Suggested Reading

Atomic Spaces : Living on the Manhattan Project - by Peter Bacon Hales

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Atomic Spaces : Living on the Manhattan Project

         by Peter Bacon Hales

Paperback (August 1999 - 456 Pages) - Amazon's Price: $ 26.95

 

Editorial Reviews Synopsis Code-named the Manhattan Project, the detailed plans for developing an atomic bomb were impelled by urgency and shrouded in secrecy. Atomic Spaces tells the story of the project's three key sites and delivers a bold, graphic interpretation of these sites and the larger issues they represented. 60 photos. --This text refers to the hardcover edition of this title The author, Peter Bacon Hales (pbhales@uic.edu) , September 16, 1998 A searching new investigation of the Manhattan Project Winner of the Hoover Prize for the best work of 20th century American history published in 1997, Atomic Spaces was the first-ever runner-up for the 1998 Parkman Prize for the best book in American history, awarded by the Society of American Historians. From the Parkman Prize Committee announcement: "Peter Bacon Hales' Atomic Spaces: Living on the Manhattan Project tells the story of the project's three sites: Oak Ridge, Tennessee, Hanford, Washington, and Los Alamos, New Mexico. In an... read more The author, Peter Bacon Hales , August 21, 1997 A cultural and moral history of the Manhattan Project Atomic Spaces looks at the Manhattan Project as a program that produced not just weapons but, more importantly, ideas, beliefs, social systems, racial and sexual and economic relations, new languages, new diseases, and-- finally-- a new form of American culture. Using huge archives of previously classified or hidden materials, from architectural plans to medical records, Atomic Spaces is, I believe, the first attempt to create a cultural and moral history of the Manhattan Project. Illustrated... read more The publisher, The University of Illinois Press **** http://www.press.uillinois.edu , September 5, 1997 Publishers Weekly praises ATOMIC SPACES "Drawing on memoirs, declassified government files, unpublished letters and diaries, Hales...has assembled a cultural history of the Manhattan Engineer District--more familiarly, the Manhattan Project. Calling Los Alamos, New Mexico; Hanford, Washington; and Oak Ridge, Tennessee 'atomic spaces,' Hales tells the story of their birth by 'military fiat and necessity' and their emergence as a 'new sort of social landscape.' This is an engaging book encompassing everything from utopian... read more

May 24, 2000