The Manhattan Project resulted in the development and detonation of the first nuclear weaponsand changed the world forever. This authoritative book provides a vivid history of the Project and its legacy, told for the first time by the key players and observers. Born out of a small research program begun in 1939, the Manhattan Project eventually employed more than 130,000 people, including our foremost scientists and thinkers, and cost nearly $2 billionand it was operated under a shroud of absolute secrecy. This groundbreaking collection of documents, essays, articles, and excerpts from histories, biographies, plays, novels, letters, and the oral histories of key eyewitnesses is the freshest, most exhaustive exploration yet of the topic. Compiled by experts at the Atomic Heritage Foundation, the book features first-hand material by Albert Einstein, Leslie Groves, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Leo Szilard, Enrico Fermi, Richard Feynman, Niels Bohr, Henry Stimson, and many others. Excerpts from literary, historic, and biographical works come from (among others) H.G. Wells, Joseph Kanon, Jennet Conant, Andrew Brown, Kai Bird, Michael Frayn, Robert Norris, and of course the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Making of the Atomic Bomb, Richard Rhodes, who also provides an informative introduction. Dozens of photographs depict key moments and significant figures, and concise explanatory material accompanies each selection. The Project's aftermath and legacy are covered as well.

Cynthia C. Kelly is the president of the Atomic Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C., and the editor of several books on the subject including Remembering the Manhattan Project.

Richard Rhodes is the author of twenty-six books, including The Making of the Atomic Bomb, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, a National Book Award, and a National Book Critics Circle Award.