The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II

I was born in Tennessee and used to work in aerospace so when I saw this book about Oak Ridge, Tennessee it caught my eye immediately. Oak Ridge was one of the locations for the work of The Manhattan Project to get an atomic bomb ready for use on Japan in WWII. Kiernan does an amazing job of interweaving the personal experiences of those involved with this project with other information about the science and politics involved.

Kiernan begins with the scientists of Europe who are working on splitting the atom and describes how many scientists brought different pieces of information to the table. She reports that it is a woman who suggested the possibility of nuclear fission and how it might be done altho she is never really credited for show more her work. It makes interesting reading seeing how they fit the pieces together though and Kiernan gives very clear explanations of the science involved. I did not expect to be able to understand that part, but I did fairly well.

The rest of the book focuses on the stories of several women and men who work specifically at the Oak Ridge site making the "product". This location eventually has a population of about 75,000. It begins with government and military agents recruiting workers by telling them they were needed to work on a secret project that may very well end the war, but they could not know what it was or where they were going to live. The recruiters played on patriotism and fear about relatives who were fighting overseas. These workers were literally picked up by a cab or bus and put on a train or other form of transportation and taken to Oak Ridge.

Before the workers arrived we see the usual process of manifest destiny play out on the poor rural population around Oak Ridge. Families are poorly compensated typically, and that of course is a book in itself, but one that has already been written. Then the construction workers are brought in to build housing for the coming workers. Houses for middle class family employees, dorms for single workers, huts with no windows in a segregated area for African Americans who are typically held to the same work they are outside, janitorial, etc. Schools are eventually built for the white children of workers but not for the Af Ams. One historian said it was the first community he was aware of that had been built with slums deliberately planned.

Workers are told what they need to know to do their piece of the project and nothing else. They don't even actually know what they are doing or at least what the purpose is. For example some women are spending hours a day sitting on a stool reading gages and spinning dials, not knowing what they are measuring. Some are testing pipes for leaks, not knowing what the pipes are for. They are not allowed to discuss ANYTHING work related with anyone, no family, no friends, no one, which stresses all relationships. Workers are recruited to spy on each other and to be merely accused by an informant was cause for dismissal. Anyone breaking the rules disappears quickly. When fired they are not given a clearance to work on anything else outside of this work for six months. No one can hire them for any job without that piece of paper. All of this stress makes a very tense situation and causes mental issues for some. One case of a "mentally ill" man is described wherein he is literally held captive because he has figured out the secret and wants to warn the emperor of Japan. The weight of what they have been involved in eventually effects many workers. Other workers injured in accidents were also used for medical research. A psychiatrist is called in to help and gets some treatment and some recreational relief. Movies, and bowling alleys are built for white people, while if lucky African Americans may be able to catch a glimpse of the outdoor movie screen from a nearby hill. Although they manage to make their own recreation.

Although there are hard circumstances, many seem to thrive. They have employment and are being paid well. They are also learning new skills. They make their own fun also with dances put on in tennis courts and houses. They form groups with people with similar interests to develop hobbies and other social groups, and have access to some hiking and other outdoor activities.

As I review my highlights here are some things I found especially interesting.
Kiernan describes the setting as an "Orwellian backdrop for a Rockwellian world".

"The challenges of living with military supervision were replaced by the challenges of living without it." (employment, police and fire services, public transportation, elections, etc. when the war ends and the situation changes.) A change is reported to research and development of peace time uses for nuclear power.

After the war one woman goes to put flowers on her brothers "grave" in Pearl Harbor. She cries in her grief. A Japanese tourist nearby asks her if she lost someone here and when the answer is yes, she embraces the woman and says she is so sorry. Counterpoint to the guilt some workers feel.

The author does a way more balanced job of reporting than I have done here, and describes her process as melding together individual memory, collective community memory, primary source material, media coverage, etc.

If George Bush or Barack Obama asked you today if you would work on a secret project to end our wars but he couldn't tell you what it is or where you will go or for how long, what would your answer be? Five stars. show less

I readily admit to my appalling lack of knowledge about WWII. When it comes to history my interest lies further back in time but I have found myself reading a fair bit about this war lately; it has become a popular period for writers of both fiction and non fiction. This particular book fascinated me because I knew absolutely nothing about the goings on in Oak Ridge, TN. I though all of the atomic "stuff" was done in New Mexico. Stupid me.

The US government went into Oak Ridge and bought up a huge swath of land and basically built a city into which hundreds of workers were brought to work on "the Project." Most of them were women as most of the men of the country were off fighting the war. They signed agreements that they would not talk show more about anything they did, saw or heard while there. They were provided housing, food, etc. It was a virtual enclosed world. Each employee had a badge allowing them entrance at certain points and access to certain areas.

The book chronicles the stories of a representative number of the various women that worked there. Each woman's tale is told from how she came to Oak Ridge, to what she did and how she interacted with the other women in the complex. The stories are fascinating and I must say that I was pulled in by the foreword. Ms. Kiernan's writing is so inviting you don't feel you are reading a non-fiction book. The women's lives are so very compelling. I must admit that one of the things that fascinates me about WWII/post WWII society are the attitudes towards women. They were expected to get married, stay home, etc. Then the war came and the men went off to fight and the women did their part by going off to work and work well. Then the men came home and the women were supposed to forget all they did and go back into the kitchen. Really?

These women of Oak Ridge are a prime example of that. They helped to build the Bomb and and then what?

I loved reading about their lives before, during and after and Ms. Kiernan knows how to keep her reader turning the pages. I am keeping this one to read again. I was so enthralled I'm sure I missed something on the first read. It fascinated me, it scared me, it horrified me and it amazed me. Truth as they say, is stranger than fiction. show less

I anxiously anticipated reading The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II by Denise Kiernan, and I am delighted to report that I was not disappointed. In The Girls of Atomic City, Kiernan introduces us to a wide range of woman who worked at Clinton Engineering Works in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. This self-contained community was part of the Manhattan Project and home to a top secret uranium project. Most of these woman had no idea what project they were working on until after the fact. The nickname "Atomic City" didn't exist until after WW II ended.

Kiernan introduces us to nine women who worked at Oak Ridge. They run the gamut in their education and experience. There was a chemist, statistician, show more secretaries, technicians, a nurse, and a janitor. They were white and black; married and unmarried. Kiernan cover's their stories while also following the development of atomic fusion. All the women knew that they were part of a secret project to help the war, but most had no idea what they were helping develop. It was a job and a good paycheck, which represented a way for the women to help themselves and, in many cases, their families, during difficult years. Part of what the women were also dealing with was the societal expectations of the times. Two examples include: women were not considered head of their households; black married couples were not allowed to live together.

Since The Girls of Atomic City cover's women's history during WW II, and the formation of the atomic bomb, it belongs in both of these nonfiction collections. Kiernan's writing style made this nonfiction narrative read like a novel as she divulges the stories of these strong women and what they did in Oak Ridge while simultaneously covering the making of the bomb. Kiernan includes pictures, the cast of characters, maps, an epilogue, notes, and an index, all additions that are highly valued and appreciated by this reader.

Very Highly Recommended

Disclosure: My Kindle edition was provided by Netgalley for review purposes. show less

In The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II, Denise Kiernan describes the construction of the Oak Ridge facility during the Manhattan Project and how it attracted women from throughout the United States to a makeshift, highly secretive town to perform every type of work from janitorial services to calibration to office work and chemistry, all in support of a goal that only a few understood. Kiernan writes, “Women infused the job site with life, their presence effortlessly defying all attempts to control and plan and shape every aspect of day-to-day existence at Oak Ridge. The Project may not have known what was to become of the town after the war, but the women knew that while they were show more there, they would not only work as hard as the men, but they would make it home. The Project probably never saw this coming. The government wasn’t interested in social experiments, didn’t give a second thought to the cultural-anthropological ramification of the world they had set in motion… The military may have been in charge, but the irrepressible life force that is woman – that was well beyond their control” (p. 98). Kiernan continues, “The most ambitious war project in military history rested squarely on the shoulders of tens of thousands of ordinary people, many them young women” (p. 108).

Despite the funds pouring into the project, the women still faced the same shortages as their counterparts throughout the country, perhaps more so due to the secretive nature of their location. Kiernan writes of the advice columns, “They taught the value of all forms of protein and how to reproduce juicy, meaty flavors with the clever use of easier-to-come-by staples like potatoes and oatmeal, lessons modern-day vegans still use today. Advice columns and friendly tips were echoed in the Oak Ridge Journal, and were the refrain of many a man or woman who had grown up during the Depression” (p. 165). Even amid restrictions, the women found ways to improvise. Kattie, facing racial discrimination in housing that denied her the ability to live with her husband and a living space without a kitchen, made a home nonetheless. Kiernan writes, “From the warped, discarded metal of a top secret war plant to her hands came a simple pan and some fresh biscuits. She gave them to that guard, kept him happy, kept him quiet, and kept herself at Willie's hut a little longer, relatively free of hassle, blissfully free of stomach cramps” (p. 171). Spouses found the routine of day-to-day life strained by the restrictions of the project. Vi Warren and her husband Stafford had had a comfortable life in Rochester, NY, but his work on the Project made it impossible for him to tell her anything about his trips and his workday (p. 183).

The Oak Ridge community developed the social life that was found in more organic communities, though the secretive nature of it pervaded. Kiernan writes, “War had brought them together, in dorms and at dances, at work and on buses. But another, elusive and unspoken link—Tubealloy – brought together their efforts, and was completely dependent upon their abilities” (p. 189). The secret of Oak Ridge finally came out following the bombing of Hiroshima (p. 256-257). According to Kiernan, “What had for so long been a drought of information came now as a flood. But people who worked in the plants at CEW still wondered what, exactly, they might have been doing all this time. The specific details of their roles in the Oak Ridge story did not always trickle down. The complete story would, for many of them, remain beyond their grasp for decades to come” (p. 260). The people of Oak Ridge “found themselves recasting discussions and experiences in light of the new information. Oak Ridge's precise role was not entirely clear to many. Some assumed they had built the bomb itself. That they had actually been helping create the atomic bomb's fuel source was too abstruse for many to comprehend. And most details remained top secret” (p. 261).

The story of the women at Oak Ridge both expands upon the narrative of women during World War II and complicates it due to the unique conditions of the town. Kiernan writes, “Women – well over a million by 1942 – had gone into factories and offices, and countless others rationed, collected scrap metal, bought war bonds, and danced with soldiers at the USO. While the entire country erupted, Oak Ridge was in a particular state of exuberance. Relief and pride mixed with shock and pensive consideration at the news of a second bombing… For others, knowing was too much. One young K-25 worker left the singing and celebrating and retired to her dorm room. She sat there, thinking about the small role she had played in the bombings, and cried” (p. 272-273). Further, Oak Ridge foreshadowed the ethically dubious actions of the atomic age and early Cold War. As Kiernan notes, “Ebb Cade was not the only test subject. It turned out that between 1945 and 1947, 18 people were injected with plutonium, specifically: 11 at Rochester, New York, 3 at the University of Chicago, 3 at UC San Francisco, and 1, Ebb Cade, at Oak Ridge. Several thousand human radiation experiments were conducted between 1944 and 1974” (p. 293). Finally, these women’s actions were downplayed in official histories of the Manhattan Project, just as other women like Lise Meitner had their “contributions to the discovery of fission remained obscured” (p. 294). Despite it all, Kiernan concludes, “Oak Ridgers had kept the most amazing secret ever” (p. 268). show less

The Girls of Atomic City tells the story of a group of women and men who in service of their country dropped their lives and sometimes their families and went off to live and work in the dark and muddy hollow that would become Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

The boffins at Los Alamos worked out that they needed "enriched" uranium to build the Atomic Bomb.

How do you enrich uranium? Well at that time the best idea was to pass it through "cascades" tall as a skyscraper and long as a city block. You put in kilograms of Uranium ore (in its gaseous form - tricky) and after some days you get grams - grams - of U-235 out the other side.

The cascades needed people to sit patiently and watch dials and tweak control knobs. The men were off to war - the women show more were called upon to take this one on. And they did - while living in shacks (and for a while tents!) and wading through mud and doing without and keeping their mouths shut.

They needed to build the site and keep it secret. They went to the Senator from Tennessee for help getting the funding for a new huge construction site. "Fine" said the senator, "and where in Tennessee were you planning to put this site?"

Fun to read about the 'Oak Ridge Gazette" the local newspaper that basically wasn't allowed to publish anything about the town of Oak Ridge.

Two historical caveats only, please.

First: it was woman and men who worked at Oak Ridge and put up with privations and hardships to get this job done.

Second -- this book is subtitled "The Women who Won the War". Well OK. How about 'The Women who Helped to Win the War"? Or maybe the women (and men) who helped in building a weapon that helped in putting pressure on Japan that helped to win the war against Japan. Just saying.

But a good book with a lot of i-was-there details and a great story to tell. show less

“The Untold Story” strikes again. Denise Kiernan's telling of the history of Oak Ridge, Tennessee is so good that the subtitle is almost all that I can find to criticize—and I do realize that the title may well be a creation of the publisher, not that of the author. As has become de rigueur these days, her book carries a two-part title--The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II. I've recently read more books whose subtitles begin with “The Untold Story of” than I care to enumerate. Well, of course, the story is untold! Why would anyone write (or buy) a book that had already been done? Modern authors desperately need publishers with more imagination where choosing a title is concerned. show more Having gotten that off my chest, let's see what's actually in this 1940s history and how it adds to the rather voluminous collection of books about the coming of the Atomic Age.

Kiernan's approach is, I believe, a novel one as well as one that could not have waited much longer, for she has interviewed a number of women who were actually employed at the brand new, government-created town of Oak Ridge during the years between 1943 and 1945. Her book has the cachet of authenticity in that much of it is based on the first-person memories of those who were there. The author goes beyond the barren facts of Oak Ridge's creation and operation and enables readers to experience life in the secretive, guarded, and spy-filled town through the recollections of the now-aging women who, as much younger women, lived and worked there (and whose numbers are rapidly dwindling).

We see the quickly thrown-together housing, the unpaved muck that served as “roads” and “sidewalks,” the recreation facilities and social life of the fenced-in town, the forced separation of husbands and wives, some of whom had to live in sexually segregated housing, the equally forced racial segregation of Black employees, who faced the very same discrimination in the government-created town as did those in the outside communities, the doubts and suspicions of the residents who knew that “creeps” (fellow employees recruited to spy on their peers) were watching and listening for any act or word that could be construed as a threat to the tight-lipped security in the town, and the insular working conditions that prevented employees from knowing what the “Product” of their labors might be. Of all the books that exist on the so-called Atomic City, Kiernan's may be the only one that examines the sociological and psychological aspects of working there.

If readers are not already well versed in the history of Oak Ridge, Kiernan's book can also be quite instructive in a goodly number of historical facts that may not be otherwise known. I confess that my education never acquainted me with Tubealloy (also spelled Tuballoy), the natural uranium that was the raw material for the enrichment processes inside the Oak Ridge plants. I learned that even the word “uranium,” was forbidden in the community and that employees left their free speech rights at the guarded entrance gates. Even the name of the government-contracted company that operated the fenced-in town of Oak Ridge, the Clinton Engineer Works (CEW), was a new bit of knowledge for me.

Speaking of leaving Constitutional rights behind when working for CEW, readers will blanch at the treatment of a Black employee named Ebb Cade. After he ended up in the Oak Ridge hospital following a vehicle accident, he became the unknowing lab rat for the medical doctors and physicists who were studying the effects of radiation on the human body. Keeping Cade hospitalized, injecting him with plutonium, and pulling his teeth for examination was their prerogative. Somehow, I don't believe that facts like these have ended up in many histories.

Overall, The Girls of Atomic City is adroitly written, and Kiernan shows herself an accomplished and effective writer. In fact, in the entire 315 page book (not including peritext) I noticed only two obvious faux pas. On page 122, we are told that construction workers “welded a constant flow of two-by-fours together.” Somehow, I remain dubious that dimensioned wood was being welded. Nailed or bolted perhaps, but certainly not welded. Then on page 134, readers are informed that “Americans were making due [sic] everywhere. The correct phrase, obviously, is “making do.” Other than these blatant errors, however, the text is a delight to read.

The absence of a bibliography or “additional recommended reading” in the peritext is disappointing, and one must read through all of the chapter notes to discover other published works that contribute to the topic. There is at least a convenient index. By the way, in addition to the photographs reproduced in the book, additional photos of the people of Oak Ridge are online at https://www.denisekiernan.com/goac and provide nice illustrations for the text.

Most people likely know that the Enola Gay was the aircraft that carried the nuclear bomb that incinerated much of Hiroshima. Quickly, now, name the aircraft that ferried the other bomb to decimate Nagasaki. For bonus points, identify the essential difference between the two bombs. Answers are in The Girls of Atomic City. Kiernan's is a highly readable history that held my attention with very little difficulty throughout and is well worth the hours from the reader's lifetime that will be devoted to its reading. Those interested in an inside look at the turmoil within the Japanese government as nuclear bombs fell will also find Road to Surrender by Evan Thomas very much worth their time to read. show less

I love all things World War II, yet I had never heard of Oak Ridge, Tennessee before seeing the author on The Daily Show. That short interview was fascinating, and I waited until my library got the book...totally worth the wait.

The stories of the women who worked at Oak Ridge were interesting, but what I didn't know about the discovery of atomic energy was that it was two women--Lise Meitner and Ida Naddock--who built off the work of male scientists and figured out that fission was possible.

I had two major running thoughts as I read this book. First, despite a strict adherence to gender roles at that time, I feel like women actually had a bit more respect then than we do now. I can't quite explain why I think that, but as I listen to show more podcasts about women in the late 19th century, and read books like this, it seems like women were just less apologetic for doing what they wanted to, even if it meant delaying marriage or children or whatever.

The second major thought I had was a bit political, so stop reading if that kind of thinking bothers you. As the author goes into detail about the secrecy of Oak Ridge, and the sacrifices people made during World War II, I couldn't help but wonder if the politicians who embroiled us in the Vietnam War, Desert Storm, and the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan KNEW those wars were unjust. Otherwise, wouldn't we have been asked to sacrifice more than husbands, brothers, uncles, sons, and nephews? If to support the wars, the government had imposed rations or run propaganda similar to WWII, doesn't that add legitimacy to the reasoning behind the war in the first place? It's something that has bothered me since 2001--it's as if Congress and the President(s) knew these wars would not be popular, so best not ask the folks at home to give up sugar or meat, lest they revolt. Anyway.

I loved this book. Really, really loved learning about this major component of the nuclear age, and loved discovering the large role women played in it. show less