The Atomic City: A Firsthand Account by a Son of Los Alamos

"Atomic City" is a first-hand account of growing up in the dawning of the Atomic Age and at the epicenter of where it all took place. Terry L. Rosen's story is unique because he was not a scientist but a boy growing up, where it all started in Los Alamos, New Mexico. Amid World War II, an assemblage of the best scientists and engineers in the world worked in a secluded part of northern New Mexico on the development of an atomic bomb. They brought to this critical project a concentration of knowledge and skills encompassing many disciplines, unprecedented in history and likely unrepeatable. Against the backdrop of a beautiful mountainous environment, enriched by a mixture of Native American, Hispanic, and Anglo cultures and their histories, a modern drama replete with discord, failures, and triumphs-and its significance for history-was enacted with extraordinary dedication and urgency. Terry Rosen tells about his experiences growing up in Los Alamos during the period 1944-64, providing the reader with parallel coming-of-age stories for a youth and a town born within a year of each other. With sensitivity and humor, he brings the reader intimate glimpses of the personalities and accomplishments of several scientists and their colleagues who lived and worked at Los Alamos during that first phase of the community's existence.