The girls of Atomic City : the untold story of the women who helped win World War II / Denise Kiernan.
Material type:
TextPublisher: New York, NY : Touchstone book published by Simon & Schuster, 2014Copyright date: ©2013Edition: First Touchstone paperback editionDescription: xxi, 373 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, map, portraits ; 23 cmContent type: - text
- unmediated
- volume
- 1451617534
- 9781451617535
- Untold story of the women who helped win World War II
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory -- History -- 20th century
- Oak Ridge (Tenn.) -- History -- 20th century
- Oak Ridge (Tenn.) -- Social life and customs -- 20th century
- Women employees -- Tennessee -- Oak Ridge -- History -- 20th century
- Women -- Tennessee -- Oak Ridge -- Interviews
- Oak Ridge (Tenn.) -- Biography
- Uranium enrichment -- History -- 20th century
- Official secrets -- United States -- History -- 20th century
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Women -- Tennessee -- Oak Ridge
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Tennessee -- Oak Ridge
| Item type | Home library | Collection | Call number | Materials specified | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Adult Book
|
Dr. James Carlson Library | NonFiction | 976.873 K47 | Available | 33111008598977 | ||||
|
Adult Book
|
Main Library | NonFiction | 976.873 K47 | Available | 33111008741015 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
The New York Times bestseller, now available in paperback--an incredible true story of the top-secret World War II town of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and the young women brought there unknowingly to help build the atomic bomb.
"The best kind of nonfiction: marvelously reported, fluidly written, and a remarkable story...As meticulous and brilliant as it is compulsively readable." --Karen Abbott, author of Sin in the Second City
At the height of World War II, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, was home to 75,000 residents, and consumed more electricity than New York City, yet it was shrouded in such secrecy that it did not appear on any map. Thousands of civilians, many of them young women from small towns across the U.S., were recruited to this secret city, enticed by the promise of solid wages and war-ending work. What were they actually doing there? Very few knew. The purpose of this mysterious government project was kept a secret from the outside world and from the majority of the residents themselves. Some wondered why, despite the constant work and round-the-clock activity in this makeshift town, did no tangible product of any kind ever seem to leave its guarded gates? The women who kept this town running would find out at the end of the war, when Oak Ridge's secret was revealed and changed the world forever.
Drawing from the voices and experiences of the women who lived and worked in Oak Ridge, The Girls of Atomic City rescues a remarkable, forgotten chapter of World War II from obscurity. Denise Kiernan captures the spirit of the times through these women: their pluck, their desire to contribute, and their enduring courage. "A phenomenal story," and Publishers Weekly called it an "intimate and revealing glimpse into one of the most important scientific developments in history."
"Kiernan has amassed a deep reservoir of intimate details of what life was like for women living in the secret city...Rosie, it turns out, did much more than drive rivets." --The Washington Post
"A Touchstone book."
Includes reading group guide.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 317-347) and index.
Revelation, August 1945. -- Everything Will Be Taken Care Of: train to Nowhere, August 1943. Tubealloy: the Bohemian Grove to the Appalachian Hills, September 1942. -- Peaches and Pearls: the Taking of Site X, Fall 1942. Tubealloy: Ida and the atom, 1934. -- Through the Gates: Clinton Engineer Works, Fall 1943. Tubealloy: Lise and fission, 1938. -- Bull Pens and Creeps: the Projects Welcome for New Employees. Tubealloy: Leona and success in Chicago, December 1942. -- Only Temporary: Spring into Summer, 1944. Tubealloy: the quest for product. -- To Work. Tubealloy: the couriers. -- Rhythms of Life. Tubealloy: Security, censorship, and the press. -- The One About the Fireflies. Tubealloy: pumpkins, spies, and chicken soup, Fall 1944. -- The Unspoken: Sweethearts and Secrets. Tubealloy: combining efforts in the New Year. -- Curiosity and Silence. Tubealloy: the project's crucial spring. -- Innocence Lost. Tubealloy: hope and the haberdasher, April-May 1945. -- Sand Jumps in the Desert, July 1945 -- The Gadget Revealed -- Dawn of a Thousand Suns -- Life in the New Age.
This is the story of the young women of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, who unwittingly played a crucial role in one of the most significant moments in U.S. history. The Tennessee town of Oak Ridge was created from scratch in 1942. One of the Manhattan Project's secret cities. All knew something big was happening at Oak Ridge, but few could piece together the true nature of their work until the bomb "Little Boy" was dropped over Hiroshima, Japan, and the secret was out. The reverberations from their work there, work they did not fully understand at the time, are still being felt today.