The Devil Reached Toward the Sky: An Oral History of the Making and Unleashing of the Atomic Bomb

On the 80th anniversary of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, Garrett M. Graff presents an oral history of the atomic bomb's creation and deployment, drawing on the voices of hundreds of scientists, generals, soldiers, and civilians. The Manhattan Project represents an audacious secret effort by a small group of scientists and engineers to unlock the fundamental power of the universe during World War II. Brilliant physicists fleeing fascism and antisemitism in Hitler's Europe brought their determination to America, working in places like Chicago, Berkeley, Oak Ridge, Hanford, and Los Alamos. On August 6, 1945, the world learned the outcome of their work. Graff traces atomic development from its European origins through the breakthroughs and rapid pace of the war years, then follows the B-29 bombers carrying Little Boy and Fat Man to ground zero at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Engineers grappled with forces of terrifying power while hundreds of thousands of workers produced uranium and plutonium in a classified effort so secret that most participants learned the truth only through President Truman's radio announcement. The 509th Composite Group trained for a mystery mission until shortly before takeoff. Drawing from oral history archives, books, reports, letters, and diaries, this work blends perspectives from key figures like J. Robert Oppenheimer, General Leslie Groves, and President Truman, alongside the Hibakusha—the bomb-affected people—and bomber crews.