Heisenberg's War: The Secret History of the German Bomb

An excellent book, Powers covers the whole story in detail while keeping a narrative pace which makes the story engrossing. This is something of an expose, as Powers argues that Heisenberg did indeed have the opportunity to go full-force in building an atomic bomb, but chose not to - but not for noble reasons. Powers argues that Heisenberg's motive was more about the enormous industrial effort required, and his observation that his neck might well have been on the line should he champion such a project and have such an experimental idea fail. Intriguing and insightful, this book lays bare a chapter of history which has been mysterious to date.

2507 Heisenberg's War: The Secret History of the German Bomb, by Thomas Powers (read 22 May 1993) This book is an account of what Germany's leading physicist did during World War II. I thought the book poorly organized, but it revisits events which were vividly told in Richard Rhodes' classic The Making of the Atomic Bomb. The author concludes Heisenberg did not want to make a bomb for Hitler, and did not want to state so too plainly after the war. The thesis is well-supported and convincing. This was a book well worth reading.

Not just an examination of whether Germany's most famous physicist kept Hitler from the atom bomb, but also a detailed look at the competition among physicists in Germany, Britain, France and the U.S. to understand atomic energy and their concerns over its potential wartime use.