Rating: 
Summary: The Sequel Didn't Let Me Down
Review: After reading the first one, I just had to read the second, and I wasn't disappointed. This book is almost more a history of the beginnings of the Cold War than of thermonuclear weapons. I had no idea that the Soviet espionage network in the United States during World War II was so extensive. Rhodes had me hooked with the accounts of Klaus Fuchs, Harry Gold, the Rosenbergs, and the wholesale espionage that occurred as a result of Lend-Lease. As with The Making of the Atomic Bomb, Rhodes shows both sides very well. I had always believed that the U.S. was exclusively the good guy in the early years of the Cold War until I read Rhodes' account of Curtis LeMay's attempts to precipitate World War III in the fifties. This book was a real eye-opener for me to the paranoid political climate of the time. And the description of the Mike shot was both awesome and terrifying. This book really makes you appreciate just how real the threat of universal annihilation is. If you've read the first book, you have to read this one.
Rating:
Summary: awesome
Review: Although most people would have written about this subject and made it less than interesting, Rhodes is able to keep us tied to the book. I became very interested in Rhodes after reading The Making of the Atomic Bomb, and his latest book, Deadly Feasts is disturbing yet interesting. His detailed accounts of the situations were great
Rating: 
Summary: Terrific Atomic/Hydorgen Bomb Book
Review: An excellent review of the beginning of the Cold War and the building of the atomic bomb. Goes into great detail through the atomic bomb and the Russian's building of their's, but just gives partial detail of Castle Bravo and later tests. However, Mike Is throughly discused with diagrams and photos of the test, as well as reaction tables.
Rating: 
Summary: Disapponting
Review: As much a fan as I am of Richard Rhodes--the "Making of the Atomic Bomb" was an instant classic--this effort falls far short of the promise of the title.About 350 pages in, there is not much--perhaps five or six pages--about the hydrogen bomb. Instead, Rhodes focuses upon a multitude of spies, agents and bit players in the Cold War game, to the extent that one turns the page with little anticipation. This book should be retitled "The Socio-mechanisms and Ancillary Causes Leading to the Beginning of the Cold War" or some other such scholarly title. It is difficult to believe that the making of the hydrogen bomb can be boring, but after page 245 of this tome, you will not want to replenish your Itty-Bitty- Book Light's batteries. I hate to say it, but this book is a down coat stuffed with pigeon feathers. Sorry, Mr. Rhodes.
Rating:
Summary: Different than expected
Review: At first I thought this book was going to be similar to the first Richard Rhodes book I read "The Making of the Atomic Bomb". It did more than tell a history story, the book was a spy story of how the Soviets got the bomb. I never would have realized that Klaus Fuches basically gave them everything. Also that the Rosenburgs were entirely guilty they just wouldn't admit it. Everyone else who did got a jail sentence, they must of had a lousy attorney or something. I always wondered what happen to Oppenheimer and that he was closed out because of a jealous fellow scientist, Edwin Teller. Teller was a real character in this book. He was a clever guy who was too capricious to run a project, so he got Oppie. It was interesting to know that were we also ahead of the Soviets in the nuclear technology. I guess the cold war was just a big scare tactic. The final thing that was interesting about this book was the way that it traced the Soviet technology and their program. I thought it was funny that even though they had all the information from Fuchs the head of the Soviet program still made his scientists figure it out for themselves and then tell them if they were right or wrong. What a management style! I've dealt with people who waste my time like that.
Rating:
Summary: Different than expected
Review: At first I thought this book was going to be similar to the first Richard Rhodes book I read "The Making of the Atomic Bomb". It did more than tell a history story, the book was a spy story of how the Soviets got the bomb. I never would have realized that Klaus Fuches basically gave them everything. Also that the Rosenburgs were entirely guilty they just wouldn't admit it. Everyone else who did got a jail sentence, they must of had a lousy attorney or something. I always wondered what happen to Oppenheimer and that he was closed out because of a jealous fellow scientist, Edwin Teller. Teller was a real character in this book. He was a clever guy who was too capricious to run a project, so he got Oppie. It was interesting to know that were we also ahead of the Soviets in the nuclear technology. I guess the cold war was just a big scare tactic. The final thing that was interesting about this book was the way that it traced the Soviet technology and their program. I thought it was funny that even though they had all the information from Fuchs the head of the Soviet program still made his scientists figure it out for themselves and then tell them if they were right or wrong. What a management style! I've dealt with people who waste my time like that.
Rating:
Summary: Popular history at its best
Review: Beginning with the Manhattan Project, and ending with Curtis LeMay's SAC, Richard Rhodes has created a history not only of the technical aspects of the H-Bomb story, but also the politics, espionage and personalities of the era. He weaves a wealth of detail into the story based upon extensive original research of primary sources, yet never loses the reader in recitation, nor his own sight of the narrative, which details the conflict between Oppenheimer and Teller, the Rosenberg circle, the reluctance of various physicists to become involved in the engineering needed to develop the "Super", the military drive to use the weapons in Korea, Russia and Cuba, and the points of view of Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Reagan as they dealt with their development and deployment. Rhodes has created a definitive work that may serve not only as an accurate and enlightening source, but also as a model for works of popular history.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing sequel on the H-bomb meanders, grinds axes.
Review: Fans of "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" are going to be disappointed by this sequel. Rhodes still has a great deal to tell, showing off his ability to dig like heck for detail. But for what? Unlike the first book we don't get that excitement of the hunt, that crystalline insight into the working of physics, the stuff of legend. Instead it's all a bit tawdry, a cursory rehash of the Russian bomb effort, a spy tale that Rhodes somehow manages to make boring, a gloss on the making of thermonuclear bombs. Worst of all, the undercurrent of the whole story can be told in one sentence: The Russians copied us, the Rosenbergs were guilty, Oppenheimer was innocent, and Teller is a fraud. We already knew this! Rhodes' research doesn't enlighten, it just grinds his particular axe(s) until they are dull dull dull... I think there's several problems here. Most of the thermonuclear stuff is still classified, so the physics, mathematics, and computer science is verboten. The Russian info is just coming to light, and may be lost for all time, alas. Most everyone knows that Oppenheimer was a victim of Red-hunting, and that Teller is a blowhard whose ego outshone his contributions. In fact, that last part was obvious from the first book. After "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" there was still a story to write, but not a full book, not a Pulitzer Prize winner. I wish that Rhodes had put the whole story into 2 companion volumes, telling the spy story along with the A-bomb work.
Rating: 
Summary: OK, but not great.
Review: I had high hopes when I started reading this book. I had read Rhodes' other book, "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" and I loved it. It aroused my interest in the Hydrogen bomb. But I was disappointed. There was too much focus on the details of the personalities involved in spying for the Soviet Union and not enough technical information about the H-bomb. The "Making of the Atomic Bomb" gave some basic information about the H-bomb but left many unanswered questions. Most of these remained unanswered in this book. The amount of scientific knowledge added could be listed on about 4 or 5 pages! Maybe my expectations were too high.
Rating:
Summary: Hey Kids! Kaboom!
Review: I had some sleepless nights while reading this. Rhodes was quoting Edward Teller (nuke physicist who allegedly gave rise to Peter Sellers' Dr. Strangelove) who mused that if you strapped enough H-bombs together you might literally blow apart the whole world (as did Charlton Heston in Beneath the Planet of the Apes). Later on, Teller realized, that wouldn't happen: rather, an H-Bomb of that size would simply blast the first few miles of topsoil and the surrounding chunk of atmosphere into space. With that, I was able to sleep again. Great narrative, especially on the chapter "Super Lend Lease" on Soviet espionage.
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