Farm Hall and the German Atomic Project of World War II – A Dramatic History
Farm Hall and the German Atomic Project of World War II – A Dramatic History
David C. Cassidy
This gripping book brings back to life the events surrounding the internment of ten German Nuclear Scientists immediately after World War II. It is also an “eye-witness” account of the dawning of the nuclear age, with the dialogue and narrative spanning the period before, during and after atomic bombs were dropped on Japan at the end of the war. This pivotal historical episode is conveyed, along with the emotions as well as the facts, through drama, historical narrative, and photographs of the captive German nuclear scientists – who included Werner Heisenberg, Otto Hahn, and Max von Laue. The unique story that unfolds in the play is based on secretly recorded transcripts of the scientists’ actual conversations at Farm Hall, together with related documents and photographs.
Available
2017
978-3-319-59577-1
Drama
Springer International Publishing
David C. Cassidy
An American historian of science and professor emeritus at Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York, David C. Cassidy was born in 1945 in Richmond, Virginia. He received his B.A. (in 1967) and his M.S. (in 1970) degrees in Physics at Rutgers University. His PhD was awarded in a unique arrangement involving Purdue University (Physics) and the University of Wisconsin Madison (History of Science). He completed his dissertation on Werner Heisenberg’s route to quantum mechanics.
He is best known for his contributions to the history of quantum mechanics, scientific biography, history of Physics in Germany and the United States and, most recently, Science-History drama.
Cassidy was involved in the publishing of the two volumes of “The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein” (Princeton University Press, 1987-9), and he’s the author of “Uncertainty: The Life and Science of Werner Heisenberg” (1992); “Einstein and Our World” (1995); “Werner Heisenberg: A Bibliography of His Writings” (2001); “J. Robert Oppenheimer and the American Century” (2005); “Beyond Uncertainty: Heisenberg, Quantum Physics, and the Bomb” (a reviewed and extended edition of “Uncertainty, Bellevue Literary Press”, 2009); “A Short History of Physics in the American Century” (2011); and “Farm Hall and the German Atomic Project of World War II: A Dramatic History” (2017). With Allen Esterson and contribution by Ruth Lewin Sime, he writes “Einstein’s Wife: The Real Story of Mileva Einstein-Marić” (2019) and was the co-author of “Understanding Physics (2002)”, along with Gerald Holton and F. James Rutherford.
He was the recipient of several awards and honours, namely the History of Science Society’s Pfizer Award, the American Institute of Physics’ Science Writing Award, the Abraham Pais Prize of the American Physical Society, and an Honorary Doctorate of Science awarded by Purdue University.
More information: blpress.org and en.wikipedia.org