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The bastard brigade : the true story of the renegade scientists and spies who sabotaged the Nazi atomic bomb

2019

Format:	Book
Author:	Kean, Sam, author
Title:	The bastard brigade : the true story of the renegade scientists and spies who sabotaged the Nazi atomic bomb / Sam Kean.
Publisher, Date:	New York : Little, Brown and Company, 2019.
Description:	xii, 447 pages, 24 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color) ; 25 cm
Subjects:	United States. War Department. Alsos Mission World War, 1939-1945 -- Science Atomic bomb -- Germany -- History -- 20th century Nuclear physics -- Research -- Germany Science -- Germany -- History -- 20th century
Notes:	Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN:	9780316381680 (hardcover)
System Availability:	11
Current Holds:	0
# Local items:	11
Control Number:	1753862
Call Number:	355.8/25119094309044
Course Reserves:	0
# Local items in:	8
# System items in:	8

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Summary

From New York Times bestselling author Sam Kean comes the gripping, untold story of a renegade group of scientists and spies determined to keep Adolf Hitler from obtaining the ultimate prize: a nuclear bomb

Scientists have always kept secrets. But rarely have the secrets been as vital as they were during World War II. In the middle of building an atomic bomb, the leaders of the Manhattan Project were alarmed to learn that Nazi Germany was far outpacing the Allies in nuclear weapons research. Hitler, with just a few pounds of uranium, would have the capability to reverse the entire D-Day operation and conquer Europe. So they assembled a rough and motley crew of geniuses - dubbed the Alsos Mission - and sent them careening into Axis territory to spy on, sabotage, and even assassinate members of Nazi Germany's feared Uranium Club.
The details of the mission rival the finest spy thriller, but what makes this story sing is the incredible cast of characters-both heroes and rogues alike-including:
Moe Berg the major league catcher who abandoned the game for a career as a multilingual international spy; the strangest fellow to ever play professional baseball.
Werner Heisenberg the Nobel Prize-winning physicist credited as the discoverer of quantum mechanics; a key contributor to the Nazi's atomic bomb project and the primary target of the Alsos mission.
Colonel Boris Pash a high school science teacher and veteran of the Russian Revolution who fled the Sovit Union with a deep disdain for Communists and who later led the Alsos mission.
Joe Kennedy Jr. the charismatic, thrill-seeking older brother of JFK whose need for adventure led him to volunteer for the most dangerous missions the Navy had to offer.
Samuel Goudsmit a washed-up physics prodigy who spent his life huntinh Nazi scientist-and his parents, who had been swept into a concentration camp-across the globe.
Ir è ne and Frederic Joliot-Curie a physics Nobel-Prize winning power couple who used their unassuming status as scientists to become active members of the resistance.
Thrust into the dark world of international espionage, these scientists and soldiers played a vital and largely untold role in turning back one of the darkest tides in human history.

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Booklist Review

Principles governing nuclear fission were discovered before the outbreak of war in 1939, but the belligerents quickly started plans to turn those principles into weapons of incredible power. The possibility of Hitler gaining possession of the atom's secrets was terrifying for the Allies. For the first time in history, an entire military mission was devoted to derailing an enemy's scientific-research efforts. Kean's (Caesar's Last Breath, 2017) comprehensive and sometimes humorous tale of the efforts to stop the Nazi atomic bomb is an exciting action adventure that enticingly combines science and history. Featuring concise illustrations of atomic physics, each worth a thousand words, and a cast of real-life characters that Ian Fleming, Tom Clancy, and the Marx brothers would have strained to invent, The Bastard Brigade is as entertaining as it is fascinating. Kean's colloquial expressions and metaphors provide levity to the gritty history of a world at war, with the survival of freedom, and possibly humanity, hanging in the balance. He never lets the reader forget what was at stake, often stating that failure could have resulted in the ultimate mushroom cloud. Kean's page-turner about a still too-little-understood chapter in history deserves a prominent place in WWII collections.--James Pekoll Copyright 2019 Booklist

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Table of Contents

	Author's Note	p. xi
	Prologue: Summer of '44	p. 3
Part I	Prewar, to 1939
Chapter 1	Professor Berg	p. 13
Chapter 2	Near Misses and Big Hits	p. 23
Chapter 3	Fast and Slow	p. 38
Chapter 4	Crimea to Hollywood	p. 41
Chapter 5	Division	p. 48
Chapter 6	Spinning out of Control	p. 61
Chapter 7	Banzai Berg	p. 75
Chapter 8	On the Brink	p. 82
Part II	1940-1941
Chapter 9	The Uranium Club	p. 91
Chapter 10	Heavy Water	p. 105
Chapter 11	Phoney to Real	p. 111
Chapter 12	Mad Jack	p. 113
Chapter 13	Compromise	p. 120
Chapter 14	Harvard Highs and Lows	p. 123
Chapter 15	Maud Ray Kent	p. 126
Part III	1942
Chapter 16	Resistance	p. 131
Chapter 17	The Fire Heard 'Round the World	p. 136
Chapter 18	Off to War	p. 141
Chapter 19	Brazil and Beyond	p. 147
Chapter 20	Baja Days	p. 157
Chapter 21	V-1, V-2, V-3	p. 162
Chapter 22	Letters	p. 164
Chapter 23	Operation Freshman	p. 169
Chapter 24	The Italian Navigator	p. 180
Part IV	1943
Chapter 25	Secret Messages	p. 187
Chapter 26	Operation Gunnerside	p. 191
Chapter 27	Consolations of Philosophy	p. 207
Chapter 28	"The Fun Will Start"	p. 214
Chapter 29	Seeing Red	p. 220
Chapter 30	Beautiful Peenemünde	p. 226
Chapter 31	PT-109	p. 234
Chapter 32	Blabbermouth	p. 238
Chapter 33	Heavy Water under Fire	p. 243
Chapter 34	Alsos	p. 250
Part V	1944
Chapter 35	Busy Lizzie	p. 257
Chapter 36	Groves's Second Assault	p. 261
Chapter 37	The Ferry	p. 264
Chapter 38	Sharks	p. 271
Chapter 39	Biscay Blues	p. 276
Chapter 40	The Fat Captain	p. 281
Chapter 41	Augers & Peppermint	p. 284
Chapter 42	Remus	p. 289
Chapter 43	Aphrodite vs. Anvil	p. 296
Chapter 44	Valkyrie	p. 304
Chapter 45	Escape and Resistance	p. 308
Chapter 46	Lightning-A	p. 312
Chapter 47	Zootsuit Black	p. 324
Chapter 48	Catching Pretty Well	p. 332
Chapter 49	"I'll Be Seeing You"	p. 335
Chapter 50	The Quisling Zoo	p. 339
Chapter 51	Healthy Rays, Healthy Teeth, Healthy Paranoia	p. 345
Chapter 52	The Deadliest Hombre	p. 351
Chapter 53	Nazi U	p. 359
Chapter 54	Uncertainty, Principles	p. 366
Part VI	1945
Chapter 55	Operation Big	p. 377
Chapter 56	The Lonely Organist	p. 386
Chapter 57	Triumph and Loss	p. 391
Chapter 58	Goimany	p. 398
Chapter 59	The Bomb Drops	p. 404
	Epilogues: 1946 and Beyond	p. 412
	A Thank-You and a Bonus	p. 421
	Acknowledgments	p. 423
	Major Characters	p. 425
	Minor Characters	p. 427
	Sources	p. 429
	Index	p. 435

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