This definitive, panoramic history by a Pulitzer Prize-winning author unveils the politics and science behind the hydrogen bomb and the Cold War, based on secret files. Here, for the first time, in a brilliant, panoramic portrait by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Making of the Atomic Bomb, is the definitive, often shocking story of the politics and the science behind the development of the hydrogen bomb and the birth of the Cold War.Based on secret files in the United States and the former Soviet Union, this monumental work of history discloses how and why the United States decided to create the bomb that would dominate world politics for more than forty years. ContentsPreface to the Sloan Technology SeriesPrologue: DeliveriesPart OneA Choice Between Worlds1. 'A Smell of Nuclear Powder'2. Diffusion3. 'Material of Immense Value'4. A Russian Connection5. 'Super Lend-Lease'6. Rendezvous7. 'Mass Production'8. Explosions9. 'Provide the Bomb'10. A Pretty Good DescriptionPart TwoNew Weapons Added to the Arsenals11. Transitions12. Peculiar Sovereignties13. Changing History14. F-115. Modus Vivendi16. Sailing Near the Wind17. Getting Down to Business18. 'This Buck Rogers Universe'19. First Lightning20. 'Gung-ho for the Super'Part ThreeScorpions in a Bottle21. Fresh Horrors22. Lessons of Limited War23. Hydrodynamic Lenses and Radiation Mirrors24. Mike25. Powers of Retaliation26. In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer27. Scorpions in a BottleEpilogue: 'The Gradual Removal of Prejudices'AcknowledgmentsNotesGlossary of NamesBibliographyIndex