Review: Target Hiroshima: Deak Parsons and the Creation of the Atomic Bomb by Al Christman

Title: Target Hiroshima: Deak Parsons and the Creation of the Atomic Bomb
Author: Al Christman
Publisher:Not Avail
Publication Date: June 7, 2014 (first published March 1st 1998)
Edition: ebook (235 pages)
Genres:

• Nonfiction
• American History
• History
• Science

My Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Navy captain William S. "Deak" Parsons, as ordnance chief and associate director at Los Alamos, with almost single-minded determination and drive, can be credited with bringing the Manhattan Project and the development of the atomic bomb to its conclusion, weeks before it was dropped on Hiroshima in August 1945. Al Christman details this story in "Target Hiroshima: Deak Parsons and the Creation of the Atomic Bomb." Because of his military experience, along with having the brilliant mind of a scientist, Deak Parsons was able to coordinate and contribute to this effort in a way that perhaps no one else could, at the time.

I found this book most interesting. It conveyed the urgency of the times, as well as much of the culture and attitude toward science of that era. It also caused me to reflect on the fact that Captain Parsons and the men and women responsible for development of the atomic bomb were extraordinarily gifted people just doing a job they were asked to do.