German National Socialism and the Quest for Nuclear Power, 1939-49

ISBN-13: 9780521438049 / Angielski / Miękka / 1992 / 304 str.

Mark Walker

Opis

This is a paperback edition of Professor Walker's full-scale examination of the German efforts to harness the economic, military and political power of nuclear fission between 1939 and 1949. It argues that the German decision not to attempt the production of nuclear weapons during World War II came as a result of economic and political developments, not scientific or moral considerations, and was at the time a perfectly reasonable policy. Professor Walker also places nuclear fission research in the contexts of the war effort and German cultural imperialism, including the plunder and exploitation of "Greater Germany," the German slave labor economy, and the ambivalent interaction between the Nazi party and the German physicists. The book begins at the height of the Empire, and carries the story through to the founding of the two postwar republics in order to emphasize continuity before and after the Third Reich, and to compare the scientists' activity during the war and after the shock of Hiroshima and the Nuremberg trials. Throughout, Professor Walker explains clearly, in terms that the non-specialist can understand, what was involved in the Germans' quest, and in what ways the German scientists succeeded or failed in the development of "the bomb."

Recenzje

'This view of Walker's seems more accurate and is vitally important because subsequently, prominent German physicists, particularly Heisenberg, were to claim that, not only were they 'only doing their duty' but that they actually slowed down the Nazi bomb.' Michael Hindley, Morning Star

Spis treści

Introduction; Part I. Lightning War: Nuclear fission; The German nuclear power project; Moderators, isotope separation, and uranium machines; Nuclear power and lightning war; Part II. The War Slows Down: The end of the lightning war; Nuclear power conferences; National Socialism and German physics; Progress and infighting; Part III. The War Comes Home: Wonder weapons; Uranium machines in Berlin-gottow; Greater Germany and cultural imperialism; Death from above and betrayal from within; Part IV. The War is Lost: Evacuation and self-preservation; The heavy water dries up; Harteck's circle, centrifuges, and special experiments; Uranium machines and rock cellars; Part V. The German Achievement in the American Shadow: The Alsos MIssion; Farm Hall; The Smyth Report; Part VI. The Legacy of German National Socialism: The occupation of Germany; Nazification and denazification; The Goudsmit/Heisenberg controversy; Part VII. The Myth of the German Atomic Bomb: Conclusion; Notes; Bibliography; Index.