Forth to the Mighty Conflict: Alabama and World War II Book

Project Y, the subject of this book and many others, like an expedition to an 8,000 meter peak, must be approached with extensive planning, extreme caution and a willingness to accept failure: what route to take; what to deal with and leave out? How to assemble the members of the team? (Most unusually, this book is the product of a committee. Hoddeson is one of several authors. The skills and scientific knowledge of a single author were apparently not considered sufficient to adequately deal with the formidable technical challenges of the subject matter.)

The conclusion of project Y, the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were either a magnificent success or a malevolent, even Satanic, demonstration of science gone mad, or both: what can be done, will be done. Regardless of morality, the 6,000 at Los Alamos created the world we live in, punctuated with the events of July and August, 1945 at the beginning, and with an end in sight, but not yet achieved: another use of nuclear weapons against humanity.

I would prefer to praise this work for its attempt on a formidable, even impossible goal, rather than criticize it for its many failings.