The Manhattan Project

A first-person historical record of the Manhattan Project, and the events leading to the birth of the Atomic bomb, as told by the researchers, scientists, and developers intimately involved in its creation.

The creation of the atomic bomb during World War II, codenamed the Manhattan Project, was one of the most significant and clandestine scientific undertakings of the 20th century. The program, led by physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, forever changed the nature of war and cast a shadow over civilization. Born out of a small research program that began in 1939, the Manhattan Project would eventually employ nearly 600,000 people and cost about $2 billion ($28.5 billion in 2020) -- all while operating under a shroud of complete secrecy.

This groundbreaking collection of essays, articles, documents, and excerpts from histories, biographies, plays, novels, letters, and oral histories remains the most comprehensive collection of primary source material of the atomic bomb. It includes contributions from Edward Teller, Enrico Fermi, Richard Feynman, Richard Rhodes, Neils Bohr, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Winston Churchill Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Albert Einstein, just to name a few. This newest edition of The Manhattan Project is updated with writings and reflections from the past decade and a half, including from President Barack Obama, hibakusha (survivors), and the modern-day mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.