Fans pick 97 books like Creating the New World

I knew the Manhattan Project was big, but I never realized how immense it truly was. This book left me in awe of how scientists recognized and unleashed the power of the atom. Rhodes makes the technical details as compelling as the personalities and relationships he weaves into this sprawling saga.

My favorite character is Leo Szilard, who conceived the idea of a nuclear chain reaction while waiting at a traffic light. He secretly donated his patent on atomic chain reactions to the British government and convinced Einstein to co-sign a letter warning President Roosevelt about German efforts to develop the bomb. The stakes were incredibly high, and Rhodes' storytelling is masterful.

I’m always impressed by writers who are able to dream up an original plot, and then make that plot come alive on the page.

The book tells the story of three generations of Russian women in the second half of the twentieth century. It’s a very unusual blend of Sci-fi, geopolitical history, time travel, and moral dilemmas. A tall order, but the book succeeds in weaving together these narrative strands in a way that feels natural and effortless, while evoking questions about our complex relationship with the notion of scientific progress.

This book, written for lay readers, was originally published in France, which generates 40% of its electricity from nuclear power. It is a deep dive into electricity generation (megawatts) and nuclear weapons (megatons). The book my colleague and I wrote is, in a sense, an update emphasizing the developments of the last decade in fail-safe reactors.  In these so-called small modular reactors, safety is controlled by laws of physics (gravity drives convection, driving cooling that never turns off), and construction techniques go beyond expensive one-of-a-kind reactors to the cost-controlled modular construction technologies pioneered in aerospace industries and the like. 

Megawatts and Megatons are tough and, at times, uncomfortable topics to consider. However, democratic societies need informed citizens to function effectively. We should make up our own minds about issues. We cannot leave it to a few specialists or loud voices to tell us what to think.  

This collection of Katsumata’s manga for legendary gekiga magazine Garo and others is a powerful graphic bridge between the politics and reality of this world, and the creatures and legends of the other. Katsumata takes us from the transitory and dangerous lives of nuclear workers at Fukushima Daiichi (decades before the 2011 disaster) to the tough and haunted lands of Tohoku (North East Japan) in the early twentieth century. Lonely kappa monsters, tanuki, and fox spirits feature as sympathetic lead characters, shapeshifting and conjuring a version of Fukushima and Tohoku that dazzled and inspired me.

James Mahaffey is an American physicist who worked in the nuclear industry for many years.

Atomic Accidents is his engaging account of what happens when something goes badly wrong. What I particularly like is that it is written from the perspective of someone who completely understands the science and who is also well informed by his first-hand experience of working with nuclear technology.

Although Mahaffey is clearly a supporter of nuclear research and the nuclear industry, the book presents an objective balanced picture, acknowledging the risks of nuclear technology, but placing the scale of those risks into context. The book is full of interesting stories and offers some reassurance that the nuclear industry is able to learn from the mistakes of the past.

My father and I were both speechless after reading this book. We were unable to put into words our rage at this nuclear energy cover-up. Instead of developing clean nuclear energy that could fuel the world, the world pursued nuclear energy that could destroy humanity. There is enough thorium to fuel the world and beyond for centuries. However, it cannot be used to make bombs. With the world in an energy crisis, we hoped writing letters to the Senator of Kentucky would give life to the idea of using thorium once again. Sadly, some only care about destroying cities. Everyone should read this book and learn about the alternative to uranium.

We Almost Lost Detroit was published in the mid-1970s  at a time of growing concern over nuclear power in America that would reach a boiling point with the Three Mile Island nuclear accident in Pennsylvania in 1979. There was no love lost between the two sides. Utility executives were believed to be liars trying to save their investment in a costly, difficult technology. Nuclear critics were portrayed by the industry as deluded tree-huggers. It was a real debate with real consequences, and this book shows why. The cover of the Ballantine paperback edition shows the terrified face of a man inside a radiation protective suit.

Most readers interested in the story of the atomic bomb don’t realize that the weapon was primarily an engineering project, not a scientific one.  (Why it was called the Manhattan Engineer District). 

The man who built the bomb was really Groves, not Oppenheimer, who only helped design it. Norris’s book is fascinating for portraying Groves as a human being, not just a chubby general. Readers will recognize that Matt Damon was actually a pretty good choice to play Groves in the movie “Oppenheimer.”

Due to my book’s world-important subject matter, I felt it was important to lay a solid background foundation. General Groves’ autobiography, the commander of World War Two’s Manhattan Project, provided it. Working closely with Dr. J. Robert “Oppie” Oppenheimer at Los Alamos, New Mexico and Col. Paul W. Tibbets at Wendover Field, Utah, together they created an operational atomic bomb combat unit.

Groves was instrumental in not only co-ordinating work between Oppenheimer’s people (theory) and Tibbets crews (combat practical), he supervised construction of the uranium and plutonium bombs at Oak Ridge, TN and Hanford, WA, respectively. The book details the incredible complexity of the most ambitious and expensive engineering feat in history. The Manhattan Project changed all our lives—forever.

The story of the youngest physicist at Los Alamos, Ted Hall, who volunteered to spy for the KGB and provided vital atomic secrets to the Soviet Union. Although Hall’s treachery was discovered by American counter-intelligence, he was never prosecuted to avoid alerting the Soviets that the United States had decrypted their top-secret WWII cables. Albright and Kunstel tell the story of an idealistic, naïve and arrogant spy.