 0306810115
ISBN 13 Number: 978-0306810114
Book Dimensions:
8.8 x 5.8 x 1.5 inches
Weighs: 1.7 pounds
From Publishers Weekly
In this important study, Powers addresses one of the lingering mysteries of WW II: why Germany, with its able scientists, material resources and the support of high military officials, failed to build an atom bomb. Throughout the war Allied authorities, fearing that the Germans would "get there first," took steps to thwart their apparent efforts toward that end: the commando raid that destroyed the heavy-water plant in Norway, for instance, and the scheme to assassinate preeminent physicist Werner Heisenberg. Powers also describes how the Allies learned that the Germans never even came close to producing the Bomb, and he looks at the popular theory that German scientists concocted a postwar story of moral compunction to excuse their failure. Sifting through the evidence, Powers concludes that Heisenberg did not exercise passive resistance but actually "killed" the Bomb program by convincing the authorities that it was unfeasible. But the question remains: why did Heisenberg not take credit for his heroic action? Powers is author of The Man Who Kept the Secrets. Photos. BOMC, History Book Club and QPB alternates.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
The biographer of CIA director Richard Helms ( The Man Who Kept the Secrets , LJ 10/1/79) has written an easy-to-read, well-researched book on the Nazi quest for an atomic bomb. The Allies rightly feared such German scientists as Werner Heisenberg, held by many to be one of the world's greatest physicists, who for reasons still perplexing refused to leave Germany after Hitler's rise. Yet there was no viable German bomb project, merely a small-scale research endeavor that failed in several attempts to produce a self-perpetuating chain reaction. Powers makes a highly credible attempt to assemble known facts from a history shrouded in secrecy and the ambiguity resulting from the destruction of many relevant documents and evidence. However, the book is somewhat marred by the author's tendency to wax philosophical, raising as many questions about the German bomb as he attempts to answer. Recommended for academic and general collections.
- Thomas G. Anton, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Reader Reviews
This review is from: Heisenberg's War: The Secret History of the German Bomb (Paperback)
The story of the German atomic bomb project has inspired controversy and invited investigation for over half a century. In his book, Thomas Powers has combined his experience as a writer with years of exhaustive research to form a fresh and in-depth interpretation of these events. Powers' focus is Werner Heisenberg, one of the world's foremost physicists in the 1920s and `30s, who elected to remain in Nazi Germany even after most of his colleagues had fled. Heisenberg, the most famous physicist in wartime Germany, was chosen to head Germany's nuclear research program. Yet, in his own version of events after the war, Heisenberg stated that there was never a danger of a German atomic bomb, despite fear in the U.S. at the time, because the German nuclear research program never focused on weapons and most of the project's scientists had no interest in making such a weapon for the National Socialists. Heisenberg's story, however, was treated with intense skepticism after the war by his friends and colleagues outside Germany, who forever saw Heisenberg as guilty by association. Powers, however, has challenged this accepted belief through intensive research into both new and old documents, and through a number of interviews with those who were in some way involved with the events. Powers conducts a thorough investigation and uses his expertise in writing about secret activities to expose the prejudices that have condemned Heisenberg. Powers addresses the issue from a different starting point and relies on the evidence to generate a new conclusion which ultimately exonerates Heisenberg from the guilt by association judgment. Powers' conclusions about Heisenberg and the German bomb may not satisfy everyone, especially since the subject has always been emotionally and politically charged, and the record incomplete. However, his book is intellectually stimulating because it addresses so many gray areas, not only in this particular subject but also in what constitutes accurate history. On the first note, Powers' reinterpretation of the events is compelling because he also simultaneously addresses how the condemnation of Heisenberg was created and perpetuated: by people who were most immediately traumatized by the Nazis, or somehow connected to the American bomb program. Secondly, Powers has treated the subject with about as much energy and time as any one person can, approaching the truth of the matter more closely than any other work to date. Yet, despite such considerable effort, the history is still incomplete and will likely remain so, which gives credence to the idea that history is only a representation of truth, and that hopefully all historians will approach history with as much hard work, honesty and objectivity as possible, setting aside their purposeful judgments in the pursuit of more accurate conclusions.
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Heisenberg's War: The Secret History Of The German Bomb
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Price: $5.25
Updated on 6-18-2008.
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