The Book Club Online is the oldest book club on the Internet, begun in 1996, open to everyone. We offer cordial discussions of one book a month, 24/7 and enjoy the company of readers from all over the world. Everyone is welcome to join in!
Discussion Begins September 15!
PLease POST BELOW if you can join us!
The Girls of Atomic City
by Denise Kiernan
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Based on first-person interviews with women who served at Oak Ridge, several of them now now in their eighties and nineties, Denise Kiernan tells the true story of young women during World War II who worked in a secret city dedicated to making fuel for the first atomic bomb—only they didn’t know that.
At the dawn of the atomic age, the community of Oak Ridge, Tenn., rose up around the secret work taking place there in support of the war effort. At the heart of those efforts were thousands of women from across the country who did their part to help secure the United States while maintaining a public silence.
They 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 shocking revelation: the residents of Oak Ridge were enriching uranium for the atomic bomb. They had NO idea!
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DISCUSSION SCHEDULE:September 15-21~ Revelation, August 1945;
Chapters 1, 2, 3 (62 pages) RELEVANT LINKS:
An Interview with Denise Kiernan about Atomic City girls,
Listen to music the girls would have listened to at Oak Ridge. ursamajor,
I have never heard an Oak Ridger say they regretted working on that project.
This is interesting, and from reviews I have read of this book, I sense we will see
some who in fact have mixed feelings and possible regret.
PatH.,
Now we know more about the effects of the bomb, and can stand back and see how things could have been done better.
I agree we have to remember the mindset of the time the bomb was used. I am NOT disputing war, or even the fact the bomb was used. I am trying to imagine how these women felt AFTER KNOWING, they contributed to building a bomb that was dropped on millions of innocent civilians, women and children, who were killed. My understanding is the book is going to deal with the women realizing what they were working on, which they had NO idea of at the time the bomb was being built.
I think we have learned from history, we do NOT want to use nuclear warfare, because the truth of the matter is....many other nations now possess the same capabilities and are not hesitant to use them on us. With JFK, clearer and calmer minds prevailed. War is vicious and lives are lost, we will be seeing in the coming months what the outcome is now that our president has decided to be more aggressive with ISIS. Let's pray we avoid being attacked or bombed on our own soil.
This link has many pictures you may find interesting.
http://blogs.denverpost.com/captured/2010/08/07/on-war-the-dropping-of-the-atomic-bomb-65-years-later/2380/Today being the anniversary of September 11, 2001 I find this quote fitting:
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. by George Santayana
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