The story of the brilliant harnessing of American industry to build a coordinated network of huge production plants using technology that was being developed even as the plants themselves were rising. It is the story of mulitple, complex production methods being pursued simultaneously without knowing any of them would ultimately work, a story of daring gambles and their ultimate redemption. It is the story of the frantic building of subsequent, larger plants that were worked to the limits of their safe operation during the Cold War arms race. -- From the jacket.

Prologue --Prelude -- Enriched uranium production : Oak Ridge :the Y-12 Electromagnetic separation plant -- Oak Ridge: the K-25 Gaseous difusion separation plant -- Oak Ridge : the S-50 liquid thermal diffusion separation plant -- Plutonium production : Oak Ridge : The X-10 graphite reactor -- Hanford : the production reactors -- Audacity, gloom, redemption -- Fates and legacies : -- The Trinity Test -- Combat, deployment & effects -- Post-war turmoil and qualms -- The Manhattan Project's greatest legacy -- Beginning of the end -- Epilogue -- Gallery -- Chronology of significant events.