A World Destroyed

Review ''A dispassionate, richly detailed account that promises to be the definitive book on the formation of atomic-energy policy during World War II .'' --Time''The quality of his research and the strength of his argument are far superior to previous accounts.'' --The New York Times Book Review''It is sure to be admired by historians, and it can be read with profit by any reader in search of complicated truths about the developing logic of U.S. foreign relations.'' --Boston Globe --Review Product Description Continuously in demand since its first, prize-winning edition was published in 1975, this is the classic history of Hiroshima and the origins of the arms race, from the development of the American atomic bomb to the decision to use it against Japan and the beginnings of U.S. atomic diplomacy toward the Soviet Union. In the preface to this edition, the author describes and evaluates the lengthening trail of new evidence that has come to light concerning these often emotionally debated subjects. He also invokes his experience as a historical advisor to the controversial, aborted 1995 Enola Gay exhibit at the National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, which leads him to analyze the impact on American democracy of one of the most insidious legacies of Hiroshima: the political control of historical interpretation. Martin J. Sherwin's classic account of the political and diplomatic circumstances surrounding the development of the first atom bomb is as timely now as when it was written. He warns that until we understand its origins. the arms race will continue to force superpower relations to be conducted at the edge of the nuclear abyss. About the Author MARTIN J. SHERWIN won the Pulitzer Prize for his book American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer and the Stuart L. Bernath Prize and the American History Book Prize for A World Destroyed: Hiroshima and Its Legacies. He is currently a University Professor at George Mason University and professor emeritus at Tufts, where he founded the Nuclear Age History Center.