A Nuclear Family: Coming of Age in Oppenheimer's Secret City

Kai Bird is a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and the co-author with the late Martin J. Sherwin of American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer.

This book is a collection of remembrances and stories about the early days of Los Alamos, NM and the development of the first atomic bombs. It is primarily told through the eyes of Ellen Wilder, a 6-year-old child whose father was sent by the Navy to a secret city in remote New Mexico and was directed by Robert Oppenheimer to help with the development of the explosive lens system that was needed to detonate the highly radioactive plutonium core of the weapon that was named Fat Man. There are numerous sub stories and histories told in the book concerning the people in and around Los Alamos, including the local Indians and Hispanics, as well as the scientists and engineers that did the work. Ellen, her father and family were fortunate enough to be able to closely interact with many of these key people that were able to develop the bombs in secrecy, given an essentially unlimited budget, but not knowing if the task was even possible and especially not knowing when the weapon had to be ready.