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Five Days in August: How World War II Became a Nuclear War
by Michael D. Gordin
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Princeton University Press (2007-01-02)
ISBN: 0691128189
EAN: 9780691128184
Dewy Decimal #: 940.542521954
Hardcover: 226 pages
SKU: 07040225
Condition: New As issued no jac
Comments: Trade Paperback. Advance Reading Copy in like new condition. No marks or creases and appears unread. Beautiful book.
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
Most Americans believe that the Second World War ended because the two atomic bombs dropped on Japan forced it to surrender. Five Days in August boldly presents a different interpretation: that the military did not clearly understand the atomic bomb's revolutionary strategic potential, that the Allies were almost as stunned by the surrender as the Japanese were by the attack, and that not only had experts planned and fully anticipated the need for a third bomb, they were skeptical about whether the atomic bomb would work at all. With these ideas, Michael Gordin reorients the historical and contemporary conversation about the A-bomb and World War II. Gordin posits that although the bomb clearly brought with it a new level of destructive power, strategically it was regarded by decision-makers simply as a new conventional weapon, a bigger firebomb. To lend greater understanding to the thinking behind its deployment, Gordin takes the reader to the island of Tinian, near Guam, the home base for the bombing campaign, and the location from which the anticipated third atomic bomb was to be delivered. He also details how Americans generated a new story about the origins of the bomb after surrender: that the United States knew in advance that the bomb would end the war and that its destructive power was so awesome no one could resist it. Five Days in August explores these and countless other legacies of the atomic bomb in a glaring new light. Daring and iconoclastic, it will result in far-reaching discussions about the significance of the A-bomb, about World War II, and about the moral issues they have spawned.
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Customer Reviews
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The birth of the atomic bomb's mythical status
Rating  (4)
Date: 2008-05-04
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
This books explains how the atomic bomb acquired its mythical status in a few days in August 1945. This status was not justified by the destructive power of the then-produced bombs. Rather, it came from visions of apocalypse which would only become realistic many years later, reinforced by American propaganda and above all the reaction of the Japanese government, which needed a good excuse for surrendering. The author's main thesis is that it is the Japanese surrender which made the atomic bomb special, rather than the special power of the bomb making Japan surrender.
The book is however rather brief and the argument feels somewhat incomplete although not in my opinion biased as the author does not ignore the facts which do not go his way. It is anyway very healthy to critically think on the atomic bomb's mythology, which has itself been playing an important role in history. For instance, the author argues that it is more this mythology than the actual strength of America's atomic arsenal which helped prevent a Soviet invasion of Western Europe in the late 1940s. Moreover, this book brings a welcome focus on the issue of effectively using the bomb, which is of course as important as being able to procuce it. And it is interesting to see how irrelevant such later questions as the necessity of the dropping of a second atomic bomb and the dangers from radiations were to the men of August 1945.
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Judge a Book by its Cover?
Rating  (3)
Date: 2007-04-04
7 out of 16 customers found this reveiw helpful
I don't know what is in this book, I haven't gotten past the cover.
While the Bell VB-13 (later ASM-A-1) Tarzon bomb looks impressive, it never was a nuclear weapon nor was it intended to be one.
If the publishers didn't attend to this most obvious of the book's details, how did they address its lesser known points, which after all, are why readers would buy this book?
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Five Days In August
Rating (4)
Date: 2007-02-19
5 out of 7 customers found this reveiw helpful
This book is a quick and interesting read. The central question explored is: From their onset, were atomic bombs viewed a qualitatively distinct "special" from other weapons coming out of the Second World War, or was this attitude subsequently, though quickly, developed? The author suggests by thorough analysis the latter. He reasons that this was driven by the public's fear of these weapons once they learned of them, and also by the political usefulness of the idea in the United States, Japan and the Soviet Union.
His subtle but persistent probing on this and related questions suggests how issues of current interest may be handled by political, scientific and public groups. For example, do weapons of mass destruction actually intensify conventional war because at least they are not nuclear? And, how are technological revolutions and/or threats managed, particularly under urgent conditions?
With 144 pages of probing and logically tight writing and an additional 48 pages of references, it is feels a scholarly publication intended to generate serious discussion.
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