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  • Dark Sun

  • The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb
  • Written by: Richard Rhodes
  • Narrated by: Richard Rhodes
  • Length: 6 hrs
  • 5.0 out of 5 stars (3 ratings)

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Dark Sun

Written by: Richard Rhodes
Narrated by: Richard Rhodes
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Publisher's Summary

The author of The Making of the Atomic Bomb lays bare the secret heart of the Cold War.

Richard Rhodes' landmark history of the atomic bomb won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award and the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. Now, in this majestic new masterpiece of history, science, and politics, he tells for the first time the secret story of how and why the hydrogen bomb was made, and traces the path by which this supreme artifact of 20th-century technology became the defining issue of the Cold War.

From the day in 1941 when the first word of Anglo-American atomic-bomb research arrived in Moscow to the week of the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, DARK SUN is full of unexpected -- and sometimes hair-raising -- revelations based on previously undisclosed Soviet and U.S. sources, including:

  • How the Soviets were able to produce a carbon copy of the first U.S. atomic bomb
  • How the SAC fought for independent control of U.S. nuclear weapons -- while flying deliberately provocative daytime missions over Soviet cities
  • How the first and only direct nuclear confrontation between the superpowers was also very nearly the last

Following the lives of the atomic scientists on both sides of the Iron Curtain, Dark Sun is the definitive work on the hydrogen bomb, showing why the world wars that devastated the first half of the century can never happen again.

©1996 Richard Rhodes (P)2004 Simon & Schuster
  • Abridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History

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Fabulous, but sadly, VERY ABRIDGED

After completing The Making of the Atomic Bomb I searched out and bought this audiobook with a credit to carry on right away. After completing what I felt was extremely short and to the point, not at all what I had just experienced, it was noted at the end that this work was abridged. Needless to say, as one who never- EVER- buys abridged works I was not happy. I won’t return it, since I can't seem to find a full audio version. It was great to have the author's own words read by himself, lending the perfect inflections and words rolled out as they belonged. Content wise, I seem to have been forced to order a print copy, available through Amazon and delivered within two days, to put away the app for a bit and squeeze in some quiet time to evaluate the full message from the comfort of the easy chair. Feeling a bit cheated, but a lot inspired.

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