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6 Appendices
Groves, L.R.: Now It Can Be Told: The Story of the Manhattan Project. Harper
& Row, New York (1962). Now somewhat dated, but still valuable; the view from
one who was there.
Howes, R.C., Herzenberg, C.C.: Their Day in the Sun: Women of the Manhattan
Project. Temple University Press, Philadelphia (1999). Examines the lives and work
of female physicists, chemists, biologists, technicians and others on the Project.
Kiernan, D.: The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who
Helped Win World War II. Touchstone, New York (2013). This engaging volume
tells the stories of a number of women who worked at Oak Ridge in capacities
such as secretaries, calutron operators, chemists, janitors, gaseous-diffusion plant
leak detectors, and statisticians. Kiernan puts a very human perspective on the lives
and tribulations of the thousands of employees that kept the enormous enrichment
facilities of the Clinton Engineer Works operating.
Norris, R.S.: Racing for the Bomb: General Leslie R. Groves, The Manhattan
Project’s Indispensable Man. Steerforth Press, South Royalton, VT (2002). Definitive
account of the life and work of General Groves.
Pais, A., Crease, R.P.: J. Robert Oppenheimer: A Life. Oxford, New York (2006).
Pais knew Oppenheimer from 1946 until the latter’s death in 1967 and had completed
about three-quarters of this work before his own passing in August, 2000; the
book was completed by his widow and Robert Crease. The emphasis is not so
much on Oppenheimer’s Los Alamos years, but rather on his contributions to the
growth of American theoretical physics, his postwar directorship of the Institute for
Advanced Study, as a leader of conferences, and his service on numerous government
committees.
Peierls, R.: Bird of Passage: Recollections of A Physicist. Princeton University
Press, Princeton (1985). Memoirs of the other half of the Frisch-Peierls team; written
with humor and warmth.
Segrè, E.: Enrico Fermi: Physicist. University of Chicago Press, Chicago (1970).
Very readable biography by one of Fermi’s closest collaborators.
Segrè, G., Hoerlin, B.: The Pope of Physics: Enrico Fermi and the Birth of the
Atomic Age. Henry Holt, New York (2016). This excellent biography of Fermi is
written by Gino Segrè and his wife Bettina Hoerlin; Gino is the nephew of Fermi’s
student Emilio Segrè.
Schwartz, D.N.: The Last Man Who Knew Everything: The Life and Times
of Enrico Fermi, Father of the Nuclear Age. Basic Books, New York (2017). An
excellent biography of Fermi.
Sime, R.L.: Lise Meitner: A Life in Physics. University of California Press,
Berkeley (1996). By far the best account of the life and work of Lise Meitner,
who along with Robert Frisch interpreted the meaning of fission. Contains useful
appendices explaining radioactive decay sequences.
6 Appendices
Groves, L.R.: Now It Can Be Told: The Story of the Manhattan Project. Harper
& Row, New York (1962). Now somewhat dated, but still valuable; the view from
one who was there.
Howes, R.C., Herzenberg, C.C.: Their Day in the Sun: Women of the Manhattan
Project. Temple University Press, Philadelphia (1999). Examines the lives and work
of female physicists, chemists, biologists, technicians and others on the Project.
Kiernan, D.: The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who
Helped Win World War II. Touchstone, New York (2013). This engaging volume
tells the stories of a number of women who worked at Oak Ridge in capacities
such as secretaries, calutron operators, chemists, janitors, gaseous-diffusion plant
leak detectors, and statisticians. Kiernan puts a very human perspective on the lives
and tribulations of the thousands of employees that kept the enormous enrichment
facilities of the Clinton Engineer Works operating.
Norris, R.S.: Racing for the Bomb: General Leslie R. Groves, The Manhattan
Project’s Indispensable Man. Steerforth Press, South Royalton, VT (2002). Definitive
account of the life and work of General Groves.
Pais, A., Crease, R.P.: J. Robert Oppenheimer: A Life. Oxford, New York (2006).
Pais knew Oppenheimer from 1946 until the latter’s death in 1967 and had completed
about three-quarters of this work before his own passing in August, 2000; the
book was completed by his widow and Robert Crease. The emphasis is not so
much on Oppenheimer’s Los Alamos years, but rather on his contributions to the
growth of American theoretical physics, his postwar directorship of the Institute for
Advanced Study, as a leader of conferences, and his service on numerous government
committees.
Peierls, R.: Bird of Passage: Recollections of A Physicist. Princeton University
Press, Princeton (1985). Memoirs of the other half of the Frisch-Peierls team; written
with humor and warmth.
Segrè, E.: Enrico Fermi: Physicist. University of Chicago Press, Chicago (1970).
Very readable biography by one of Fermi’s closest collaborators.
Segrè, G., Hoerlin, B.: The Pope of Physics: Enrico Fermi and the Birth of the
Atomic Age. Henry Holt, New York (2016). This excellent biography of Fermi is
written by Gino Segrè and his wife Bettina Hoerlin; Gino is the nephew of Fermi’s
student Emilio Segrè.
Schwartz, D.N.: The Last Man Who Knew Everything: The Life and Times
of Enrico Fermi, Father of the Nuclear Age. Basic Books, New York (2017). An
excellent biography of Fermi.
Sime, R.L.: Lise Meitner: A Life in Physics. University of California Press,
Berkeley (1996). By far the best account of the life and work of Lise Meitner,
who along with Robert Frisch interpreted the meaning of fission. Contains useful
appendices explaining radioactive decay sequences.