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Rating: 
Summary: A Los Alamos boyhood: factual and fascinating
Review: In ATOMIC CITY Terry Rosen remembers his years of growing up in a small city like no other: Los Alamos, N.M. in the 1940s and '50s. In this place there were few "ordinary" people. The family friends were the likes of Edward Teller, Enrico Fermi, James Tuck, and Robert Oppenheimer. The children of famous physicists, his playmates.Yet Rosen is not a name-dropper. Instead he tells tales, often very funny, of boyhood pranks and adventures, like those of a Huck Finn or a Penrod, but set in a deeply serious place and time when the nuclear bomb was being developed and tested. The scientific information is impressive but not overwhelming. Rosen explains clearly, but the thrust of the book is not technical: it is how it was to be a kid in this unique place, with a father who works long hours and an artistic mother who puts up with an active boy and his friends. The juxtaposition of carefree childhood with the birth of the atomic bomb makes for a fascinating read.
Rating:
Summary: A Los Alamos boyhood: factual and fascinating
Review: In ATOMIC CITY Terry Rosen remembers his years of growing up in a small city like no other: Los Alamos, N.M. in the 1940s and '50s. In this place there were few "ordinary" people. The family friends were the likes of Edward Teller, Enrico Fermi, James Tuck, and Robert Oppenheimer. The children of famous physicists, his playmates. Yet Rosen is not a name-dropper. Instead he tells tales, often very funny, of boyhood pranks and adventures, like those of a Huck Finn or a Penrod, but set in a deeply serious place and time when the nuclear bomb was being developed and tested. The scientific information is impressive but not overwhelming. Rosen explains clearly, but the thrust of the book is not technical: it is how it was to be a kid in this unique place, with a father who works long hours and an artistic mother who puts up with an active boy and his friends. The juxtaposition of carefree childhood with the birth of the atomic bomb makes for a fascinating read.
Rating: 
Summary: The Atomic City: A Mystery Uncovered
Review: Terry Rosen has done an excellent job of describing the early days of Los Alamos, N.M., a city shrouded in secrecy for the first 14 years of its existence. He introduces the reader to a virtual Who's Who's of the greatest scientific minds not only of that day, but of the years which followed A-Bomb development.
A mix of anecdotes and explanations provide the reader with insight into the weapons development which became the Los Alamos trademark for many years along with follow-on projects which were far ahead of their time. The book provides a good overview of life in this most unique city, experienced by families which came from differing backgrounds to become part of a one-of-a-kind lifetime experience.
Rating:
Summary: Insight
Review: The Atomic City gave some interesting insight into many of the great scientists of the day that only the author could give. It also provided strong argument on behalf of the United States having developed "the bomb." It was a truly pleasurable read. I only wish it had been longer. It provided far more insight as to what early Los Alamos was like than anything else I've read.
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