Richard Lee Rhodes (born July 4, 1937) is an American historian, journalist, and author of both fiction and non-fiction, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning ''

The Making of the Atomic Bomb ''The Making of the Atomic Bomb'' is a contemporary history book written by the American journalist and historian Richard Rhodes, first published by Simon & Schuster in 1987. It won the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction, the National Book ...

'' (1986), and most recently, ''Energy: A Human History'' (2018). Rhodes has been awarded grants from the

Ford Foundation The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a US$25,000 gift from Edsel Ford. By 1947, after the death ...

, the Guggenheim Foundation, the

MacArthur Foundation The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is a private foundation that makes grants and impact investments to support non-profit organizations in approximately 50 countries around the world. It has an endowment of $7.0 billion and p ...

, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation among others. Rhodes is an affiliate of the

Center for International Security and Cooperation Stanford University has many centers and institutes dedicated to the study of various specific topics. These centers and institutes may be within a department, within a school but across departments, an independent laboratory, institute or center ...

at Stanford University. He also frequently gives lectures and talks on a broad range of subjects, including testimony to the

U.S. Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

on nuclear energy.

Biography

Richard Rhodes was born in

Kansas City, Kansas Kansas City, abbreviated as "KCK", is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas, and the county seat of Wyandotte County. It is an inner suburb of the older and more populous Kansas City, Missouri, after which it is named. As of ...

, in 1937. Following his mother's suicide on July 25, 1938, Rhodes and his older brother Stanley were raised in the Kansas City, Missouri, area by his father, a railroad

boilermaker A boilermaker is a tradesperson who fabricates steel, iron, or copper into boilers and other large containers intended to hold hot gas or liquid, as well as maintains and repairs boilers and boiler systems.Bureau of Labor Statistics, US De ...

with a third-grade education. When Rhodes was ten, their father remarried. The new wife starved, exploited, and abused the children. One day Stanley walked into a police station and reported their living conditions. The brothers were removed from their father's custody and sent to the

Andrew Drumm Institute The Andrew Drumm Institute was an orphanage for boys near Independence, Missouri. Built on a 370-acre working farm, it provided a means of support and education for disadvantaged boys starting in 1929. History Andrew Drumm, the founder of the Dr ...

, an institution for boys founded in 1928 in

Independence, Missouri Independence is the fifth-largest city in Missouri and the county seat of Jackson County. Independence is a satellite city of Kansas City, Missouri, and is the largest suburb on the Missouri side of the Kansas City metropolitan area. In 2020, ...

. The admission of the brothers was something of an anomaly as the institution was designed for orphaned or

indigent Poverty is the state of having few material possessions or little

income

boys and they fit neither category. The Drumm Institute is still in operation today, and now accepts both boys and girls. Rhodes became a member of the board of trustees in 1991. Rhodes wrote about his childhood in ''A Hole in the World''. Richard and Stanley lived at Drumm for the remainder of their adolescence. Both graduated from high school. Rhodes was admitted to

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

with a full scholarship and graduated with honors in 1959, a member of

Manuscript Society Manuscript Society is a senior society at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Toward the end of each academic year 16 rising seniors are inducted into the society, which meets twice weekly for dinner and discussion. Manuscript is reputedly ...

. Rhodes has published 23 books as well as numerous articles for national magazines, and wrote a play that is based on the historic 1986 meeting between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev. His best-known work,

, was published in 1986 and earned him the Pulitzer Prize"General Nonfiction"
''Past winners & finalists by category''. The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved March 25, 2012. and numerous other awards. Many of his personal documents and research materials are part of the Kansas Collection at the Spencer Research Library,

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and several satellite campuses, research and educational centers, medical centers, and classes across the state of Kansas. T ...

. Rhodes is the father of two children and is a grandfather. He and his second wife, Ginger Rhodes, have made their home in California.

Nuclear history

Rhodes came to national prominence with his 1986 book, ''

'', a narrative of the history of the people and events during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

from the discoveries leading to the science of nuclear fission in the 1930s, through the

Manhattan Project The Manhattan Project was a research and development undertaking during World War II that produced the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States with the support of the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the project w ...

and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Among its many honors, the 900-page book won the

Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction The Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are awarded annually for the "Letters, Drama, and Music" category. The award is given to a nonfiction book written by an American author and published duri ...

, the

National Book Award for Nonfiction The National Book Award for Nonfiction is one of five U.S. annual National Book Awards, which are given by the National Book Foundation to recognize outstanding literary work by U.S. citizens. They are awards "by writers to writers". The panelists ...

,"National Book Awards – 1987"

National Book Foundation The National Book Foundation (NBF) is an American nonprofit organization established, "to raise the cultural appreciation of great writing in America". Established in 1989 by National Book Awards, Inc.,Edwin McDowell. "Book Notes: 'The Joy Luc ...

. Retrieved March 25, 2012. and a

National Book Critics Circle Award The National Book Critics Circle Awards are a set of annual American literary awards by the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) to promote "the finest books and reviews published in English".Los Alamos weapon engineers and scientists alike, the book is considered a general authority on early

nuclear weapon A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions ( thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bom ...

s history, as well as the development of modern

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

in general, during the first half of the 20th century. According to a citation on the first page of the book, Nobel Laureate

Isidor Rabi Isidor Isaac Rabi (; born Israel Isaac Rabi, July 29, 1898 – January 11, 1988) was an American physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1944 for his discovery of nuclear magnetic resonance, which is used in magnetic resonance i ...

, one of the prime participants in the dawn of the atomic age, said about the book, "An epic worthy of Milton. Nowhere else have I seen the whole story put down with such elegance and gusto and in such revealing detail and simple language which carries the reader through wonderful and profound scientific discoveries and their application." In 2012 the book was reissued as a 25th anniversary edition with a new foreword by Rhodes. In 1992, Rhodes followed it up by compiling, editing, and writing the introduction to an annotated version of '' The Los Alamos Primer'', by Manhattan Project scientist

Robert Serber Robert Serber (March 14, 1909 – June 1, 1997) was an American physicist who participated in the Manhattan Project. Serber's lectures explaining the basic principles and goals of the project were printed and supplied to all incoming scientific st ...

. The ''Primer'' was a set of lectures given to new arrivals at the secret

Los Alamos Laboratory The Los Alamos Laboratory, also known as Project Y, was a secret laboratory established by the Manhattan Project and operated by the University of California during World War II. Its mission was to design and build the first atomic bombs. Ro ...

during wartime to get them up to speed about the prominent questions needing to be solved in bomb design, and had been largely declassified in 1965, but was not widely available. In 1993, Rhodes published ''Nuclear Renewal: Common Sense about Energy'' detailing the history of the nuclear power industry in the United States, and future promises of

nuclear power Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions to produce electricity. Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced ...

. Rhodes published a sequel to ''The Making of the Atomic Bomb'' in 1995, ''Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb'', which told the story of the atomic espionage during

( Klaus Fuchs,

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg Julius Rosenberg (May 12, 1918 – June 19, 1953) and Ethel Rosenberg (; September 28, 1915 – June 19, 1953) were American citizens who were convicted of spying on behalf of the Soviet Union. The couple were convicted of providing top-secret i ...

, among others), the debates over whether the hydrogen bomb ought to be produced (see

History of nuclear weapons Nuclear weapons possess enormous destructive power from nuclear fission or combined fission and fusion reactions. Building on scientific breakthroughs made during the 1930s, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and free France collabora ...

), and the eventual creation of the bomb and its consequences for the arms race. In 1997 Rhodes appeared in the UK

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...

TV series ''Equinox'' episode "A Very British Bomb" about the UK's efforts after the war to develop its own nuclear weapons after collaboration with the US had been halted by the 1946 MacMahon Act. In 2007, Rhodes published ''Arsenals of Folly: The Making of the Nuclear Arms Race'', a chronicle of the arms buildups during the Cold War, especially focusing on Mikhail Gorbachev and the

Reagan administration Ronald Reagan's tenure as the 40th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1981, and ended on January 20, 1989. Reagan, a Republican from California, took office following a landslide victory over ...

. ''The Twilight of the Bombs'', the fourth and final volume in his series on nuclear history, was published in 2010. The book documents, among other topics, the post-Cold War nuclear history of the world, nuclear proliferation, and

nuclear terrorism Nuclear terrorism refers to any person or persons detonating a nuclear weapon as an act of terrorism (i.e., illegal or immoral use of violence for a political or religious cause). Some definitions of nuclear terrorism include the sabotage of a ...

Other prominent works

''John James Audubon'', published in 2004, is a biography of the French-born American artist, John James Audubon (1785–1851). Audubon is known for his life-sized

watercolor Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to ...

illustrations of birds and wildlife, including ''

The Birds of America ''The Birds of America'' is a book by naturalist and painter John James Audubon, containing illustrations of a wide variety of birds of the United States. It was first published as a series in sections between 1827 and 1838, in Edinburgh and ...

'', a multi-volume work published through subscriptions in the mid-19th century, first in England and then in the United States. Rhodes also edited a collection of Audubon's letters and writings published by

Everyman's Library Everyman's Library is a series of reprints of classic literature, primarily from the Western canon. It is currently published in hardback by Random House. It was originally an imprint of J. M. Dent (itself later a division of Weidenfeld & N ...

(

Alfred A. Knopf Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. () is an American publishing house that was founded by Alfred A. Knopf Sr. and Blanche Knopf in 1915. Blanche and Alfred traveled abroad regularly and were known for publishing European, Asian, and Latin American writers in ...

, 2006)—''The Audubon Reader''. Rhodes' 1997 book ''Deadly Feasts'' is a work of verity concerning

transmissible spongiform encephalopathies Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) are a group of progressive and fatal conditions that are associated with prions and affect the brain and nervous system of many animals, including humans, cattle, and sheep. According to the most ...

(TSE), prions, and the career of

Daniel Carleton Gajdusek Daniel Carleton Gajdusek ( ;Holley, Joe (December 16, 2008) "D. Carleton Gajdusek; Controversial Scientist", ''The Washington Post'', p. B5. September 9, 1923 – December 12, 2008) was an American physician and medical researcher who was the co ...

. It reviews the history of TSE

epidemics An epidemic (from Greek ἐπί ''epi'' "upon or above" and δῆμος ''demos'' "people") is the rapid spread of disease to a large number of patients among a given population within an area in a short period of time. Epidemics of infectious d ...

, beginning with the infection of large numbers of the

Fore people The Fore () people live in the Okapa District of the Eastern Highlands Province, Papua New Guinea. There are approximately 20,000 Fore who are separated by the Wanevinti Mountains into the North Fore and South Fore regions. Their main form of ...

of the

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torr ...

Eastern Highlands during a period when they consumed their dead in mortuary feasts, and explores the link between new

variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease Variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (vCJD), commonly referred to as "mad cow disease" or "human mad cow disease" to distinguish it from its BSE counterpart, is a fatal type of brain disease within the transmissible spongiform encephalopathy fa ...

(nvCJD) in humans and the consumption of beef contaminated with

bovine spongiform encephalopathy Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as mad cow disease, is an incurable and invariably fatal neurodegenerative disease of cattle. Symptoms include abnormal behavior, trouble walking, and weight loss. Later in the course of t ...

, commonly referred to as mad cow disease. ''Hedy's Folly'' was published in November 2011 and deals with the life and work of the Hollywood actress and inventor

Hedy Lamarr Hedy Lamarr (; born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler; November 9, 1914 January 19, 2000) was an Austrian-born American film actress and inventor. A film star during Hollywood's golden age, Lamarr has been described as one of the greatest movie actress ...

. Rhodes book ''Hell and Good Company'', published in 2015, is about the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, link ...

and the changes that came from it. Though less well known as a writer of fiction, Rhodes is also the author of four novels. Three of the four are currently out of print, but ''The Ungodly: A Novel of the

Donner Party The Donner Party, sometimes called the Donner–Reed Party, was a group of American pioneers who migrated to California in a wagon train from the Midwest. Delayed by a multitude of mishaps, they spent the winter of 1846–1847 snowbound in th ...

,'' his first, was reissued in a new edition in 2007 by Stanford University Press. ''

Science-Based Medicine ''Science-Based Medicine'' is a website and blog with articles covering issues in science and medicine, especially medical scams and practices. Founded in 2008, it is owned and operated by the New England Skeptical Society and run by Steven N ...

'' writer

Steven Novella Steven Paul Novella (born July 29, 1964) is an American clinical neurologist and associate professor at Yale University School of Medicine. Novella is best known for his involvement in the skeptical movement as a host of '' The Skeptics' Guide ...

says that Rhodes's book from 2018 ''Energy: A Human History'' reviews the history of our use of energy from around 1500 to the present. Novella writes, "it is well-researched and contains a wealth of historical information... A few themes stuck out for me in the book. One was how similar the social, political, and market forces are today and in the past when it comes to energy" and "the book is timely because the history of our energy decisions in the past is great background for our energy decisions today from his 2018 review."

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * As editor * * *

References

External links

Official Site
*
''In Depth'' interview with Rhodes, March 5, 2000Video of interview/discussion with Richard Rhodes
and

Joseph Cirincione Joseph Cirincione (, (born November 13, 1949) is a national security analyst and author. He served as the president of the Ploughshares Fund, a public grant-making foundation focused on nuclear nonproliferation and conflict resolution. Career C ...

Bloggingheads.tv Bloggingheads.tv (sometimes abbreviated "bhtv") is a political, world events, philosophy, and science video blog discussion site in which the participants take part in an active back and forth conversation via webcam which is then broadcast on ...

2013 Video Interview with Richard Rhodes by Cynthia C. Kelly
Voices of the Manhattan Project {{DEFAULTSORT:Rhodes, Richard 1937 births American male journalists American memoirists Living people National Book Award winners Historians of nuclear weapons Writers from Kansas City, Kansas Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction winners Journalists from Kansas Writers from Kansas Historians from Missouri 20th-century American historians 21st-century American historians 21st-century American male writers 20th-century American male writers Journalists from Missouri Historians from California Journalists from California American male non-fiction writers