Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: The Prometheus Bomb
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE: 1948
WEBSITE: https://about.me/neiljsullivan
CITY:
STATE:
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/mspia/faculty-and-staff/full-time-faculty/neil-sullivan.html * http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/mspia/faculty-and-staff/documents/cv_sullivan.pdf
RESEARCHER NOTES:
LC control no.: n 86116768
LCCN Permalink: https://lccn.loc.gov/n86116768
HEADING: Sullivan, Neil J., 1948-
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PERSONAL
Born February 24, 1948.
EDUCATION:University of Southern California, B.A., 1970; University of Southern California, M.A., 1972; Brandeis University, Ph.D., 1978.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer. Rutgers University, assistant professor, 1977-78; City University of New York, professor, 1978-present.
MEMBER:Zoning Board of Appeals, Yonkers, New York; Hudson Valley Board of Easter Seals.
WRITINGS
Contributor to numerous periodicals, including New York Times, Chicago Times Magazine, New York Daily News, Policy Studies Review, and Administrative Law Review.
SIDELIGHTS
Neil J. Sullivan is a writer and professor. He has taught at the School of Public Affairs at Baruch College at the City University of New York since 1978. Prior to accepting this position, he served as an assistant professor in the department of political science at Douglass College at Rutgers University between 1977 and 1978.
Sullivan received his B.A. and his M.A. in political science from the University of Southern California. He received his Ph.D. in politics from Brandeis University. He teaches courses on public administration, law and governmental institutions, and the impact of politics. His research interests focus on baseball and its relationships to government and the politics concerning public financing of stadiums.
The Dodgers Move West
In The Dodgers Move West, Sullivan writes about Walter O’Malley, the late owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, and the factors leading up to his decision to move the Dodgers to Los Angeles. The book attempts to counter the historical demonizing of Walter O’Malley, putting to rest the notion that he moved the team to LA for solely for financial gain, selfishly abandoning the team’s New York fanbase.
Sullivan explains that O’Malley wanted to stay in New York, and sought out options to buy a stadium. Sullivan describes how New York City official Robert Moses would not allow O’Malley to use federal aid to buy land in Brooklyn from the city for a new stadium. Instead, the city offered a municipal stadium, which O’Malley refused. Looking west, O’Malley saw the benefit of taking the team to L.A., where city officials were more flexible in adjusting laws to sell him Chavez Ravine. Problems arose in L.A. as well, when it was discovered the the land promised to O’Malley for the stadium site had been earmarked for public housing. Despite these barriers, O’Malley was able to lead to the team to victory just two years after the move, winning the 1959 World Series.
A contributor to Kirkus Review described the book as “an engrossing, persuasively documented inquiry that offers object lessons in civics while rehabilitating the reputation of a genuine risk-taking capitalist long perceived–and portrayed–as a bloated plutocrat.”
The Prometheus Bomb
In The Prometheus Bomb, Sullivan explores the history of and reasoning for the Manhattan project, the research project that resulted in the first nuclear weapons. Sullivan roots the book within the historical context of WWI, WWII, and Hitler’s rise to power.
Sullivan also explores the power dynamics that allowed for the Manhattan Project to come to be. As the research developed, neither the politicians involved in military decisions nor the scientists responsible for the creation of the weapons were clearly directing the operation. Those leading the political decisions had little understanding of the science involved, while the scientists were not clearly informed on how these weapons would be used. Both parties essentially relied on the other for approval to move the project forward, motivated by the real fear that the German’s would create a weapon of mass destruction before the US could.
Sullivan puts emphasis on the political figures directing Manhattan Project, such as Vannevar Bush, General Leslie Groves, and Franklin D. Roosevelt. He examines F.D.R in particular, describing his life prior to the presidency and discussing his use of the executive order. International responses to the Manhattan project are also explored, including Britain’s disapproval of the secrecy around the project, and the U.S.S.R.’s early knowledge through informants. On the science side, Sullivan explores the precise chemistry that went into developing nuclear weapons, describing problems that arose and how the scientists were able to overcome them.
A contributor to the Impeccable Business website wrote: “Challenging to read at certain occasions, the book nonetheless consists mostly of painstaking details, and would make a perfect read for nuclear enthusiasts who crave for an incredible amount of, and even the seemingly minutest of, details.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Economist, July 7, 2001, Roger Angell, “The In and Out club; Baseball stories; Three books on baseball.” p. 1.
National Review, December 31, 1987, Joe Mysak, review of The Dodgers Move West, p. 53.
Publishers Weekly, February 23, 1990, Genevieve Stuttaford, review of The Minors: the Struggles and the Triumph of Baseball’s Poor Relation, p. 212; May 4, 1992, review of The Diamond Revolution: The Forces That Are Transforming Baseball Today and Tomorrow, p. 46; March 26, 2001, review of The Diamond in the Bronx: Yankee Stadium and the Politics of New York, p. 77; October 3, 2016, review of The Prometheus Bomb: The Manhattan Project and Government in the Dark, p. 111.
ONLINE
Impeccable Business, https://impeccablebusiness.wordpress.com (August 17, 2016), review of The Prometheus Bomb.
Kirkus Reviews Online, https://www.kirkusreviews.com (June 1, 1987), review of The Dodgers Move West.*
Neil J. Sullivan
Employment:
Baruch College – City University of New York (1978-present)
Professor, School of Public Affairs
Douglass College – Rutgers University (1977-78): Assistant
Professor, Department of Political Science
Education:
PhD 1978 Brandeis University – Department of Politics
MA 1972 University of Southern California – Department of
Political Science
BA 1970 University of Southern California – Department of
Political Science
Publications:
A. Books:
The Diamond in the Bronx: Yankee Stadium and the Politics of
New York, New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. New edition with Epilogue in 2008.
The Diamond Revolution: The Prospects for Baseball After the Collapse of Its Ruling Class,
New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1992.
The Minors: The Struggles and Triumph of Baseball’s Poor
Relation, New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1990.
The Dodgers Move West, New York: Oxford University Press, 1987.
B. Chapters:
“Was the Move Justified?” The Dodgers Reader, Dan Riley,ed.
New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1992
“Major League Baseball and American Cities: A Strategy for Playing the Stadium Game,”
The Economics and Politics of Sports Facilities, Wilbur Rich, ed., Westport, Connecticut:
Quorum Books, 2000.
C. Articles:
“A Bad Deal for Baseball,” New York Times Op-Ed, December 3, 1996.
“Big League Welfare,” New York Times Op-Ed, November 4, 1995.
“Baseball Eyes Your Tax Dollar,” New York Daily News, July 9, 1995.
“How To Save Baseball From Itself,” New York Daily News, October 9, 1994.
“Stealing Home,” Chicago Times Magazine, September-October, 1988.
“Cities, Stadiums and Responsibilities,” New York Times, August 14, 1988.
D. Academic Articles:
“Baseball and Race: The Limits of Competition,” The Journal of
Negro History, Volume LXXXIII, No. 3, Summer 1998.
“Major League Baseball and American Cities: A Strategy for
Playing the Stadium Game,” Policy Studies Review, Vol. 15,
No. 1, Spring 1998.
“The Cotton Dust Decision: The Confusion Continues,”
Administrative Law Review, Summer, 1982.
“The Benzene Decision: A Case of Regulatory Confusion,”
Administrative Law Review, Summer, 1981.
“Independent Adjudication and Occupational Safety and Health
Policy: A Test for Administrative Court Theory,”
Administrative Law Review, Spring, 1978.
Civic Affairs:
Member, Hudson Valley Board of Easter Seals, 2007–present.
Member, Zoning Board of Appeals, Yonkers, New York, 1998-present.
President, Park Hill Residents Association, Yonkers, New York, 1993-95. Board member, 1988-
98.
NEIL J. SULLIVAN
Professor
BIOGRAPHY
Professor Sullivan teaches courses on the impact of politics, law and governmental institutions on public administration. His research interests have focused on the business of major league baseball and its relationship to government, as well as the politics involved with the public financing of stadiums.
He received a Ph.D. in Political Science from Brandeis University.
NEIL SULLIVAN
Professor, School of Public Affairs, Baruch College
City University of New York
Books:
Diamond in the Bronx - Yankee Stadium
The Dodgers Move West
The Minors - History of Minor League Baseball
The Diamond Revolution - Business of Baseball
rorotoko.com
rorotoko.com
Neil J. Sullivan
On his book The Prometheus Bomb: The Manhattan Project and Government in the Dark
Cover Interview of January 25, 2017
A close-up
A fairly standard practice – a look at the introduction and the last chapter – should give the reader a sense of the book. The introduction provides an overview of the book including its essential question: How can we control experts in a democracy when we don’t know what they’re talking about? The introduction includes a brief discussion of the theme of the book and also its implications.
The last chapter develops the title, what Prometheus has to do with the Manhattan Project. It also reviews some of the points of the book. It examines the environmental damage caused by the development of nuclear weapons. It looks at the American policy on assassination which sent an armed American agent to a lecture in Zurich by Werner Heisenberg, head of the German nuclear program. Had Heisenberg referred to progress on a Nazi bomb, he would have been shot dead on the spot. Secrecy is another consequence of the Manhattan Project. It developed as a result of specialization. People knew their own part of the overall effort, but the need to know was a guiding principle of the endeavor. It is ironic that this concern may have facilitated the penetration of the Project by Soviet spies. Few people had a sufficiently broad perspective to realize that spies roamed Los Alamos.
Otherwise, a curious reader might simply flip some pages, look at the first page of several chapters, check out the photographs, review the index and the references, and look at the handsome fellow on the back flap of the book jacket. I wrote the book with the purpose of making a complex scientific and political project accessible to interested people. Likely the reader would be no less familiar with the physics of the atomic bomb than I was, and I have tried to make the intricate bureaucratic maneuvers clear as well. The reader will have to decide how successful I might have been, but I’m satisfied that this breezy approach will indicate if tackling the book is worthwhile.
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Print Marked Items
The Prometheus Bomb: The Manhattan Project
and Government in the Dark
Publishers Weekly.
263.40 (Oct. 3, 2016): p111.
COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
The Prometheus Bomb: The Manhattan Project and Government in the Dark
Neil J. Sullivan. Potomac, $29.95 (296p) ISBN 9781612348155
There are many histories of the atom bomb, but this excellent addition to the literature from Sullivan (Diamond in the
Bronx), professor in the School of Public Affairs at Baruch College, tells the story from an unusual angle, pointing out
that many of the American leaders who launched the Manhattan Project as a matter of national survival had no
understanding of the science involved. The scientists made decisions with potentially catastrophic consequences while
assuming, correctly, that their superiors would go along. Politicians made political choices with similar insouciance.
Told that the war effort required some patriotic silence about rather large military expenditures, Congress submitted to
the demands of the fledgling national security apparatus, beginning a baleful tradition. In deciding not to share details
with allies, America offended Britain but not the U.S.S.R., whose spies kept it informed. Its arguable whether any
historian can deliver a satisfying explanation for Truman's decision to use the bomb, but Sullivan examines everyone's
motives without resorting to hindsight. Readers of Richard Rhodess classic, The Making of the Atomic Bomb, will not
regret reading this parallel history, which passes over Oppenheimer and his brilliant crew in order to emphasize their
nonscientist superiors, including Vannevar Bush, Gen. Leslie Groves, and F.D.R. Sullivan shows that the decisions of
these powerful men triumphed in the short run but produced dismal longterm consequences that remain with us. (Dec.)
Source Citation (MLA 8
th Edition)
"The Prometheus Bomb: The Manhattan Project and Government in the Dark." Publishers Weekly, 3 Oct. 2016, p. 111.
General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA466166628&it=r&asid=c8908b6b61abd410d41323be170d006c.
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The In and Out club; Baseball stories; Three
books on baseball
Roger Angell
The Economist.
360.8229 (July 7, 2001): p1.
COPYRIGHT 2001 Economist Intelligence Unit N.A. Incorporated
http://store.eiu.com/
Full Text:
A Pitcher's Story: Innings with David Cone.
The Duke of Havana: Baseball, Cuba, and the Search for the American Dream.
The Diamond in the Bronx: Yankee Stadium and the Politics of New York.
BASEBALL writers are often given to philosophical excess. With the game's slow rhythms creating a natural tension,
most baseball writing tries to capture the action inside the players' heads as much as the action on the field. Poorly done,
it is tedious and overblown. But when the writing is rightas it is when Roger Angell holds the penit is a real pleasure
to read.
In "A Pitcher's Story", the New Yorker 's baseball writer follows David Cone (above), a Yankee pitcher, through the
2000 season, a sorry affair during which the onceglittering veteran watched his formidable skills vanish before his
eyes. The collapse initially gave Mr Angell the shakes. "Instead of an inside look at a wizardly old master at his late last
best", he writes, "this was going to be Merlin falling headlong down the palace stairs, the pointy hat airborne and his
wand clattering." Mr Angell casts the story as a tragic drama about an ageing competitor and the emotional strain of
coming to terms with lost greatness.
The book rambles at times, and the game's jargon, nicknames and famous moments are seldom explained, which is
likely to baffle the uninitiated. Yet Mr Angell's passion for the sport's minutiae is a delight, as are his descriptions of its
more colourful players ("Sojo, a Venezuelan, is 34, but looks as if he had put on a much older guy's body that morning
by mistake"). Most importantly, Mr Angell proves that a book about defeat can be infinitely more interesting than yet
another volume on athletic triumph.
Another kind of triumph is chronicled in "The Duke of Havana": that of political freedom (and the almighty dollar) over
an oppressive and archaic regime. The authors tell the story of Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez, a great Cuban pitcher
who defected to America on December 25th 1997: the very day that Fidel Castro legalised Christmas in Cuba. El Duque
eventually won three world championships with the Yankees. But this is no simple rags to riches tale; it is a study in
Cuban culture told through the prism of one of Castro's most prized commodities: his baseball players.
Messrs Fainaru and Sanchez debunk the myth that legions of Cuban players have always dreamed of playing American
baseball, lacking only an opportunity to defect. Instead, they focus on the pride that many on the Cuban national team
felt as heroes of the state and on why so many bought into the propaganda about the evils of capitalist imperialism. The
book is especially strong on the Orwellian nature of the Cuban state.
Too often, however, the authors feel compelled to report every bit of information they have ferreted out. Minutebyminute
accounts of the plots by American sports agents to induce defections become tiresome. Still, they are worth
slogging through, as the rest of the book makes for compelling reading.
Neil Sullivan's "A Diamond in the Bronx" is both narrative history and policy briefing, and falls just short of succeeding
at either. Most of the book uses the history of Yankee Stadium to tell the political story of New York in the 20th century.
Since its construction, the stadium has been a political pawn in the games played by such colossal egos as the Tammany
Hall bosses, Mayors John Lindsay and Rudy Giuliani, and George Steinbrenner, who owns the Yankees.
Unfortunately, the book turns into something of a treatise against public funding for sports stadiums. Some of this
debate is worthwhile, notably Mr Sullivan's point that both the right and left support public financing for vastly different
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reasons: the right out of regard for government policies that facilitate enterprise, the left following a sports version of
NewDeal economics which implies that new stadium construction will automatically produce jobs and contracts. The
author argues that both are wrong, yet his discussion seems, in baseballspeak, to come from left field. As Mr Sullivan
should know, the best baseball writing is about philosophy, not policy.
Source Citation (MLA 8
th Edition)
Angell, Roger. "The In and Out club; Baseball stories; Three books on baseball." The Economist, 7 July 2001, p. 1.
General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA76293686&it=r&asid=eac98cc6c145a2e36480f666ad06e209.
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The Dodgers move West
Joe Mysak
National Review.
39.25 (Dec. 31, 1987): p53.
COPYRIGHT 1987 National Review, Inc.
http://www.nationalreview.com/
Full Text:
The Dodgers Move West
NEIL J. SULLIVAN, an assistant professor of administration at Baruch College in New York City, explains why the
Dodgers left Brooklyn for the West Coast, and disposes of what he calls the Walter O'Malley Devil Theory. The facts
are simple: New York City officialsled by Robert Moses, czar of parks, highways, and urban developmentrefused to
accommodate Dodger owner O'Malley, who wanted them to use federal aid to acquire land in Brooklyn for a new
stadium. O'Malley wanted to buy the land, not lease it, but he knew he could only do so from the city; Charles Ebbets
had had a difficult enought time assembling property privately for the Dodgers' home nearly a halfcentury before. The
city instead countered with the offer of a new municipal stadium. O'Malley would have no part of it, and packed up and
moved his team to Los Angeles, whose officials saw no problem in rewriting a few laws in order to sell him Chavez
RAvine. In telling the story of the infamous move, Sullivan does not neglect the history of the team, from the days of
Zack Wheat and Casey Stengel through the era of Duke Snider and Jackie Robinson. But his most extraordinary work is
in his final chapter, a startling attack on using public finance, particulary taxexempt bonds, to build municipal
stadiums. He concludes that "the municipal stadium is a most pernicious form of welfare awarded to millionaire sports
owners. Perhaps now that a sufficient number of cities have been burned by franchise relocation, they will discover that
a saner public policy is to tell teams they are welcome only if they build their own stadiums." The investment, he
reasons, would not only tie them to a community, but would also lead to smaller and better ball parks, instead of today's
"multipurpose monstrosities." There would be fewer "frivolous" moves, and "in smaller settings, baseball could recover
its more appropriate function as entertainment, and its financial base could be strengthened by owners who are serious
about the same and disciplined by market forces."
Source Citation (MLA 8
th Edition)
Mysak, Joe. "The Dodgers move West." National Review, 31 Dec. 1987, p. 53. General OneFile,
go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA6241707&it=r&asid=00abb617dc5e1e0e34f9263801c64518.
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THE DIAMOND IN THE BRONX: Yankee
Stadium and the Politics of New York
Publishers Weekly.
248.13 (Mar. 26, 2001): p77.
COPYRIGHT 2001 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
NEIL J. SULLIVAN. Oxford, $30 (352p) ISBN 0185123603
For Sullivan (The Dodgers Move West), the business of baseball provides a window on city politics as well as on the
shifting economics and demographics of American society in the past 100 years. Several times since the original
Baltimore Orioles moved to New York to become the Highlanders in 1903, stadium controversies and other conflicts
between the team and the city have flared. (He also shows how since Yankee Stadium was built in 1923, race has
become entangled in New York's debate over funding for sports stadiumstwo teams left in the 1950s, as the city's
nonwhite populations were significantly increasing.) In the past few decades, in New York and elsewhere, an uneasy
consensus over the benefits of sports stadiums has begun to fall apart again, and government funding for stadiums is
once again a matter of heated public debate. Sullivan himself, a professor of public affairs at Baruch College in New
York, is clearly skeptical about public spending on stadiums, noting that the Yankees benefit more from hav ing their
stadium in the Bronx than does New York City. Except for the wealthy, he argues, baseball stadiums mainly carry a
symbolic value for the city's residents, yielding little economic benefit. But as Sullivan's own evident love for the game
showshis book is awash in World Series statisticssymbols can carry a lot of weight. Sullivan's scholarly book will be
more appealing to intellectual baseball fans and urban history enthusiasts than to the riotous weekend crowd in Yankee
Stadium's bleachers. (Apr.)
Source Citation (MLA 8
th Edition)
"THE DIAMOND IN THE BRONX: Yankee Stadium and the Politics of New York." Publishers Weekly, 26 Mar. 2001,
p. 77. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA72520062&it=r&asid=adb812b988b80ed010b8ed717c4dd87e.
Accessed 11 June 2017.
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The Diamond Revolution: The Forces That Are
Transforming Baseball Today and Tomorrow
Publishers Weekly.
239.21 (May 4, 1992): p46.
COPYRIGHT 1992 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Neil J Sullivan. St. Martin's, $19.95 ISBN 0312077238
Contemporary baseball fans frequently bemoan the current state of the game, especially what they see as an increased
emphasis on business instead of sport. But Sullivan (Minors), an associate professor of public administration at the City
University of New York, questions whether there ever was a golden age for the national pastime. He gives a laundry list
of past ills, reminding readers that for many years players were virtual slaves, working for wretched pay; that owners
enforced a color bar, moved teams from city to city in search of more spectators, and overexpanded league
memberships, perhaps even to the point of spreading the talent pool too thin; and that over time very few teams have
dominated the sport. Previous eras were golden for the owners, but not for anyone else, he concludes. Sullivan finishes
with a short and superficial list of the steps baseball can take to survive and grow. An unimpressive study. Photos not
seen by PW. (July)
Source Citation (MLA 8
th Edition)
"The Diamond Revolution: The Forces That Are Transforming Baseball Today and Tomorrow." Publishers Weekly, 4
May 1992, p. 46. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA12245373&it=r&asid=d2e31b5867f8024e2bc2fa2917dc082f.
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The Minors: the Struggles and the Triumph of
Baseball's Poor Relation
Genevieve Stuttaford
Publishers Weekly.
237.8 (Feb. 23, 1990): p212.
COPYRIGHT 1990 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
THE MINORS: The Struggles and the Triumph of Baseball's Poor Relation This impressive history of baseball in the
smaller towns and cities of the U.S. is divided into three sections. The first covers the years from 1877 to 1920, when
the modern game was evolving and the general outlines of major and minor leagues were taking shape; the second treats
the period from 1920 to 1950, the golden age of the minors; the third is devoted to the expansion of the major and the
rise of television, both of which all but destroyed the minors, reducing the number of leagues from 59 to 21. Sullivan
(The Dodgers Move West) has done his research well, examining not only the socalled "high" minors like the
International League and the American Association but also lowerprofile teams like those in Shamokin, Pa., and
Calument, Mich. Photos not seen by PW. (Apr.)
Source Citation (MLA 8
th Edition)
Stuttaford, Genevieve. "The Minors: the Struggles and the Triumph of Baseball's Poor Relation." Publishers Weekly, 23
Feb. 1990, p. 212. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA8775019&it=r&asid=4c27a417e8a35c517ebba2e778bbcf2c.
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REVIEW: “The Prometheus Bomb: The Manhattan Project and Government in the Dark” by Neil J. Sullivan
Posted by IMPECCABLEBUSINESS on AUGUST 17, 2016
The Prometheus Bomb: The Manhattan Project and Government in the Dark, by Neil J. Sullivan
Potomac Books, ISBN: 978-1612348155
Copyright December 2016, Hardcover, 296 Pages
cover93468-medium
The Prometheus Bomb is a mostly well-written book on the Manhattan Project. Examination of the nuclear undertaking was aptly set against the political backdrop of the Roosevelt administration, and investigated in reference to and in the context of the international and political climate of the Great War, World War II, and Adolph Hitler as the chancellor of Germany. The book is also dedicated considerably to documenting the bureaucratic lethargy and inefficiencies which befell the fission research, and to chronicling the various figures put in leadership roles of the project.
Challenging to read at certain occasions, the book nonetheless consists mostly of painstaking details, and would make a perfect read for nuclear enthusiasts who crave for an incredible amount of, and even the seemingly minutest of, details. The author personally made a decent case for one to pick up and devour the book, highlighting that today “we live with the legacy of the Manhattan Project;” the shrewd reader might find the trade-off of additional knowledge to be well worth the time invested in the book.
It is rather thought-provoking to be confronted with tough questions that the American nuclear team had to contend with. Surely it is fascinating to learn of for example, the challenge of determining the “military importance of the uranium problem” and subsequently recommending an appropriate and sound “level of expenditure at which the problem should be investigated.”
The reader possesses the opportunity to stand in the shoes of the experts involved in the nuclear project, for example in pondering and evaluating the risk of the diversion of resources should “a crash program” be instituted to “build an atomic bomb” especially in the midst of WWII. In the earliest phase, the scientists had to tackle and determine the actual “feasibility” of an atomic bomb; as the project matured, on the other hand, the various factions of the nuclear team instead contended over issues such as the way to split the atomic nucleus, or to channel resources towards “a bomb or nuclear energy for this war or the future.”
Though am a non-scientist and non-science major, the scientific details included in the book proved to be distinctly dazzling and intriguing. It was profound to learn of the ironic situation for example, of “the limitations of the abundant” uranium-238 isotope versus the “promising” but unfortunately “extremely rare” uranium-235. It was also interesting to read about the discovery of plutonium—a transuranic element—noted to possibly be “as fissionable as U-235 and would be far easier to acquire.”
It was certainly refreshing to be acquainted with certain fundamental knowledge pivotal to the atomic project and research—the methods of isotope separation of gaseous diffusion, liquid thermal diffusion, electromagnetism, or a centrifuge; the distinction between subcritical, critical and supercritical in the context of atomic fission; or even to be reminded of a crucial concept—the oft mentioned “chain reaction” of fission, or of atom splitting.
The Manhattan Project, instituted by President Franklin Roosevelt, and instigated by the Einstein letter, was repeatedly emphasized in the book to be an endeavor to counter the “terrifying prospect of a German bomb;” the German prospect was “always the ultimate drive” to the American bomb. The author further pointed out curious details including the insulation of the clandestine project from the Madisonian “remedy of separated powers and checks and balances” through FDR’s “cunning;” or funding for the bomb through the “first ‘black,’ or secret, weapons budget in the nation’s history” due to the supposed impracticability of heeding the normal budgetary process.
For a book which title supposedly betrays a predominant focus on the nuclear discussion, the author furnished a particularly lengthy account of Franklin Roosevelt‘s career prior to succeeding the incumbent President Herbert Hoover during the Great Depression to become the 32nd U.S. President. Certain details provided on Roosevelt‘s presidency was also unmistakably more interesting than others. A singularly invigorating, and even unique, notion was FDR’s supposed vision of a Hamiltonian adjustment in a Madisonian system, and his use of the executive order—an “important instrument” to secure control of the research and development of the atomic bomb—which bypasses the Madisonian structure. The reader is sure to appreciate certain additional engaging morsels of information, for example the infamous sanction of the internment of American citizens of Japanese heritage as a consequence of FDR’s Executive Order 9066.
The book contains references to certain historical events and treaties that are undoubtedly absorbing. The brief mention of the Nazi-Soviet Non-aggression Pact serves to augment the reader’s bank of historical knowledge, whilst allusions to “Somme,” “Verdun”—the Battle of the Somme and the Battle of Verdun—, and even the Phoney War could potentially spur the reader to scour the internet for more information, and thus overall enrich one’s learning experience.
The book contains the occasional dense and formidable paragraph packed with unexplained references that potentially require basic external research and re-reading in order to fully appreciate and understand the relevance of the material within the context of the subject matter.
An example of such a paragraph went, “…Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation as well as his extremely controversial suspension of habeas corpus. The latter move was challenged in the case Ex parte Merryman, and Chief Justice Taney, author of the execrable Dred Scot decision, excoriated Lincoln for what Taney claimed was an abuse of power.” The inclusion of the legal jargon “habeas corpus,” immediately followed by a legal case titled yet again in legal idiom, and trailed by the reference to Chief Justice Taney’s “Dred Scot decision” might potentially overwhelm the reader.
In certain parts of the book, the painstaking and meticulous details, though relevant to the narrative in one way or another, sporadically came across as monotonous. Paradoxically, the tediousness of the reading experience in such portions of the book gave the impression of actually mirroring the discussion of bureaucratic sluggishness manifested within the Uranium Section, or the S-1 Section, of the National Defense Research Committee (NDRC), and which thereafter transferred to the Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD).
Certain parts of the book also distinctly strike one as being repetitive. Acknowledging that skillful reiteration of concepts are an effective tool to foster cohesion within the book, and helpful as signposts for the reader, sometimes the mere rephrasing without an injection of a fresh slant or perspective, however, compounded with previous multiple mentions, might turn the reader off.
An example pertains to the opposing nuclear factions of the Do more now versus the Wait for the results of serious experiments on atomic fission or Wait for more research. Especially with the abundant coverage of the major themes in the lead-up, the nature of the rephrasing of the same concept seemed rather redundant—“The American experience with transforming atomic theory into a bomb included elaborated tensions between factions that believed in a deliberate and thorough approach to complex questions of science and those that were frantic to build a bomb to drop on the Germans and win the war.”
Disclaimer: I received an advance review copy of this book from NetGalley for this review.
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THE DODGERS MOVE WEST by Neil J. Sullivan
THE DODGERS MOVE WEST
By Neil J. Sullivan
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KIRKUS REVIEW
A well-told tale of two cities and one professional sports franchise. Nearly three decades after the fact, most baseball fans remain convinced that Walter O'Malley, late owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, callously abandoned the National League club's loyal rooters for personal gain in Los Angeles. As this revisionist account makes clear, however, there was quite a bit more to the story, and O'Malley was far from the villain of the piece. Indeed, Sullivan (Public Administration/CUNY) shows that O'Malley wanted to stay in the New York City borough and build a new stadium there. Located in a decaying neighborhood, fabled Ebbetts Field lacked parking facilities--and the seatting capacity to generate revenues sufficient to keep the team competitive. Only after being frustrated by local pols and power brokers like Robert Moses did O'Malley run the risk of decamping for Southern California. What's more, O'Malley had to go into extra innings to get what he'd been promised in L.A. Chavez Ravine, the site proposed by Mayor Norris Poulson for the Dodgers' privately funded ballpark, had been earmarked for public housing. A bitter debate erupted over this issue; it took a telethon campaign featuring such celebrities as George Burns, Groucho Marx, and Ronald Reagan to win the referendum that finally put paid to the controversy. Just two years after making the bicoastal move, though, the baseball team (forced to play home games for five long seasons in the vast, oddly contoured Coliseum) won the 1959 World Series; the well-managed club went on to become one of the most consistently successful enterprises in all of pro sports. The box score: an engrossing, persuasively documented inquiry that offers object lessons in civics (e.g., the high cost of raids on municipal treasuries by franchise owners) while rehabilitating the reputation of a genuine risk-taking capitalist long perceived--and portrayed--as a bloated plutocrat. The text includes 12 pages of black-and-white photos (not seen).
Pub Date: June 1st, 1987
ISBN: 0195059220
Publisher: Oxford Univ. Press