[RealityWall]

Just finished Richard Rhodes' tome on the Making of the Atomic Bomb. I searched this forum but there does not appear to be any real references to this work. Many pages devoted to the science, the various discoveries in nuclear physics that allowed for the creation of the atomic bomb, the workings of the Manhattan Project, etc.

My question, of those who disbelief in atomic weapons what are your thoughts on the work? I presume, of course, that some of you have read this massive work, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1986.

[FirstClassSkeptic]

I never read it.

Just exactly what does it prove? I can see that Hiroshima and Nagasaki were burnt with napalm. I can see that all the nuclear explosion films are faked. Why would it be worth my time to read the book? When you read the book, did it convince you that atomic weapons exist?

Would you do a book review? I would be interested in reading your book review, if you want to write one.

[rerevisionist]

Thirty year rule of plagiarism?, 19 July 2010
By Rerevisionist (Manchester, England)

This review is from: The Making of the Atomic Bomb (Paperback)

I haven't read this book but award it two stars on the following basis...
... As you get older you notice patterns which a more restricted time window tend to hide. One such is an approximate thirty years rule in publishing. The trick is to look back something like thirty years and see which books were then big sellers. With luck the same material can be recycled - with the bonus that 'research' need only be minimal. Copyright doesn't seem to apply to ideas - only to the actual form of words. Based on the reviews here (and the USA), I'm pretty confident this book is a rehash of Jungk's 1956 book 'Brighter than a Thousand Suns', probably supplemented by some new material from (e.g.) obituaries of scientists, bombers etc. There are numerous question marks over nuclear weapons, and immense secrecy - and a journalist is unfitted to tease them out.
______________________________________________
I haven't bothered with this book, for the reasons here, though I did read the Amazoners comments. I gave it two stars on Amazon - though I got quite a few thumbs downs. All publishers now (and film makers, and record companies, and journals/magazines) look at back numbers and aim for updates, if they think there's a market. The author is a hack journalist and it's not credible to me he'd be able to criticise the physics authoritatively.

[rerevisionist]

1969 The Inland Ground: An Evocation of the American Middle West
1973 The Ungodly: A Novel of the Donner Party
1986 The Making of the Atomic Bomb
1990 A Hole in the World: An American Boyhood
1995 How To Write: Advice and Reflections
1995 Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb (Vol Two 'The Making of the Nuclear Age')
1999 Why They Kill: The Discoveries of a Maverick Criminologist [Lonnie Athens]
2002 Masters of Death: The SS Einsatzgruppen and the Invention of the Holocaust
2004 John James Audubon: The Making of an American
2007 Arsenals of Folly: The Making of the Nuclear Arms Race (Vol Three 'The Making of the Nuclear Age')
2010 The Twilight of the Bombs (Vol Four 'The Making of the Nuclear Age')

I thought I'd poke around a bit for information on Richard Rhodes. The list above gives the main works attributed to Rhodes on the eponymous website - there are indications, which I haven't followed up, of considerable hack work as well. Note the long gap until 1986, his first atom bomb book, which I'd suggest was probably indicated to him by someone suggesting a refresh job on Robert Jungk. Then it was nearly ten years before his 'H bomb' book. Most of the 'updating' seems to have been by interview, probably largely of Jews, rather than documents, though some may have been made available after (say) 30 years. Then we have an account of murderers - though something tells me murders by Jews in the USSR and Americans in the 3rd world might be understated. And a book on Germany, praised by the notorious fraud Wiesel. (Almost all the plaudits quoted are by Jews). And a biography of Audubon, one of the great American individuals; again I can't help feeling someone steered him in that direction - time for a new book! His 2010 book 'The Twilight of the Bombs' must presumably be part of the discreet phasing-out process, though whether he'd know it I can't say.

[rerevisionist]

Richard Rhodes - some fake nuke stuff! - here's a 'Google authors' youtube 1 hour long---
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYS1_7jgHaI

I couldn't force myself to watch more than bits of this. What's possibly more significant is this video
https://fora.tv/2010/09/21/Richard_Rhodes_Twilight_of_the_Bombs#fullprogram

This is on 'Fora TV' and is titled 'The Twilight of the Bombs'. It's about 100 minutes. An organization called 'The Long Now Foundation' seems to be run by, or associated with, Richard Rhodes.

The whole presentation is similar to that of Ward Wilson. Perhaps a whole set of foundations, trusts, 'research' organizations, think tanks etc is in the process of trying to defuse and phase out the nuclear fraud.

(fora.tv also has a talk by Sam Nunn).

[FirstClassSkeptic]

One such is an approximate thirty years rule in publishing. The trick is to look back something like thirty years and see which books were then big sellers. With luck the same material can be recycled - with the bonus that 'research' need only be minimal.

Sounds like diet fads.