Sifting Through The History Of Uranium — Previewing ‘The Bomb: The Weapon that Changed The World’
by Anton Kromoff
Welcome to the table,
Atomic weapons scare me. My parents were very avid Nostradamus-like profits of the End Times and somewhere between the fear of god and the fear of being kidnapped, they regularly instilled the fear of a slow death full of pain and torment brought on by the fallout from a nuclear explosion.
Many sleepless nights were had before the age of 10 by a kid who was convinced that every newsbreak or song on the radio that ended early was going to herald the end of all things and blow me into a landscape of slow and agonizing death.
A new offering from Abrams Books explores one of the most devastating moments in the history of our species in The Bomb: The Weapon that Changed The World.
On August 6, 1945, at 8:15 in the morning, an explosive charge of more than 15 kilotons fell on the city of Hiroshima. Tens of thousands of people were pulverized, and everything within four square miles was instantly destroyed. A deluge of flames and ash caused Japan’s greatest trauma and changed the course of modern warfare (and life on Earth) forever. The world was horrified by the existence of the bomb — the first weapon of mass destruction. But how could such an appalling tool be invented?
To answer this question, Didier Alcante, Laurent-Frédéric Bollée, and Denis Rodier return to the origins of its main component, uranium, and shed light on the scientific discoveries around this element and its uses in both civilian and military capacities.
Sifting through the history — from Katanga to Japan, through Germany, Norway, the USSR, and New Mexico — The Bomb is a succession of incredible but true stories. Alcante, Bollée, and Rodier have created an exhaustive and definitive work of nonfiction that details the stories of the unsung players, as well as the remarkable men and women who are at the crux of its history and the events that followed.
The art is beautiful and horrifying all at the same time. I know I will probably push through and read this when I have the opportunity, but I can promise you that it will cause me at least a handful of sleepless nights hearkening back to the terror that shook me to my core as a kid worried any moment it could all be cast to dust.
Until next time, duck and cover I guess. Be kind to each other… that is way more important.
