The girls of Atomic City : the untold story of the women who helped win World War II / Denise Kiernan.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kiernan, Denise.

Contributor:

Roberta S. & Leonard S. Leibman, W'53 Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Official secrets.

History.

Uranium enrichment.

Women.

Women employees.

Oak Ridge (Tenn.)--History--20th century.

Oak Ridge (Tenn.).

Oak Ridge (Tenn.)--Social life and customs--20th century.

Women employees--Tennessee--Oak Ridge--History--20th century.

Women--Tennessee--Oak Ridge--Interviews.

Oak Ridge (Tenn.)--Biography.

Uranium enrichment--History--20th century.

Official secrets--United States--History--20th century.

World War, 1939-1945--Women--Tennessee--Oak Ridge.

World War, 1939-1945.

World War, 1939-1945--Tennessee--Oak Ridge.

United States.

Tennessee--Oak Ridge.

Genre:

Interviews.

Biographies.

Physical Description:

xvii, 373 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, map, portraits ; 24 cm

Edition:

First Touchstone hardcover edition.

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Simon & Schuster, 2013.

Summary:

In this book the author traces the story of the unsung World War II workers in Oak Ridge, Tennessee through interviews with dozens of surviving women and other Oak Ridge residents. This is the story of the young women of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, who unwittingly played a crucial role in one of the most significant moments in U.S. history. The Tennessee town of Oak Ridge was created from scratch in 1942. One of the Manhattan Project's secret cities, it did not appear on any maps until 1949, and yet at the height of World War II it was using more electricity than New York City and was home to more than 75,000 people, many of them young women recruited from small towns across the South. Their jobs were shrouded in mystery, but they were buoyed by a sense of shared purpose, close friendships, and a surplus of handsome scientists and Army men. But against this wartime backdrop, a darker story was unfolding. The penalty for talking about their work, even the most innocuous details, was job loss and eviction. One woman was recruited to spy on her coworkers. They all knew something big was happening at Oak Ridge, but few could piece together the true nature of their work until the bomb "Little Boy" was dropped over Hiroshima, Japan, and the secret was out. The shocking revelation: the residents of Oak Ridge were enriching uranium for the atomic bomb. Though the young women originally believed they would leave Oak Ridge after the war, many met husbands there, made lifelong friends, and still call the seventy-year-old town home. The reverberations from their work there, work they did not fully understand at the time, are still being felt today.

Contents:

Revelation, August 1945

Everything will be taken care of : train to nowhere, August 1943. Tubealloy : the Bohemian Grove to the Appalachian Hills, September 1942

Peaches and pearls : the taking of Site X, Fall 1942. Tubealloy : Ida and the atom, 1934

Through the gates : Clinton Engineer Works, Fall 1943. Tubealloy : Lise and fission, 1938

Bull pens and creeps : the Project's welcome for new employees. Tubealloy : Leona and success in Chicago, December 1942

Only temporary : spring into Summer, 1944. Tubealloy : the quest for product

To work. Tubealloy : the couriers

Rhythms of life. Tubealloy : Security, censorship, and the press

The one about fireflies. Tubealloy : pumpkins, spies, and chicken soup, Fall 1944

The unspoken : sweethearts and secrets. Tubealloy : combining efforts in the New Year

Curiosity and silence. Tubealloy : the project's crucial spring

Innocence lost. Tubealloy : hope and the haberdasher, April-May 1945

Sand jumps in the desert, July 1945

The gadget revealed

Dawn of a thousand suns

Life in the new age.

Notes:

"A Touchstone Book"

Includes bibliographical references (pages 317-347) and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Roberta S. & Leonard S. Leibman, W'53 Fund.

ISBN:

9781451617528

1451617526

OCLC:

796757323