Bomb: The Race to Build—and Steal—the World's Most Dangerous Weapon

Nonfiction | Book | Middle Grade | Published in 2012

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Prologue-Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4-Epilogue

Key Figures

Themes

Index of Terms

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

How did Otto Hahn’s discovery about uranium fission lead to an arms race between Germany and the Allies? Does Bomb suggest researchers bear any moral responsibility for downstream consequences of their discoveries?

Describe briefly how Norwegian commandos frustrated German attempts to build an atomic bomb. How did the sabotage make it hard for the Nazis to complete an atomic weapon? Include a brief explanation of the use of heavy water.

Name two things that caused US officials to suspect Oppenheimer’s loyalty. Why were those two things sources of suspicion?

Why wouldn’t the US give atomic bomb secrets to its wartime ally, the Soviet Union? Does Bomb suggest this suspicion was justified?

Suggest three reasons why the Russians decided to spy on the US-British bomb program to develop their own atomic weapon.

Explain briefly why scientists preferred a plutonium implosion bomb to the uranium gun-assembly bomb.

Give two reasons why the Trinity test and the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki horrified the scientists who created the atomic bombs.

Explain why Fuchs and Gold spied on the Manhattan Project for Russia. How did their motives differ? Does Bomb portray one more sympathetically than the other?

Why did Oppenheimer refuse to support the development of bombs much more powerful than the one his team invented? What did he want instead?

10.

Suggest a way that the world can reduce the threat of nuclear annihilation. What obstacles lie in the path of such a solution, and how might people find ways around those problems?