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Title: A World Destroyed

Subtitle: Hiroshima and Its Legacies

Author: Martin J. Sherwin

Narrator: Patrick Cullen

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-23-10

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 5 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

Continuously in demand since its first, prize-winning edition was published in 1975, this is the classic history of Hiroshima and the origins of the arms race, from the development of the American atomic bomb to the decision to use it against Japan and the beginnings of U.S. atomic diplomacy toward the Soviet Union.

In the preface to this edition, the author describes and evaluates the lengthening trail of new evidence that has come to light concerning these often emotionally debated subjects. He also invokes his experience as a historical advisor to the controversial, aborted 1995 Enola Gay exhibit at the National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, which leads him to analyze the impact on American democracy of one of the most insidious legacies of Hiroshima: the political control of historical interpretation.

Critic Reviews:

"A dispassionate, richly detailed account that promises to be the definitive book on the formation of atomic-energy policy during World War II." (Time)

"The quality of his research and the strength of his argument are far superior to previous accounts." (New York Times Book Review)

Members Reviews:

An excellent summary of the political aspects of the A-bomb project

An excellent summary of the political aspects of the A-bomb project, revealing interesting insights into the thoughts of U.S. leaders and the implications of their actions.

interesting

Lots of names. There is a lot of information in this book. I found it to be lacking in its dealing with Allied/Soviet relations leading up to and during the war. He really only brings up the conflict over Poland at the end of the war. He skips over anything related to why the U.S. takes a "firm" stance against Russia. What he writes is very thin. If you bring up that topic have some information about it in the book. The author seems to say that the real impetus for dropping the bombs was a post war leveraging tool against Russia which did not really work thus instigating an arms race / cold war. The book makes you think which is good. It really needs background on the entire political dealings with the Big Three and events that took place during the war between them.

The Destroyer of Worlds

The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki forever changed the world landscape. The Nuclear Age came to be and a new god arose out of the ashes. The atomic bomb and nuclearism (the worshipful embrace of atomic weapons) came to rule the world in the vacancy left by the Second World War. The bomb and atomic energy came to be viewed as deity because in the words of Robert J. Lifton, "what other than a deity could be capable of destroying the world?" "But a deity also must be capable of ruling and protecting the world, even of keeping the world going?" (From the foreword). The bomb was embraced with both fear and wonder as that of a deity capable of both governing and destroying the world in a single action.

It is this deity's rise to power, which is here chronicled by Martin J. Sherwin. The complex political history is detailed from the beginnings of the Manhattan Project to the destruction of both Hiroshima and Nagasaki.