Editorial Content for The Devil Reached Toward the Sky: An Oral History of the Making and Unleashing of the Atomic Bomb
Book
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
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.”
"[R]eaders immediately will become absorbed in the daily decisions and details that went into the extraordinary development of the bomb."
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.”
Teaser
The building of the atomic bomb is the most audacious undertaking in human history: a rush by a small group of scientists and engineers in complete secrecy to unlock the most fundamental power of the universe. Even today, 80 years later, the Manhattan Project evokes boldness, daring and the grandest of dreams: bringing an end to World War II in the Pacific. THE DEVIL REACHED TOWARD THE SKY is the panoramic narrative of how ordinary people grapple with extraordinary wartime risks, sacrifices and choices that will transform the course of history. Drawing from dozens of oral history archives and hundreds of books, reports, letters, diaries and transcripts from across the US, Japan and Europe, Garrett M. Graff masterfully blends the memories and perspectives from the known and unknown.
Promo
The building of the atomic bomb is the most audacious undertaking in human history: a rush by a small group of scientists and engineers in complete secrecy to unlock the most fundamental power of the universe. Even today, 80 years later, the Manhattan Project evokes boldness, daring and the grandest of dreams: bringing an end to World War II in the Pacific. THE DEVIL REACHED TOWARD THE SKY is the panoramic narrative of how ordinary people grapple with extraordinary wartime risks, sacrifices and choices that will transform the course of history. Drawing from dozens of oral history archives and hundreds of books, reports, letters, diaries and transcripts from across the US, Japan and Europe, Garrett M. Graff masterfully blends the memories and perspectives from the known and unknown.
About the Book
On the 80th anniversary of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, the Pulitzer Prize finalist whose work is “oral history at its finest” (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) delivers an epic narrative of the atomic bomb’s creation and deployment, woven from the voices of hundreds of scientists, generals, soldiers and civilians.
The building of the atomic bomb is the most audacious undertaking in human history: a rush by a small group of scientists and engineers in complete secrecy to unlock the most fundamental power of the universe. Even today, 80 years later, the Manhattan Project evokes boldness, daring and the grandest of dreams: bringing an end to World War II in the Pacific, a conflict that already had stretched from Pearl Harbor to Guadalcanal to Leyte Gulf to Iwo Jima and Okinawa. As Marines, soldiers, sailors and airmen fight those battles, men and women strive to discover the atom’s secrets at laboratories and plants in places like Chicago, Berkeley, Oak Ridge, Hanford and Los Alamos. On August 6, 1945, the world discovers what the end of the war --- and the new global age --- will look like. Science and politics will never be the same again.
The road to the first atomic bomb ends in Hiroshima, Japan, but it begins in Hitler’s Europe, where brilliant physicists following the path that Einstein blazed are forced to flee fascism and antisemitism --- bringing to America their determination to harness atomic power before it falls into the Führer’s arsenal. THE DEVIL REACHED TOWARD THE SKY traces the breakthroughs and the breakneck pace of atomic development in the years leading up to 1945, then takes us inside the B-29 bombers carrying Little Boy and Fat Man and finally to ground zero at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
From Pulitzer Prize finalist Garrett M. Graff, THE DEVIL REACHED TOWARD THE SKY is the panoramic narrative of how ordinary people grapple with extraordinary wartime risks, sacrifices and choices that will transform the course of history. Theorists and engineers dare to experiment with forces of terrifying power for the purpose of creating an atomic bomb, knowing each passing day costs soldiers’ lives --- but fearing too the consequences of their creation. Hundreds of thousands of workers toil around the clock to produce uranium and plutonium in an endeavor so classified that most people involved learn the reality of their effort only when it is announced on the radio by President Truman. The 509th Composite Group trains for a mission whose details are kept a mystery until shortly before takeoff, when the Enola Gay and Bockscar are loaded with bombs the crew has never seen. And the civilians of two Japanese cities that have been spared American attacks --- preserved for the sake of judging the power of the bomb on an intact city --- escape their pulverized homes into a greater hellscape.
Drawing from dozens of oral history archives and hundreds of books, reports, letters, diaries and transcripts from across the US, Japan and Europe, Graff masterfully blends the memories and perspectives from the known and unknown --- key figures like J. Robert Oppenheimer, General Leslie Groves and President Truman; the crews of the B-29 bombers; and the haunting stories of the Hibakusha --- the “bomb-affected people.” Both a testament to human ingenuity and resilience and a compelling drama told by the participants who lived it, THE DEVIL REACHED TOWARD THE SKY is a singular, profound and searing book about the inception of our most powerful weapon and its haunting legacy.
Audiobook available, read by Edoardo Ballerini and a full cast
