The Devil Reached Toward the Sky: An Oral History of the Making and Unleashing of the Atomic Bomb

by Garrett M. Graff

From the New York Times bestselling author of When the Sea Came Alive and The Only Plane in the Sky, a sweeping and comprehensive oral history of the atomic bomb’s creation and deployment, marking the 80th anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

April 12, 1945. Less than three months into his vice presidency, Harry Truman is catapulted into the Oval Office following the sudden death of Franklin D. Roosevelt. As he recites the oath, he learns a chilling secret known only to a select the United States is on the verge of deploying a weapon of unimaginable power. This weapon could end the war but also herald a new age of global fear and uncertainty.

Drawing from over twenty-five oral history archives across the US, Japan, and Europe, Graff has masterfully blended the memories and perspectives from key figures like Harry Truman and J. Robert Oppenheimer, the crews of the B-29 bombers, Enola Gay and Bock’s Car, and the haunting stories of those at ground zero in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, including the experiences of the hibakusha—the “bomb-affected people”—and the rescuers who bravely faced the devastation.

Enriched by memoirs, diaries, letters, official documents, and news reports, this is an immersive and deeply human account of the then-secret Manhattan Project through the end of World War II and the dawning of the Cold War, capturing the scientific breakthroughs, military decisions, and profound ethical dilemmas that emerged from using nuclear weapons.

A testament to human ingenuity and resilience, Destroyer of Worlds explores the complex legacy of the atomic bomb, offering a vivid, multi-dimensional view of events that reshaped the world. It is an essential read for anyone looking to grasp the full impact of this critical moment in history and the enduring questions it raises about wielding such destructive power.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Science, War, World War II, Politics, Audiobook

608 pages, Hardcover

First published August 5, 2025

About the author

Garrett M. Graff, a distinguished magazine journalist and historian, has spent more than a dozen years covering politics, technology, and national security. He’s written for publications from WIRED to Bloomberg BusinessWeek to the New York Times, and served as the editor of two of Washington’s most prestigious magazines, Washingtonian and POLITICO Magazine, which he helped lead to its first National Magazine Award, the industry’s highest honor.

Graff is the author of multiple books, including "The First Campaign: Globalization, the Web, and the Race for the White House," which examined the role of technology in the 2008 presidential race, and "The Threat Matrix: The FBI At War," which traces the history of the FBI’s counterterrorism efforts. His next book, "Raven Rock," about the government’s Cold War Doomsday plans, will be published in May 2017, and he's currently on an oral history of September 11th, based on his POLITICO Magazine article, "We're The Only Plane in the Sky."

His online career began with his time as Governor Howard Dean’s first webmaster, and in 2005, he was the first blogger accredited to cover a White House press briefing. Today, he serves as the executive director of the Aspen Institute’s cybersecurity and technology program.

Reviews

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

In 2023, we all watched the movie, "Oppenheimer," and were reminded of how the world was forever changed in August 1945 when the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Now the truly brilliant journalist and historian Garrett Graff has given us what I believe is the definitive oral history of the creation and use of the weapons. And it is riveting. From the European scientists converging on the United States in the 1930s, often escaping Nazi Germany's "race laws," to the flight crews leaving Tinian Island in the Pacific Ocean in August 1945 with the bombs "Fat Man" and "Little Boy" aboard their planes, the book is both comprehensive and unputdownable. Here are the voices of the Americans and the Japanese, the workers in Oak Ridge and Hanford and Los Alamos, and the victims who survived the cataclysmic explosions. Graff's book is a breathtaking accomplishment -- and a reminder that we must never take our eyes off the Doomsday Clock.

[Faith · Rating 5 out of 5]

This oral history was fascinating. It started with the discovery of the atom and culminated in the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It’s a combination of genius, ingenuity, bravery and horror.

Creating the ultimate weapon of mass destruction was probably one of the biggest secret projects in history. We hear the words of the brilliant scientists who developed the theories. Ironically, many of them were brought together in one place by the antisemitic Nazi policies. The military personnel of all ranks had to find a way to deliver the bombs. Many of them having no idea what the project was. The planes had to be invented and the bombs tested. A decision had to weighed - whether potentially shortening the war justified use of the bombs. Finally, there are the gut wrenching accounts of the people (most of them Japanese, but some pows as well) who survived the bombing, at least until radiation sickness killed them.

This book is really terrific.

[Liz Hein · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an objectively great book, but you do need to be willing to read a lotttt of science. I struggled through some of this, but am so glad I read it.

[Melissa]

Cannot tell you how fast I preordered this book. Every book/oral history by Graff has been a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ read for me.

[Ric · Rating 5 out of 5]

Garrett Graff’s books always create an incredible narrative through firsthand quotes and in depth research. And having already loved reading about the Manhattan Project, I knew this one would be for me. It was 500 pages and didn’t feel like a slog at all, I flew through it for as dense and long as it was. It goes through every bit of the project and the main characters surrounding it, and the epilogue talking about the effect of the fallout on Japan was harrowing. Just a phenomenal read.

[Kenzie | kenzienoelle.reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

Objectively this is a 5 star book. Sooo much research to put this into an oral history format.

But I rate books subjectively! And there was a lotttt of science and the like that didn’t keep my attention. I listened to this on audio and it was a full cast and so well done.

[Anshuman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Garrett M. Graff is possibly the greatest oral historian of our time. In The Devil Reaches Toward the Sky, he pulls off an astonishing feat by placing the reader right in the midst of some of the greatest physicists in history as they race to build a monstrosity. It’s an engaging read, full of fascinating anecdotes. A must-read for fans of both science and history. Highly recommended.

I received an advance copy of this book from Avid Reader Press/NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

while it’s so necessary to hear from the important people in history , garrett graff packs a punch in all his books with the less known through out ❣️

[Catherine Mustread · Rating 3 out of 5]

This Week on History Happy Hour (080125): As we approach the 80th anniversary of the atomic bomb, HHH alum Garrett M. Graff has come out with a new oral history of the development of the bomb. “Chris and Rick will explore with him the breakthroughs and the breakneck pace of atomic development in the years leading up to 1945, what it was like inside the bombers carrying Little Boy and Fat Man and finally to ground zero at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Garrett M. Graff is a journalist, historian, producer, and speaker. He taught at Georgetown University for seven years, including courses on journalism and technology, and his writing and commentary has appeared in publications like the Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, New York, Bloomberg. He appeared on History Happy Hour to talk about his D-Day Oral History, When the Sea came Alive. His book Watergate: A New History was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. He is also the author of The Only Plane in the Sky, an oral history of 9/11. He lives in Montpelier, Vermont.”

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like all of Graff's projects, this is such a magisterial accomplishment that will utterly sweep you away - especially when read as a full-cast audiobook.

In any historical project, there's always the question of what to include and what to leave out, and whose voices to prioritize. Graff is dedicated in his work to make sure that the voices on the sidelines are included to the full extent possible - the wives of the scientists, the Black and the Native voices whose stories of displacement and social stratification live in stark contrast to the story of scrappy white determinism that blankets so much of what we hear about the atomic bomb, the women who were trained to fly the new B29's because the male pilots were too scared to do it, and most critically, the first person perspectives of the Japanese civilians who experienced the trauma and devastation of the Tokyo firebombing and the atomic bomb drops. A true historian, Graff does not shy away from or minimize the brutality of the civilian experience, and these chapters are absolutely gut-wrenching to read.

My quibbles are more personal complaints than they are any real scholarly criticism of this work itself. A good 25% of this books is about the science itself - the nuclear physics that actually made the bomb work, and ALLLLL the trial and error that got them to the place of launch day. I can see how this would be interesting to a lot of readers, but it felt so less important to me than the other work Graff was doing in this book. He gave very little to no substantial real estate to exploring the question of the necessity of dropping the bombs in the first place - how the decision to drop the bombs was ultimately made and reflections on whether or not people felt like it was the right call. This, to me, is one of the key turning points around which any discussion of the atomic bomb revolves, and to not explore it in any kind of depth (while also devoting SO MUCH real estate to the physics of the development of the weapons themselves) seems misguided, particularly in our current environment. It's a quintessential embodiment of the Jeff Goldblum meme from Jurassic Park: "Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should."

Still, though, what's beautiful about Graff's books (even if they play a little fast and loose with the definition of "oral history") is how accessibly they ask us to bear witness to pivotal moments in American and world history, and how diligently he works to platform the REAL voices on the ground for those moments, not just the official government statements and propaganda. This is history, and historiography, and its best, and sometimes at its worst, but certainly at its most honest.

"The question of morality in warfare is vexing: Is there a moral way to kill someone?"

Probably not, but there is a moral way to write about history, and Graff does that.

[Dawn Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an absolutely fascinating oral history of the evolution of the atomic bomb [and its aftermath ]. This was my first Garrett M. Graff book, but it most certainly will not be my last.

Starting with the discovery of the atom and ending with the dropping of Fat Man and Little Boy on Nagasaki and Hiroshima [and the aftermath of the bombings ], this extremely well-written book is filled with so many POV's [with narrators for all ] and that is what makes it so interesting. You get to hear first-person accounts from those who were there and wrote about it [the amount of research that went into the book is absolutely mind-boggling ]. From the bomb creators, the scientists [SO. MUCH. SCIENCE. I'll admit I got a little lost there ], and the plane builders [with all the books I have read about this time, I never realized that they had to build a new plane to be able to CARRY the bombs - that was very eye-opening ], to the actual testing of the bomb in Los Alamos [as I was listening to them tell about what happened that night, the scene from the excellent movie "Oppenheimer" played through my mind ], as well as a very up-close journey through what the Japanese went through in the aftermath [it is also very interesting to learn just how many Japanese DID NOT want to end the war even AFTER the first bomb was dropped - I was just flabbergasted at that ], this book gives you a front-row seat to one of the most exciting [science-wise ] AND frightening times in history [the chapters about the bombings and the aftermath will absolutely break you ], and leaves you praying we never have to have a reason [ANY reason, real or manufactured ] to ever do this again. May we never do this again.

Thank you to NetGalley, Garrett M. Graff, and Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Elizabeth • LizziePageReads · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to Avid Reader Press for the finished copy and to Simon Audio for the audiobook.

I went in knowing very little about the science or history of the atomic bomb — which in hindsight, I’m not sure I recommend lol. For that reason, reading and listening at the same time helped tremendously.

It’s easy to hear “Manhattan Project” and think scientists in New Mexico pushing buttons, but that’s only part of the story. The atomic bomb was a marvel of science, yes, but also American industry. In just three years, they managed to produce not just the uranium and plutonium, but also the facilities to do so, and the facilities needed to create the weapon itself. It’s staggering. And sobering.

The last 50% of the book absolutely captivated me — I finished it in one evening. This section talked about the decision making process (when, where, and whether to drop the bomb), the actual bombing, the human toll… just wow.

The oral history format made it even more powerful. History can feel inevitable in hindsight. Of course the Allies won WWII, of course the US built the first atomic bomb, of course D-Day succeeded. But Garrett’s books always remind me how fragile those outcomes really were. Nothing was foretold and nothing was guaranteed. A different twist of fate, and everything could’ve changed.

It’s a powerful reminder that the people living in those moments had agency, and so do we. Finishing this book, I’m more convinced than ever that atomic weapons belong in the past. As Einstein said, “I do not know how the Third World War will be fought, but I can tell you what they will use in the Fourth — rocks”

Audio: As with Garrett’s prior books, the oral history is narrated by a full cast, which makes it so much easier to track who’s speaking. I love doing tandem reads of his books — listening and following along in print — and this one is especially great in that format!

[Jake Preston · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating history of the formation and unleashing of the atomic bomb. It was a bit science-heavy to start, but the latter half was at the same time captivating and horrifying.

[Sandra Danielle · Rating 5 out of 5]

The history and science of Graff's atomic bomb research are both fascinating, making it an incredible read. He starts with the discovery of the atom and concludes with the devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the atomic bomb. Hearing the actual survivors' oral testimonies is immensely moving. I will treasure their stories forever. I hope you read this book!

[Kara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Graff nails the oral history format. This is very well done. The science behind the atomic bombs and the story of their creation is interesting, but what really stuck with me here was the perspective we got from the survivors in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

[Jane Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an exceptional audiobook telling the story in realtime using multiple fascinating voices/quotes-each only a sentence or two. Marvelous

[Joni · Rating 5 out of 5]

10

[Catherine Hultman · Rating 4 out of 5]

The part of this book that dealt with the scientific beginnings of the bomb were way over my head! However, the last two thirds of the book were fascinating.

[J.J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had to pause this many times after the bomb was dropped because of the graphic nature of the oral histories. It's like John Hersey's Hiroshima on crack. But I highly recommend listening to it on audio, with real vocal clips from FDR and Truman. Plus the full cast does a fantastic job telling the narrative. If I didn't appreciate it's historical value enough, the shoutout to librarians and archivists and their need in American society in the credits made it even better!

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an incredibly disturbing, powerful and timely book. From the inception of the bomb to its deployment and ultimate fallout and repercussions. I would heavily recommend but there are parts that will haunt for a long time as they should.

[Dan Downing · Rating 5 out of 5]

While browsing the used book booth at the Main Street Fair when I was about 15, I found an almost mint copy of Henry Smyth's "Atomic Energy for Military Purposes." It sounded promising. It was terrific and has been with me ever since. I added to my readings on atomic energy over the years, most prominently with the three volumes Richard Rhodes devoted to it. The first, "The Making of the Atomic Bomb", is magisterial.
Mr. Graff's effort is no less spectacular. It may even be a more impressive effort at organization and research: he has taken the voices (in text) of dozens and made them sound almost as one. The insight surprises again and again, flooring as the perspective shifts.
Some might complain about the science, but it is high school stuff; maybe these days, grade school. The history is not particularly difficult, although there are a few jolts in store for those who think The Heritage Foundation is a bastion for accurate history. The portraits of so many people here confound the idea that we are a nation of regular folks: too many in our history have been extraordinary. The group around FDR, and the President himself, seem to have stepped out of mythology.
Example: We have a few sentences devoted to John von Neumann, yet his genius was stamped all over the bomb as well as the 20th Century. Yet the treatment is fair: there were so many giants.

After the bombs were away, Mr. Graff gives us the voices of survivors and some narrative about how the United States handled the post bombing news. Without grinding our noses in it, he gives us the censorship and lies that followed. As a betrayal of American character, these attempts at censorship are on a par with the right-wing lies and doublethink we bathe in today. One of the key books in my education about the bomb was John Hershey's "Hiroshima", assigned reading in school. The Democrats and later Republicans of that era promulgated the lies.

While pulling books out of the past, one might well recall Kurt Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse Five" and James Scott's "Black Snow", both telling the stories of survivors of firebombings conducted during WWII by the Allies, albeit in different ways, both powerful.

These books, as well as Graff's selections, make for difficult reading. One by no means has to condemn the bombings to feel the horror of the victims. Indeed, as conscience and civic responsibility go, these are guidelines to what happens when the mass of people let the monsters take over.

History is meaningful to us when we can learn lessons we can use. Being a Japanese citizen in the 1930s, or a German citizen at the same time, gave people somewhat less of a voice than Americans have today. Yet if we do not tread carefully and with courage, we will wind up the same way: victims of war and enemies of history.

An aside: To those who intend harm to the United States. History shows many examples, from native American raids on pioneers, to the atomic bombs, to Dresden, to Afghanistan, to the World Trade Towers, to yesterday's assassinations of 11 people on a boat in international waters (totally unconstitutional and criminal, but that won't bring the dead to life): all these and more point out that when you mess with the U.S. you will receive a wholely out of proportoon response. Sometimes, we repent and rebuild, like Europe and Japan. Other times we let you rot and starve and wallow in self-deception, like North Korea.

Highly Recommended

[Am · Rating 5 out of 5]

(Prefacing this that I'd rate this 4.5 on here if I could + it's almost 5am here so if the review's a little jank that's on my bedtime.)

I've never actually read or heard of a book that's primarily oral history, so putting everything else aside, this was a real interesting way of reading nonfiction. It is a book that is based on the history of making the atomic bomb. Yes, as another review indicated, there is a good chunk of science, and that might fly over your head at times. Earlier in the year I read American Prometheus, which focuses primarily on Oppenheimer, but this is a broader sense of how everything - from physicists to the military to the war effort and the little guys - brought the Manhattan Project and company together.

As you read the focus on the bombs shift slowly from a matter of science to ethics. It is the 80 year old and counting question of, "Should have America unleashed bombs upon Japan in the final days of WWII?," which is something you could back and forth debate for hours and is also a topic within the book. The results of the bombs therefore focus the last third of the book on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the aftermath - no brainer - which ranges from the immediate results to today with the remaining survivors. Small spoiler, but I will say it's interesting to note that not only were there perspectives from Japanese survivors, but also Koreans conscripted by Japan + various Allied POWs.

There's this quote by James Patterson that's on the copy I borrowed, and I will point out as an aside that that's very irksome and I personally wish it wasn't on there. "If you are intelligent [xyz] you should read this," is the paraphrase, but intelligence does not warrant reading about history and long-lasting consequences. Yes, the book is long. No, it's not necessarily the type of book you binge read. But the oral history helps this dark patch of history be told in a way that's easier to digest and to show us how this and that led to our atomic bomb situation today.

Running out of steam so I'd just like to end it on how it was amazing that Graff compiled this book and I cannot imagine the amount of hours he spent fixing this in a mostly linear narrative. Even if you are not a history buff like I am, you just have to respect the phenomenal effort he's put into this.

[Bryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fresh off of reading Richard Rhodes's nearly 40-year-old classic, The Making of the Atomic Bomb, I found this oral history treads a lot of the same ground, but the different format and emphasis made it complementary to the more exhaustive account from Rhodes. There was less here about the incremental scientific advances, or the politics of sharing or not sharing knowledge about the bomb. There was nothing about Allied-led efforts to prevent Germany from using heavy water produced in occupied Norway to produce their own weapon. Graff instead offers a variety of different slices of life from the US, including a memorable bit about recruiting a pair of women from the WASP program to fly the B-29 so that male pilots would overcome their hesitation to fly an aircraft that had a reputation for engine fires. And then, when the first bomb is about to drop on Japan, Graff drops the reader into the harrowing perspectives of those on the ground there.

I burned through this book in two days, which may be partly because I had just immersed myself in the denser account from Rhodes. The litany of suffering that followed the Hiroshima bombing was the only part of Graff's book that really slowed me down, as one horrific recollection blurred into the next and I had to repeatedly go back to make sure I was taking it all in.

I listened to the audiobook with the full cast recording, which was excellent, like When the Sea Came Alive: An Oral History of D-Day, which Graff put out only 14 months earlier. The different voices really help to keep things clear.

[Bookreporter.com Biography & Memoir · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bestselling author and journalist Garrett M. Graff produced an engrossing oral history of D-Day, WHEN THE SEA CAME ALIVE, which released in 2024.

Now, with THE DEVIL REACHED TOWARD THE SKY, Graff has written an equally compelling book about the three-year project to create the atomic bomb. This was “a crash wartime effort…with whole new cities and facilities carved out of mountains and deserts to employ hundreds of thousands of people…in the hope of building a bomb more powerful than any before and all of it…classified and cloaked in silence and mystery.”

The 500 voices that make up this impressive oral history include physicists Niels Bohr (whose code name was “Nicholas Baker”), Edward Teller, Robert Oppenheimer (who got pushback when he suggested that the scientists join the military and wear uniforms), and numerous other key figures who might not be quite as well known.

Graff acknowledges that this subject has been covered by many others, including historian Richard Rhodes and filmmaker Christopher Nolan, but his book puts flesh on the bones of history. He quotes the wives of the scientists; military men responsible for planning and executing the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; Japanese survivors of the bombings; and those involved in the inevitable coverup. He also highlights the thoughts of those who were there at the creation --- and how they felt looking back on their participation.

THE DEVIL REACHED TOWARD THE SKY can be read straight through or dipped into over time. Whichever way it is approached, readers immediately will become absorbed in the daily decisions and details that went into the extraordinary development of the bomb.

The final, cautionary word from Albert Einstein stands as an epitaph: “I do not know how the Third World War will be fought, but I can tell you what they will use in the Fourth: rocks.”

Reviewed by Lorraine W. Shanley

[Daniel Allen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Coinciding with the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Japan, this oral history explores the creation and deployment of the atomic bombs. The story is told through the voices of hundreds of scientists, soldiers, politicians, survivors and civilians.

Another cogent, propulsive oral history from Garrett Graff. He walks the reader through the first forays into the making of the bombs, the training of the pilots who would drop them on Japan, the actual flights to deliver the weapons, the immediate aftermath on the ground in Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the longterm impact. The science is a bit dense in the early stages of the book, but it is to the author's credit that he manages to make most of these portions reader friendly. Fascinating to read of America's efforts to assemble these brilliant scientists and then have them come together at various locations to work on this monumental project. The portion of the book that takes the reader aboard the two B-29 bombers, the Enola Gay and the Bockscar, as they make their epoch-defining flights were riveting. Those were matched by the harrowing recollections of survivors of the bombings on the ground. I just so happened to read this soon after Samuel Hawley's Daikon and Rain of Ruin by Richard Overy. These three books touch on similar themes and explore the bombings from different angles. My appreciation for Graff's new book was also deepened from my recent visit to Japan and Hiroshima in particular. The Devil Reached Toward the Sky touched upon victims of the bombs, many of which I learned of at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. Most notable, the powerful story of the young girl named Sadako Sasaki and her paper cranes.

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant! I have listened to several of Garrett M. Graff's nonfiction books; this is my second experience with his oral history approach. I am truly awed by the volume of research involved as well as his narrative skill in writing and producing them. I learned. I enjoyed. I considered. I know that I will listen to this one again as I did with his oral history of D-Day, When the Sea Came Alive. There is so much content( even with subjects I have studied) and complex issues to ponder that I can not do them justice with a single attentive consideration.

I have thought much about the creation and deployment of atomic weapons by my country during WWII. I came into existence at around the same time and have lived my entire life in the Nuclear Age, both under existential threat and as a beneficiary of nuclear science. I understand why the two bombs were used on Japanese cities in WWII and how horrific the consequences were for innocent victims. This book addresses both aspects without imposing a dogmatic opinion on readers or listeners. It does, however, force us to consider deeply, to be open, as well as to attempt empathy and understanding.

I am most grateful for books like this one. Thank you to all who contributed and especially to Garrett M. Graff, its author.

[Katie Bee · Rating 4 out of 5]

As billed in the subtitle, this is "an oral history of the making and unleashing of the atomic bomb". I didn’t realize before I started it exactly how far this formatting choice went -- there is no authorial narrative voice here. Instead, Graff has assembled a narrative out of countless tiny chunks of first-hand voices, like a grand mosaic painstakingly pieced together out of fifty thousand pieces of glass.

I appreciated Graff's concious choice to include voices that have been ignored in other histories, such as the scientists' spouses, often also working on the projects; Black workers on the Manhattan Project sites (who had to deal with segregation in Oak Ridge); Native Americans who lost their lands; Korean forced laborers in Japan; female American pilots who flew B-29's when male pilots were scared of them because of engine fires; and many more.

There were parts of the book that I wanted more from, whether that be additional perspectives or a more in-depth exploration of some themes. However, overall this was well-done and I appreciate the great effort and deft touch that it must have taken to assemble.

[MKay · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars Performance // 5 stars Story audiobook

Fab way to present non-fiction — totally engrossing! Graff writes an oral history told entirely through interviews, letters, speeches, articles and first-person accounts from scientists, workers, families, military and the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki — even actual presidential recordings. The audiobook shines. Hearing the science is easier than reading it and a full cast of voices brings it vividly to life. Helpful introductions before each quotation keep the many voices straight while brief chapter commentaries provide just enough context without breaking the rhythm. What struck me most was how people from so many backgrounds and nationalities came together to achieve this in such a short time. Huge respect to the librarians and archivists who preserved these records and kudos to Graff for pulling it all together. A powerful reminder too: nuclear weapons are still with us: ~12,200 warheads globally; ~3,900 deployed; ~2,100 launch-ready. Haunting…

[Samantha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Knowing the topic of this book, I found the title to be fittingly chilling. This was my first book by Graff, but going in, his style seemed very unique and piqued my interest for sure. The author's note was well-written and really set the tone for the scope of the whole endeavor both scientifically and historically. Working through the whole experience through the eyes and minds of those involved was powerful and hit hard in ways I hadn't really expected. The photo inserts and the pictures included at the start of each chapter were fabulous additions to the text. I was completely immersed in this history and really enjoyed the way all of the details about the different places and events were laid out. I knew some of this information from previous readings, but this book was truly all-encompassing and allowed me to learn much more about all of the aspects and considerations involved in the preparation, use, and aftermath of the bomb.

[Ed Stock · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm kind of jumping the gun a little bit, because I'm only halfway through this book, but I'm so confident I'm going to love the second half as much as the first that I'll go ahead and say it: Do yourself a favor and read this book. I wish learning history in school had been even a small fraction as richly rewarding as this.
I love a good oral history, and this might be the best one I've ever read (or listened to). The incredible amount of research that apparently went into it and the masterful way the quotes are juxtaposed to create a sense of drama and tension: remarkable.
This is the first book by Garrett Graff I've read, and now I can't wait to start on another.
Easy 5-star rating.