Another fantastic read by Mr. Sheinkin. Seriously. I don't know if there were books this well-written and fascinating to read when I was in school but they sure would have been far more educational than the dry textbooks we had.
In this book, Mr. Sheinkin looks into the arms race. How we made a necessary alliance with the Russians during the 1940s in order to stop Hitler, how our government gathered together some of the greatest scientific minds, and how a few of those involved in the process, fearing one nation alone with all that destructive power, helped the Soviets build their own atomic bombs. The third element reviewed are those men who worked from within to deprive Hitler of the ultimate victory.
We learn of the people who had the ideas, the way the men worked to bring those ideas to reality, all the way to the continued race after the war ended that resulted in the development and eventual testing of the hydrogen bomb.
Simply put, there isn't a kid or adult who shouldn't give this book a shot. Sheinkin brings these folks alive, highlights the failures of governments and man, and does so in painstaking detail with a continued sense of urgency that makes you want to keep reading one more chapter until there aren't any left.
He apparently has a book about Benedict Arnold, too. It's a good bet that'll make the list this year as soon as I can get my hands on a copy.
19 down plus 33 to go.
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