Heisenberg's War: The Secret History Of The German Bomb

Thank you Thomas Powers. Without your in depth research and highly logical analysis , few people would have become aware of just what a contribution to the well being of the world that was made by this one greatest of all heroes, Werner Heisenberg. I especially liked the concept of Thomas Powers that says in effect "One has to look between the headlines of history and to delve into the "shadow conversations" i.e. those talks that were off the record and were yet recorded in private notes and memos for history and yet reveal the real truth of the situation. . One of these conversations was between Dr. Heisenberg and Dr. Neils Bohr . Werner Heisenberg was risking his life to even reveal to this physicist from Denmark that Germany even had a bomb program.at this time. The only realistic intention of Werner Heisenberg at this point was to awaken the West to the dangers that were brewing inside of Germany. . Werner Heisenberg knew that the German scientists could only act stupid for so long. It was time for the Americans and the British to wake up and get started. When Werner Heisenberg had heard the news on a BBC radio broadcast about the bombing of Hiroshima, some critics have commented "he must have quickly deduced hot to assemble a bomb " as he was telling Otto Hahn the exactly structure and firing order of the bomb. He also, during this secretly taped conversation , told Dr. Hahn the exact revolutions of or the numbers of cycles of fission one could expect from critical mass. (80) This is extremely difficult and highly unlikely if Werner Heisenberg did not know what critical mass was as some have contended. As for those who suggest that Werner Heisenberg quickly "deduced" how to make the bomb. this idea is dubious unless one can assume that the facilities at Farm Hall , which was . after all, still a prison, had a well stocked research department. The conclusion is apparent and highly logical to state that .indeed Werner Heisenberg acted to save the world from a nuclear holocaust. Thank you Thomas Powers for an excellent book.

Heisenberg is portrayed as a German patriot, having never joined the Nazi party, and a man of science, not politics. He was associated with many of the top people in the nuclear field before and during WWII. His interest was nuclear power, yet his research supported the Nazi atomic bomb effort. He was literally only months away from reactor criticality and building an A-Bomb when the Allies overran his atomic reactor site. He was labeled 'a white Jew' by the Nazis and yet remained in Nazi Germany during the entire war. A man of many conflicts and contrasts. The book is a long, and most thorough read, skewed toward portraying Heisenberg as a German patriot. Some might choose to differ with this viewpoint.

This was a very interesting book on the German atomic bomb making. It is somewhat excruciating in details and there was more pre-war information than needed. Still, it is very relevant to our world today

Among all the others, this book is necessary and essential for efforts to put all the pieces together—if uncertainly.

intriguing tale, very thoroughly researched. dense with detail (maybe too much) but kept my attention. i recommend it but it's not a weekend read!

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Great condition; prompt shipping!

good service and book okay

Excellent book!

This is a book that enlightens the reader in great detail what went on among the atomic scientists during a critical period in human history--The Second World War. It ends with a touch of irony. Despite detailed investigations, Heisenberg's role in that period still remains fundamentally uncertain, a metaphorical reflection of the great Uncertainty Principle he discovered in physics.

As the title indicates, the key actor is Werner Heisenberg, the argument being, did he deliberately withhold knowledge concerning the potential to build an atomic bomb for Hitler's Nazi Germany, which might account for the failure to press this issue during a meeting with Albert Speer in June 1942? Alternatively, was he, as suggested by Tomas Powers, aware of the complexity and cost involved in enriching uranium to a bomb-grade material? Heisenberg was Germany's foremost physicist, who chose to remain in Germany throughout World War II, whilst his Jewish Peers had fled the country, many of whom would subsequently form the backbone of the Manhattan Project in America. Heisenberg was not Jewish, so in this sense, from 1933 onwards, he was able to continue much as previously. In post-war interviews Heisenberg claimed that he stayed in Germany to help rebuild the country after the war had ended. One part of this claim concerns the development of a nuclear pile (a reactor) to produce energy. However, the Alsos team found no evidence that the Haigerloch pile had reached criticality. Could this have been because Heisenberg realised that if it had gone critical, it would produce plutonium? If we seek notoriety, then Heisenberg is undoubtedly better known in the world of quantum physics for his uncertainty principal. Thomas Powers book is well researched and worth reading.

I think it was one of the best (if not the best) book I read about Nazi Germany Physics. Its quite detailed and every claim is well supported by an evidence. It has very interesting facts in it (e.g. Heisenberg's mother wrote a letter to Himmler's mother when Heisenberg was accused of being 'not a Nazi' :) Also plans to kidnap Heisenberg from Switzerland to USA to prevent German bomb (which was never going to be build anyway :) I truly enjoyed and learn a lot form this book. So I fully recommend to anyone who is interested in.

Excellent study and interesting evidence and conclusions