Nuclear Weapons Manual (Operations Manual): All models from 1945 (Owner's Workshop Manual)

A bit scary, in the light of current world events

I can not adequately explain how good this book is. I own a number of the other "owners manuals", The Enterprise, a couple of the Apollo ones, but this is possibly the best so far. As has been said, it's a good historical reference, well illistrayed, and well written.Can't do anything but tecomend it.

This book manages to be information-dense (in a good way) and ranges widely over the topic while still being accessible and faithful to first impressions from the cover and blurb.There are however a few small complaints preventing a five-star review:1. Editing - not being an expert, I can't be sure, but I strongly suspect the words "uranium" and "plutonium" were swapped incorrectly on one or two occasions.2. Diagram accuracy - again, not being an expert, I can't be sure, but the "Little Boy" (Hiroshima bomb) diagram appears to reflect the erroneous assumption that a uranium rod was fired into a stationary receptacle when it was actually a ring that was fired onto a rod (on this point, the text accompanying the diagram is correct, while that in the main body of text is not).3. Ordering of information - occasionally, references are made to concepts and things that are only described or explained later in the text.Still worth buying, but a subsequent edition would probably be a better choice.

Child of the Cold War that I am, I thought I'd find out more about nuclear weapons given their return to nightly news prominence! Despite the tongue-in-cheek nature of the title, it's a very serious look at the current worldwide state of play answering questions you had and wished you hadn't!!!

Banging purchase.

great book tells everything about nuclear weaponse and how it was achieved.

a bit expensive for what you get. all content available online.

I present this review just few days after purchase, so it really based on first impressions of this book, which I hope fair as possible on the subject matter it addresses : nuclear weapons.Mr Baker uses forward to lay out the aims of this Haynes book. He simply giving the reader the facts surrounding nuclear arms and their deployment. He leaves the larger debate on them ie moral and political arguments to others.This may appear a cop out, but his book is really a collection of facts beginning with history of these weapons to examination of present nuclear stockpile around the world. It up to reader to develop their our opinion as they read it.This book may not be idea bedside reading, however it relevant in light of recent events surrounding North Korea. It insightful in giving reader knowledge concerning nuclear forces worldwide and how these forces been developed by countries who hold them.I found chapter relating to Britain's A-bomb very interesting especially early days of the programme and transition of airborne nuclear delivery system to present system of nuclear missiles carried by submarine fleet.This volume of work has much to offer to the reader who seeks further understanding on complexity of ultimate weapon of war.

Great highly illustrated overview of nuke development typical of this series.....

Wie bereits aus anderen Rezensionen hervorgeht ist dieses Buch übersät von widersprüchlichen Falschheiten. Beispiele Wurden bereits gegeben hier ein Weiteres Z.b auf S50 "The real Significance of the Hiroshima bomb was that it was the First Test of a Plutonium device, of a gun-assembly design..." Wo der Autor uns zuvor mitgeteilt hatte das in der Little Boy Bombe Au guten Gründen kein Plutonium zum Einsatz kam.

The book provides a lot of fascinating information, including photos, diagrams and blueprints. Not only it describes technical details about both explosive devices and delivery systems, but also provides a lot of historical details which are equally fascinating.Great quality print too!

Il libro presenta immagini davvero belle, difficilmente reperibili altrove ma la trattazione dell'argomento appare eccessivamente sintetica. Mi aspettavo molte più informazioni, se non sulle singole testate - complice il fatto che vengono presi in esame gli arsenali di diversi Paesi -, almeno sui sistemi di lancio. Quasi del tutto assente ogni sorta di riferimento ai sottomarini di Classe Ohio e dei bombardieri strategici ci sono più immagini che righe a essi relativi. Se vi accontentate delle basi, compratelo. Se volete qualche dettaglio in più, cercate altrove.

Because of the growing concern over N. Korea's continued provocative tests, I wanted to see what was up. This covers all the different nuclear nations both stealth and out in the open and was of great interest. Anybody can understand these and the tech diagrams are fascinating, illuminating the complexity of these devices and their development. I am very fearful of nukes but to understand is to better know that at least we Russia and the USA have far less then at the peak of the cold war when we had between 3 to 5 times more weapons then we do now. This is another good reason not to wreck diplomacy by blasting Russia as the US tends to do to deflect from our own domestic problems. I am a decline to state voter and did not vote but the awesome power of these weapons make it imperative that we have better relations with any country that has them and is reasonable like China which has only 300 and Russia who simply kept up with our rapid buildup after WW2. Must read. Great Pictures.