The discovery of atomic energy ranks with the discovery of America in importance. It is a big fundamental discovery that is sharply changing the direction of history. This book is the first to tell the whole story.

Its authors are the only ones who have had unrestricted access to all the records, including classified material.

Their pages convey the high excitement of the scientists who discovered, step by step, the nature of atomic fission; of their efforts to convince the government of its possibilities; of the agonizing race to produce a bomb before Nazi Germany produced one; of the delays, the frustrations, the misgivings, the false starts, the breakdowns, the calculations, the checking and rechecking the all-night conferences, the letters, the phone calls, the trips, and the work, the work, the work⁠—and the gradual emergence of sure knowledge, clear policies, workable procedure, and triumphant achievement.

This book takes us into the laboratories, the conference rooms, the factories, and the proving grounds. We see the gradual evolution of the idea, from the first glimmerings in laboratories scattered over half the western world to the devastatingly practical applications. We see the bomb being built. We watch the tests. We sit in on the discussions in the White House, the Pentagon, and the United Nations. We gain a new understanding of the problems of control, and of the ways in which the tremendous power of the atom is making a new world.