How to put it plainly, this book is an ABSOLUTELY MUST HAVE for anyone even remotely interested in empowering themselves in a Nuclear War. Though the book itself is a little out of date the facts it contains are emmensly important to know. It addresses myths & facts of Nuclear war, radiation, etc. You'd be surprised how well off you can actually be if you know what to do. SLEEP EASIER after reading this book & knowing what to do!

BUY IT! READ IT! READ IT AGAIN! The suggest it to everyone you know!

I have read more than a dozen books on surviving Nuclear War. This book is the absolute best. It is written by Cresson Kearney. He actually built and tested all of his equipment and shelter designs during nuclear tests. As a result , he arrived at the overall best designs and methods of constructing expedient shelters for an average American family using readily availabe tools and materials. Kearney explains the dangers of nuclear explosions and how to protect oneself from the effects. He also gives instructions for staying warm, how to provide adequate ventilation to your shelter. He also discusses water and food preparation ,nutritional needs , and even how to build an inexpensive fallout meter to measure radiation exposure. He also provides lists of other essential items for survival. You do not have to be wealthy to survive, just properly informed. This book provides the reader with everything he or she needs to know in order to survive a nuclear war. FEMA should provide a copy of this manual to every Citizen of the United States.

This is a wonderful book that is very clearly written and joy to read and read again. Dr. Teller shows how some of the most
difficult ideas can be made clear by examples. I liked his
conversational style, it reads as if Dr. Teller is talking directly to you. This is one of the top books on physics with the general reader in mind. Some of the best books for the general reader were written by the greatest contributors in the field. Other selections by: Einstein, Max Born, Richard Feynman, do well for the general reader but requires a little more math, ... not hard math, simple but rich math full of motion, ... math you need to visualize.
Dr. Teller helps you visualize ideas, as good teachers do.
I was very happy to see this book back in print having barrowed the hard cover book from the library a number of times just to hear again how Dr. Teller said it; and to make clear again an idea that puzzled me. It is well worth reading and owning.

There is no way that everyone would agree as to what events, or even list of events were the most noteworthy of the 20th Century. I do believe that most would agree that the splitting of the atom, the creation of atomic and then thermonuclear weapons would likely have a place on any list. If the controversy surrounding the use of nuclear power to create electricity for public consumption is added, I think the topic has a place assured on any list.

One person among many who was at the center of these topics, events and developments is Dr. Edward Teller. He stands out from the groups he was involved in for many reasons but two are for his longevity in to his 90s' and the participation in the direction of all the associated research his long life has allowed him, and secondly for the controversy he often found himself at the center of. Another book I read not long ago, "Brotherhood of the Bomb", went in to great detail about the very controversial decision to strip Dr. Robert Oppenheimer of his security clearance and the role that Dr. Teller was said to have played in the security clearance not being renewed. In this book of just over 600 pages a large portion is spent on the issue including many pages of transcripts from the actual hearing when Dr. Teller answered questions with Dr. Oppenheimer present.

I don't believe it is fair to judge from a handful of pages culled from over 1,000 whether Dr. Teller alone was the cause of the non-renewal of the security clearance. My impression from what I read was that it was clear there was a strong group that did not want the clearance continued, and to the extent anything negative was said about Dr. Oppenheimer they were going to make the most of it. Unless the pages that are shared intentionally mislead, Dr. Teller repeatedly stated he did not believe Dr. Oppenheimer would intentionally harm the security of The United States. However, if Dr. Teller believed that stating that Dr. Oppenheimer's actions slowed the development of the Hydrogen Bomb development by several years were not going to greatly harm Dr. Oppenheimer, he was either naïve or calculating then, and or now. Only he knows the answer.

There are many large topics this book deals with but one that fascinated me was the perception of Nuclear Power Generation plants for electrical production for civilian use. Unless the reader knows the answer prior to reading the book they may be surprised by what percentage of electricity is still produced by nuclear plants in the USA today. It does not rival France or Japan, but the numbers are still quite large.

In the end perception will carry the day. On average over 50,000 people die every year in The United States in car accidents. An Iranian airliner crashed yesterday killing 307 people, 400,000+ die annually from tobacco use in the USA annually. However, we continue to drive, fly, and about 50,000,000 continue to smoke.

Are nuclear powered plants 100% safe, they are not and the book does not suggest they have been or that they are. The book does discuss the Three Mile Island accident, the incident in England, and the folly that was Chernobyl. Chernobyl must be in a category of its own for the shear scale of stupidity, negligence and intentional harm that was allowed to take place at that plant. To use the former USSR's conduct with nuclear energy as a measure for the rest of the world is absurd.

Despite decades of knowledge that remaining dependent largely on imported oil is shear negligence the reality remains that we as a nation continue to do so. Events are still fluid but we may have a second war in just over 10 years because an individual that controls a nation in the heart of the planet's current oil supply makes us nervous. All the talk of alternative methods of energy have amounted to meaningless practical change, environmental concerns prohibit the pursuit of much domestic oil, so the question remains, what are we going to do?

There are indeed some hybrid cars on the road and there are some that use natural gas, and there is the latest promise of hydrogen fuelled cars that made for a sound byte at the most recent state of the union address. Taken as a whole, their practical impact is nearly meaningless.

Many may not like Dr. Teller's suggestions, and I too would prefer clean production of the energy we need. But the reality is we will change nothing until there is a massive and permanent impact on our economy and or way of life, and then it will be a prolonged painful transition, as opposed to being serious about the issue now and using all talents available to create reliable, sustainable clean energy sources. This man who is in his 90s' has seen decade after decade go by with no change to our consumption of fossil fuels. Those decades are lost, how many more will be?

I am only 12 years old, but believe me when I say that this is one of the best books I've ever read! I had to do a report on a scientist for school and I chose Edward Teller because I had heard of him from my mother and he sounded interesting. Rather than being just another boring book report, I really did enjoy this book. It gave me a lot of information for my report and was not incredibly hard to read. I decided to do a movie for my report and filmed it as if Teller were writing journal entries. I got a 100++ on my project which is what I would give this book...a 100++!

"Memoirs", by Dr. Edward Teller, is a straight forward telling of the life of one of the twentieth century's foremost physicists. Dr. Teller describes his exodus from his native Hungary to Germany, Denmark, England and finally the United States. He has worked in the company of some of the great physicists of all time, Fermi, Bohr, Von Neumann and others. He was also instrumental in developing the atomic and hydrogen bombs as well as Los Alamos and Lawrence-Livermore national laboratories.

This book is not an apology for his work in atomic energy, weapons or his testimony regarding Oppenheimer. Dr. Teller goes into great detail to describe his thinking and motives in these areas. Having escaped the Nazi's and communists his right of center views on nuclear deterrence and missile defense are well founded. He discusses being ostracized from the scientific community, views on the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, as well as his political and scientific contributions to among others Nelson Rockefeller and Ronald Reagan.

The book is extensively footnoted; Dr. Teller uses his teaching skills to describe to the reader the concepts being discussed in the body of the work. A basic knowledge of the terms used in physics is helpful but not necessary. The book is exceptionally well written and doesn't get "bogged down" in scientific jargon.

"Memoirs" is a fascinating documentary of the birth and development of nuclear energy in both its destructive and constructive forms. Dr. Teller is straight forward but modest about his role and generous in praise of his many colleagues.

With this book i needed to read it for my junior year english project! It was very helpful in my research and i made a great grade with the info... IT was so easy to put the findings into my own words so that others would understand. Thanks so much!

Gregg Herken's BROTHERHOOD OF THE BOMB is subtitled: "The
Tangled Lives And Loyalties Of Robert Oppenheimer, Ernest
Lawrence, And Edward Teller". This statement implies that
this book is something of a three-way biography of three
important nuclear scientists, but it actually has a broader
focus, discussing not merely the lives of these three men but
traces through the story of the US nuclear weapons program in
World War II; the American Communist Party; the Red spy
network in the US; McCarthyism and the Red witch hunts of the
Cold War; and the rise of the nuclear arms race.

In a sense, this relatively broad focus makes this book, if
not exactly frustrating because it's an okay read, at
least a little unsatisfying, since it gives enough of these
stories to be intriguing but not enough to give a clear
picture -- while distracting enough from the story of Lawrence,
Oppenheimer, and Teller so that they never seem to really
come alive.

This is a pity, since at least Oppenheimer and Teller are
fascinating individuals -- Oppenheimer was brilliant and
arrogant, impatient with lesser intellects, but still
much admired; and Teller is brilliant as well, with the odd
unintentional humor of the single-minded. (In an interview
a few years ago he told the reporter up front: "If you
mention Strangelove ONE TIME, I will THROW YOU OUT!")

In the end I get the feeling like I would have been happier
with something with much more scope, detail, and length;
or, with the scope it has, less detail and length. The
story of Oppenheimer's political persecution is laid out
blow-by-blow, but for myself I think a more concise
description would have let me see the forest for the trees
much better.

I must admit that the description of AEC Chairman Lewis
Strauss, who orchestrated the charge on Oppenheimer, was
vivid enough to be creepy, since Strauss was the sort of
fellow whose faith in his own convictions so strong that
he could burn any number of witches at the stake without
a second thought. It's good to be reminded that there are
people like that out there!

OK, I don't want to go too far. This isn't a bad book.
It's well-researched and provides worthwhile information.
There are fascinating bits in it, for example how
Oppenheimer was not merely given a clean bill of health
by the House UnAmerican Activities Committee, but even
praised as something of a national hero by the prominent
HUAC member, Congressman Richard M. Nixon of California.
(There always was a "Good Dick Nixon" and a "Bad Dick
Nixon".)

It just left me wanting much more -- which, I suppose, is
a good thing as well.

This book was very fascinating and fun to read. The book is very informative and interesting about the development of "the Bomb", and beyond. The book goes into vast detail about Ernest Lawrence, Robert Oppenheimer, and Edward Teller; especially Ernest Lawrence. The book starts in about 1939 with Ernest's invention of the cyclotron, and ends in the early 1960's with the Limited Test-Ban treaty. Besides talking about the relationships between the three physicists, which is very interesting, the book also talks about a lot of the small people involved in the production of the first fission weapon. What I think is cool, is the information given on Robert Oppenheimer from the FBI. The book also sends a lot of time discussing Edward Teller's interest and development of the Hydrogen Bomb. Although it does give some information about the nuclear testing we have done, it would be better if the Author discussed this more. Overall, I enjoyed this book and definitely recommend it to anyone who is interested in the history and development of nuclear weapons.

Gregg Herken's Brotherhood of the Bomb manages to overcome the most common obstacle with history books--it makes the subjects and the events come alive. Herken had access to The Smithsonian Archieves as well as interviews with the primary sources involved in the creation of the bomb. The book is a fair balanced account of the difficult personalities and politics that went into the creation of the first nuclear bomb and the later more powerful "super". Only two other books has been this impressive (both by Richard Rhodes)and exhaustive. Herken's book has the advantage of additional resources.

The personalities and egos of Oppenheimer, Teller and Lawrence contributed to the rise and downfall of each man. Oppenheimer's eventual ethical objections to the development of the super came as much from his personal beliefs as it did his distaste for Teller's ideas. Teller became a hawk regarding nuclear policy and, ultimately, his opinions on Oppenheimer contributed to his loss of his security clearence. Lawrence was as driven as both men and largely apolitical until politics and science intersected.

Herken's book is a fascinating portrait of the players and time that helped shape the modern world.

I own a copy of this book, and I have read a few things about Leo Szilard. Allow me to report that in the Dedication of this book, regarding Szilard, Teller wrote, "He criticized others too often for his own good, and not tactfully enough for the good of those whom he criticized. But unlike Socrates, Szilard was not condemned to drink the poisoned cup, which suggests that freedom of speech is respected more in the United States than it was in ancient Athens. In a democratic society, a man like Leo Szilard can have an influence no matter what his opinions. In a totalitarian society, he could end up in a psychiatric institution." (p. ix) My hope in the year 2000 is that the twentieth century will be viewed as the collapse of that kind of psychotically imposed totalitarianism, rather than the collapse of communism, and that a new realm of freedom will allow me, the most spaced out poet on the planet, to dedicate an irate poem to the memory of an actual invasion across a border into a place that just happened to be Cambodia thirty years ago. On a more intellectual level, this poem was also written in memory of every poisoned cup that has passed our lips since the death of Socrates was 100 % successful.

Yellow is for Asian people,

Green for young G.I.s,

Red for facing bloody truths,

Pink for feeling wise.

Orange is the agency

that offers explanations.

Defoliation is a minor de-flowering

Compared to the final defamations.