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The ancient Romans used uranium as a natural oxide to bring out the luster of yellow ceramic glazes. By the late 19th century, chemists had learned that this silvery-white metallic chemical possessed unique properties, but the knowledge of its full, world-shattering potential would remain hidden until the decade before World War II. Amir Aczel's anecdote-rich Uranium Wars reveals how this obscure element facilitated the dawn of a new era. By focusing his narrative on the international scientific race to obtain nuclear capabilities, the author of Fermat's Last Theorem manages to infuse a sense of immediacy into what first seemed like a familiar story. A compelling read for serious readers of history, military history, and scientific history.

Publishers Weekly

Starred Review.

Author and Boston University research fellow Aczel (Fermat's Last Theorem) shares a scientist's history of nuclear chemistry in the 20th century, and its eventual application in the form of the atomic bomb. In the first half, Aczel covers figures of early modern science like the Curies in Paris, the Meitner-Hahn group in Berlin, and Italian physicists before they were driven out by the Fascists. (One of WWII's greatest ironies is that the science Nazis dubbed "Jewish physics" gave the Allies their conquering weapon.) Newly released documents and post-war memoirs also help Azcel chronicle German scientists, like Werner Heisenberg, who participated in the Nazi bomb project. Aczel is at his most intriguing analyzing Truman's decision to drop the bomb on Hiroshima; further declassified U.S. documents reveal that the U.S. knew Japanese ambassadors were making peace offers in Moscow before the bombing, and that the destruction of Hiroshima was also meant to send a message to the Soviets. Using a wealth of new source material, Azcel covers the triumphs and mistakes that come from powerful, cutting-edge science, while sounding a cautionary alarm regarding ongoing global conflicts with terrorists and nations.
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Library Journal

No story in the modern history of science has been told more times from a greater number of perspectives than that of the discoveries in 20th-century atomic physics that led to the creation of the bomb. While the drama is perhaps endlessly compelling and contains new lessons for each generation, the main story is thoroughly known. Aczel is a skilled science writer whose most popular prior works (e.g., The Jesuit and the Skull) have seized upon previously obscure scientific tales. Here, he writes a lucid account of the major researchers, their contributions, and the sociopolitical forces that influenced them, with a few speculative "what if" digressions and brief references to today's nuclear issues that give general readers something to ponder. VERDICT While satisfying a novice curiosity in an engaging way, this is an optional purchase, where need or demand warrants. Most libraries probably already have other histories that serve the same needs, such as Diana Preston's Before the Fallout or Gerard J. DeGroot's The Bomb: A Life, and others might want to consider, instead, Tom Zoellner's Uranium: War, Energy, and the Rock That Shaped the World.—Gregg Sapp, Evergreen State Lib., Olympia, WA

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Table of Contents