Very Interesting Book | 109 East Palace: Robert Oppenheimer and the Secret City of Los Alamos

Very interesting read! | 109 East Palace: Robert Oppenheimer and the Secret City of Los Alamos | Jennet Conant

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	• 109 East Palace: Robert Oppenheimer and the Secret City of Los Alamos Jennet Conant Simon & Schuster, 2006 - 448 pages average customer review:based on 32 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Dorothy & Oppy

Much has been written about the once secret Manhattan Project, the group of scientists who participated, and the 27 months to engineer the first atomic bomb.

Jennet Conant's book, "109 East Palace" is unique because it examines the project from the viewpoint of those intimately involved, so to speak, a compendium of the day-to-day diaries of those involved. Conant describes not only the frustrations, deprivations, and petty squabbles, but also the simple pleasures and the lifelong friendships that were established during the enforced isolation of the group.

The author tells story after story about the interactions of the scientists with the government, with the locals in nearby Santa Fe, and with each other. Vignettes allow readers to form their own conclusion regarding the character of the individuals. The stories are interesting; some are hilarious.

One story about Robert Oppenheimer (Oppy) involved his relationship with a married women Kitty who was, by the time he married her, several months pregnant with his child. With fellow academics at the University of California Berkeley outraged by his behavior, Oppy told his friends that he was thinking about naming the child Pronto.

It became evident early on that Edward Teller, jealous of Oppenheimer's appointment to direct the project at Los Alamos, did everything he could to challenge Oppy's authority and to create disharmony among the scientists. In a final act of vindictive betrayel, Teller testified in a government hearing that Oppenheimer should not be trusted.

One of the sub-themes of the book was the scientists questioning the purposeful use of the A-bomb on Japanese civilians. After the first bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, the consensus among the scientists, with a few notable exceptions like Edward Teller, was that the bomb should not be used again, and they made their opinion known in writing to the U.S. government.

A great many of the scientists, when given the opportunity, quit the project in protest to the government's dropping of the second bomb. The overwhelming majority believed the planned development of the H-Bomb to be unconscionable.

A central character in the book and in the lives of virtually everyone at Los Alamos was Dorothy McKibbin who had important and continuous interaction with everyone of the thousands of civilians working on the project. To many, Dorothy was the mother who listened to their problems, to everyone she was their contact with the outside world.

Dorothy and Oppy developed a close and enduring friendship that lasted a lifetime. The two had much in common. Both were intelligent and well educated. Both had come years earlier to the Sante Fe tuberculosis sanitarium for treatment, and both after a time came to love the Sangre de Christo hills and surroundings.

When they met for the first time, during the planning of the project, in less than a minute, both decided they wanted to work with the other.

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Very Interesting Book

This book chronicles the story of the building of the first atomic bomb and the behind the scenes details of the Los Alomos project. Very good reading.

Very interesting read!

Not done with the book, but am enjoying the read. I'm really not a history buff, but one of my favorite locations in the States and has been enjoyable reading about it's history.

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Technically accurate, interesting and funny

Fun read, historically accurate and interesting. Great mixture of social and technical issues that faced these people during a challenging time in US history.

Great firsthand account of how Los Alamos was developed and what allowed the Atom Bomb to become a reality

109 East Palace provides a succinct account of how the a city of Los Alamos came about and how through that city the atom bomb was developed. The story of the atom bomb is one of the most fascinating in history from all points of view (history, military, science, political) and there is no doubt that Richard Rhodes provides the definitive account on the matter. What I find refreshing about Connat's book is that it takes a more humanistic view and shows how the people working on the bomb were affected. From family planning, to living conditions, to simple things like entertainment in a city that is not supposed to exist all are covered well here. Connat relies on extensive interviews and access to Dorothy McKibbens memoirs. Dorothy was the main contact for the outside world with Los Alamos. She ran her operations out of 109 East Palace in Santa Fe and provided the community with whatever she could find. The story of how she did this and what allowed Oppenhiemer and his team to succeed are where this book outshines others describing the development of the atom bomb. It is a very light read filled with fascinating stories from an insider perspective and very well written. For those looking to add to their knowledge of this amazing historical event this is a book that cannot be missed.

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In 1943, Robert Oppenheimer, the brilliant, charismatic head of the Manhattan Project, recruited scientists to live as virtual prisoners of the U.S. government on a barren mesa thirty-five miles outside Santa Fe, New Mexico. Los Alamos was a secret city, a primitive barbed-wire-enclosed encampment whose makeshift dormitories and labs housed scientists, their young families, and some of the most advanced scientific equipment in the world. Thousands of men, women and children spent the war years sequestered in this top-secret military facility. They lied to friends and family about where they were going and what they were doing, and then disappeared into the desert. The women came to Los Alamos over the Army's objections. But Oppenheimer insisted it would be the only way to recruit the world-class physicists he needed and keep them reasonably sane and content during the many months - even years - it would take to create this new weapon. Conant shows how the stringent security, lack of privacy, spartan living conditions and loneliness of their isolated mountain hideaway drove some residents to the brink of despair. Yet only a handful gave up and left. Oppenheimer was a leader who, for all his flaws, inspired great devotion, and the author tells the story of the patriotism, sacrifice and triumph of the bomb project through the eyes of a young Santa Fe widow who was one of his first and most loyal recruits.

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