The Making of the Atomic Bomb

This book does an excellent job blending science, biographical focus, and intellectual or structural analysis into a primarily narrative history. It lays out all of the background in science, politics, and war that lead up to the development and use of the atomic bomb in WWII. As someone who lives in Santa Fe and who used to work in Los Alamos (not at the labs, although I did once get visit to see the linear accelerator they have there which was super cool) I found many of details about the creation of Los Alamos super interesting. I also feel like Rhodes did a better job teaching chemistry than my high school teachers and the physics and chemistry sections were so interesting that I went out and bought Feynman's lectures on physics. This is a really excellent example of threading a narrative through a very complicated subject in such a way that it feels natural and the only way to present the material.