A Life

The Bomb

A PAGE-TURNING BIOGRAPHY OF MANKIND'S MOST TERRIFYING CREATION, THIS DISTURBS, AMUSES, ENLIGHTENS AND, MOST IMPORTANTLY, MAKES YOU THINK TWICE' WORD 
 
An extraordinary, compelling account of the life and times of the atom bomb, from one of the UK's leading historians.

'Thoroughly researched, beautifully written, and irradiated by a wry sense of humour...[this] biography of the bomb is absolutely gripping...Our sensibilities on this score have gone to sleep: this outstanding book ought to wake them up again with a very loud bang.'

'The gripping story of the invention and building of the bomb, spiced with wartime strategic manoeuvring, scientific intrigues and espionage, has never been better told.'

'A timely account of mankind's most awful invention, wryly wrapped as a biography...A clever cocktail of reportage, analysis and anecdote from the physics of the bomb's conception to the B-movies it inspired.'

'I have read many books about different aspects of this enormous subject, but none that brings the diverse pieces together so well, in such an absorbing and truly masterful way.'

A page-turning biography of mankind's most terrifying creation. This disturbs, amuses, enlightens and, most importantly, makes you think twice

Born in California, Gerard DeGroot is Professor of Modern History at the University of St Andrews. He has written eight books on aspects of twentieth-century war, and is a regular columnist and reviewer for Scotland on Sunday.

Before the Bomb, there were simply 'bombs', lower case. But it was the twentieth century, one hundred years of almost incredible scientific progress, that saw the birth of the Bomb, the human race's most powerful and most destructive discovery. 
 
In this magisterial and enthralling account, Gerard DeGroot gives us the life story of the Bomb, from its birth in the turn-of-the-century physics labs of Europe to a childhood in the New Mexico desert of the 1940s, from adolescence and early adulthood in Nagasaki and Bikini, Australia and Siberia to unsettling maturity in test sites and missile silos all over the globe. By turns horrific, awe-inspiring and blackly comic, The Bomb is never less than compelling.

The Magnificent Madness of the American Lunar Quest

Dark Side of the Moon

Gripping, packed with anecdotes, brilliantly researched and beautifully written, the story of how a nation went mad in its quest to put a man on the moon.

A canny academic's take on the real reason behind America's obsession with beating the Soviets to the Moon, and the absurdity of what they found

DeGroot gets off to a terrific start: his prose is punchy, his contentions startling, his indignation palpable

It can't be denied that beyond the dingy politicking, lunatic number-crunching and slide-rule stuff, there was something grand about the US space programme. DeGroot's achievement is to have preserved that, even as he exposes the dark side

An elegant contribution to the history of the space age. For space nuts who think Apollo is all about heroism, it should be compulsory reading

DeGroot goes far beyond his precise academic remit in bringing us this caustic, absorbing and suttee exploration of how and why the dream died

DeGroot has a good ear for anecdotes and his narrative is highly amusing.

DeGroot tells the story of the American lunar mission with verve and elegance

Fascinating, gossipy and occasionally hilarious

Born in California, Gerard DeGroot is Professor of Modern History at the University of St Andrews. He has written ten books on various aspects of twentieth-century history, most recently The Bomb: A Life, a history of nuclear weapons which won the 2004 RUSI Westminster Medal for Military Literature. He regularly contributes to national newspapers both in Britain and in the USA.

For a very brief moment during the 1960s, America was moonstruck. Every boy dreamed of being an astronaut; every girl dreamed of marrying one. But despite the best efforts of a generation of scientists, the almost foolhardy heroics of the astronauts, and 35 billion dollars, the moon turned out to be a place of 'magnificent desolation', to use Buzz Aldrin's words. 
 
In Dark Side of the Moon, Gerard DeGroot reveals how NASA cashed in on the Americans' thirst for heroes in an age of discontent and became obsessed with putting a man on the moon, in the process limiting what could be acheived in space. Drawing on meticulous archival research, DeGroot cuts through the propaganda peddled by the Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson administrations - not to mention the NASA spin doctors - and exposes the truth behind one of the most revered myths of American history.

Gerard DeGroot

A model of what this genre should be like

The British at Home in World War One

World War One had a devastating, cataclysmic impact on the world and the British people. As its reverberations were so long-lasting and significant, it is easy to assume that the social consequences were as profound. 
 
In this highly readable and moving survey of life back at home during the First World War, Gerard DeGroot challenges this assumption, finding pre-war social structures were surprisingly resilient. Despite economic and technological changes, the British peoplemanaged to cling onto their usual ways of life as much as possible in this new world. 
 
Back in Blighty has been fully revised to take into account new scholarship and historical perspectives, and is full of fascinating glimpses into everyday life during the war. The lives of ordinary people are illuminated and given historical significance in this powerful portrait of the British people and their culture.

Gerard DeGroot

Praise for Back in Blighty

Well worth reading

An important contribution

A model of what this genre should be like

Well worth reading

An important contribution

A model of what this genre should be like

Well worth reading

An important contribution

A model of what this genre should be like

Books by Gerard DeGroot

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