5 Best technology books like The Apocalypse Factory: Plutonium and the Making of the Atomic Age by Steve Olson

Cover of The Apocalypse Factory: Plutonium and the Making of the Atomic Age by Steve Olson

The Apocalypse Factory: Plutonium and the Making of the Atomic Age

By: Steve Olson

4.12

Format: 352 pages, Hardcover

A thrilling narrative of scientific triumph—and the unimaginable, world-ending peril it brought us.…

If you liked the technology plot in The Apocalypse Factory: Plutonium and the Making of the Atomic Age by Steve Olson , here is a list of 5 books like this:

Cover of Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety by Eric Schlosser

1. Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety

By: Eric Schlosser

4.26

Format: 656 pages, Hardcover

A myth-shattering exposé of America’s nuclear weapons Famed investigative journalist Eric Schlos… read more

Similar categories in Eric Schlosser's Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety book and Steve Olson's The Apocalypse Factory: Plutonium and the Making of the Atomic Age

  • american history
  • science
  • history
  • politics
  • military fiction
  • war
  • nonfiction
  • technology
Cover of Israel: A Concise History of a Nation Reborn by Daniel Gordis

2. Israel: A Concise History of a Nation Reborn

By: Daniel Gordis

4.31

Format: 560 pages, ebook

Winner of the Jewish Book of the Year Award The first comprehensive yet accessible history of the … read more

Similar categories in Daniel Gordis's Israel: A Concise History of a Nation Reborn book and Steve Olson's The Apocalypse Factory: Plutonium and the Making of the Atomic Age

  • politics
  • history
  • nonfiction
Cover of Countdown to Zero Day: Stuxnet and the Launch of the World's First Digital Weapon by Kim Zetter

3. Countdown to Zero Day: Stuxnet and the Launch of the World's First Digital Weapon

By: Kim Zetter

4.17

Format: 406 pages, Hardcover

In January 2010, inspectors with the International Atomic Energy Agency noticed that centrifuges at… read more

Similar categories in Kim Zetter's Countdown to Zero Day: Stuxnet and the Launch of the World's First Digital Weapon book and Steve Olson's The Apocalypse Factory: Plutonium and the Making of the Atomic Age

  • science
  • history
  • politics
  • war
  • nonfiction
  • technology
"The nations, of course, that are most at risk of a destructive digital attack are the ones with the greatest connectivity. Marcus Ranum, one of the early innovators of the computer firewall, called S…"

-Kim Zetter, Countdown to Zero Day: Stuxnet and the Launch of the World's First Digital Weapon

Cover of The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes

4. The Making of the Atomic Bomb

By: Richard Rhodes

4.39

Format: 886 pages, Paperback

Here for the first time, in rich, human, political, and scientific detail, is the complete story of… read more

Similar categories in Richard Rhodes's The Making of the Atomic Bomb book and Steve Olson's The Apocalypse Factory: Plutonium and the Making of the Atomic Age

  • american history
  • history
  • politics
  • military fiction
  • war
  • nonfiction
  • physics
  • science
"Before it is science and career, before it is livelihood, before even it is family or love, freedom is sound sleep and safety to notice the play of morning sun."

-Richard Rhodes, The Making of the Atomic Bomb

"Any account of science which does not explicitly describe it as something we believe in is essentially incomplete and a false pretense. It amounts to a claim that science is essentially different fro…"

-Richard Rhodes, The Making of the Atomic Bomb

"For the scientist, at exactly the moment of discovery—that most unstable existential moment—the external world, nature itself, deeply confirms his innermost fantastic convictions. Anchored abruptly i…"

-Richard Rhodes, The Making of the Atomic Bomb

"[Chemist Michael] Polanyi found one other necessary requirement for full initiation into science: Belief. If science has become the orthodoxy of the West, individuals are nevertheless still free to t…"

-Richard Rhodes, The Making of the Atomic Bomb

Cover of American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird, Martin J. Sherwin

5. American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer

By: Kai Bird , Martin J. Sherwin

4.00

Format: None pages, Paperback

"American Prometheus is the first full-scale biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer, "father of the ato… read more

Similar categories in Kai Bird's American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer book and Steve Olson's The Apocalypse Factory: Plutonium and the Making of the Atomic Age

  • politics
  • history
  • nonfiction
  • science
Cover of The Pope of Physics: Enrico Fermi and the Birth of the Atomic Age by Gino Segrè, Bettina Hoerlin

6. The Pope of Physics: Enrico Fermi and the Birth of the Atomic Age

By: Gino Segrè , Bettina Hoerlin

3.68

Format: 346 pages, Hardcover

Enrico Fermi is unquestionably among the greats of the world's physicists, the most famous Italian … read more

Similar categories in Gino Segrè's The Pope of Physics: Enrico Fermi and the Birth of the Atomic Age book and Steve Olson's The Apocalypse Factory: Plutonium and the Making of the Atomic Age

  • nonfiction
  • history
  • physics
  • science
Cover of The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and its Dangerous Legacy by David E. Hoffman

7. The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and its Dangerous Legacy

By: David E. Hoffman

4.26

Format: None pages, Hardcover

"A tour de forceof investigative history." --Steve Coll The Dead Handis the suspense-filled story o… read more

Similar categories in David E. Hoffman's The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and its Dangerous Legacy book and Steve Olson's The Apocalypse Factory: Plutonium and the Making of the Atomic Age

  • history
  • politics
  • military fiction
  • war
  • nonfiction
  • science

8. Blank Spots on the Map: The Dark Geography of the Pentagon's Secret World

By: Trevor Paglen

5.00

Format: None pages,

read more

Similar categories in Trevor Paglen's Blank Spots on the Map: The Dark Geography of the Pentagon's Secret World book and Steve Olson's The Apocalypse Factory: Plutonium and the Making of the Atomic Age

  • history
  • politics
  • military fiction
  • war
  • nonfiction

9. Eruption: The Untold Story of Mount St. Helens

By: Steve Olson

4.06

Format: 32 pages, Paperback

For months in early 1980, scientists, journalists, sightseers, and nearby residents listened anxiou… read more

Similar categories in Steve Olson's Eruption: The Untold Story of Mount St. Helens book and Steve Olson's The Apocalypse Factory: Plutonium and the Making of the Atomic Age

Cover of Chernobyl: The History of a Nuclear Catastrophe by Serhii Plokhy

10. Chernobyl: The History of a Nuclear Catastrophe

By: Serhii Plokhy

4.23

Format: 404 pages, Hardcover

On the morning of April 26, 1986, Europe witnessed the worst nuclear disaster in history: the explo… read more

Similar categories in Serhii Plokhy's Chernobyl: The History of a Nuclear Catastrophe book and Steve Olson's The Apocalypse Factory: Plutonium and the Making of the Atomic Age

  • politics
  • history
  • nonfiction
  • science
"The Soviets had to choose whether to show Blix the toilet facilities and hide the super-secret radar or vice versa."

-Serhii Plokhy, Chernobyl: The History of a Nuclear Catastrophe

"The world has already been overwhelmed by one Chernobyl and one exclusion zone. It cannot afford any more. It must learn its lessons from what happened in and around Chernobyl on April 26, 1986."

-Serhii Plokhy, Chernobyl: The History of a Nuclear Catastrophe

Cover of Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space by Adam Higginbotham

11. Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space

By: Adam Higginbotham

4.60

Format: 576 pages, Hardcover

The definitive, dramatic, minute-by-minute story of the Challenger disaster based on new archival r… read more

Similar categories in Adam Higginbotham's Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space book and Steve Olson's The Apocalypse Factory: Plutonium and the Making of the Atomic Age

  • american history
  • science
  • history
  • politics
  • nonfiction
  • technology
"When asked what he was thinking about when preparing for launch abroad his Mercury-Redstone rocket, Alan Shepard, the first American in space, had infamously replied, "The fact that every part of thi…"

-Adam Higginbotham, Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space

"At the foot of the ladder, he [Gene Cernan Apollo 17] delivered the short speech he had memorized for the occasion. "Is like to just say what I believe history will record: That America's challenge o…"

-Adam Higginbotham, Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space

Cover of The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner by Daniel Ellsberg

12. The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner

By: Daniel Ellsberg

4.21

Format: 387 pages, Hardcover

From the legendary whistle-blower who revealed the Pentagon Papers, an eyewitness exposé of the awf… read more

Similar categories in Daniel Ellsberg's The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner book and Steve Olson's The Apocalypse Factory: Plutonium and the Making of the Atomic Age

  • american history
  • history
  • politics
  • military fiction
  • war
  • nonfiction
  • science
Cover of Super Volcanoes: What They Reveal about Earth and the Worlds Beyond by Robin George Andrews

13. Super Volcanoes: What They Reveal about Earth and the Worlds Beyond

By: Robin George Andrews

4.04

Format: 336 pages, Hardcover

Volcanoes are capable of acts of pyrotechnical prowess verging on magic: they spout black magma mor… read more

Similar categories in Robin George Andrews's Super Volcanoes: What They Reveal about Earth and the Worlds Beyond book and Steve Olson's The Apocalypse Factory: Plutonium and the Making of the Atomic Age

  • nonfiction
  • history
  • environment
  • science
Cover of His Majesty's Airship: The Life and Tragic Death of the World's Largest Flying Machine by S.C. Gwynne

14. His Majesty's Airship: The Life and Tragic Death of the World's Largest Flying Machine

By: S.C. Gwynne

4.02

Format: 320 pages, Hardcover

From historian and bestselling author of the Pulitzer Prize finalist Empire of the Summer Moon come… read more

Similar categories in S.C. Gwynne's His Majesty's Airship: The Life and Tragic Death of the World's Largest Flying Machine book and Steve Olson's The Apocalypse Factory: Plutonium and the Making of the Atomic Age

  • nonfiction
  • history
  • science
Cover of New Cold Wars: China's Rise, Russia's Invasion, and America's Struggle to Defend the West by David E. Sanger

15. New Cold Wars: China's Rise, Russia's Invasion, and America's Struggle to Defend the West

By: David E. Sanger

4.37

Format: 528 pages, Hardcover

A fast-paced account of America’s plunge into simultaneous Cold Wars against two very different adv… read more

Similar categories in David E. Sanger's New Cold Wars: China's Rise, Russia's Invasion, and America's Struggle to Defend the West book and Steve Olson's The Apocalypse Factory: Plutonium and the Making of the Atomic Age

  • history
  • politics
  • military fiction
  • war
  • nonfiction
Cover of Labyrinth of Ice: The Triumphant and Tragic Greely Polar Expedition by Buddy Levy

16. Labyrinth of Ice: The Triumphant and Tragic Greely Polar Expedition

By: Buddy Levy

4.46

Format: 400 pages, Hardcover

Based on the author's exhaustive research, the incredible true story of the Greely Expedition, one … read more

Similar categories in Buddy Levy's Labyrinth of Ice: The Triumphant and Tragic Greely Polar Expedition book and Steve Olson's The Apocalypse Factory: Plutonium and the Making of the Atomic Age

  • nonfiction
  • history
  • science
Cover of Atoms and Ashes: A Global History of Nuclear Disasters by Serhii Plokhy

17. Atoms and Ashes: A Global History of Nuclear Disasters

By: Serhii Plokhy

4.11

Format: 345 pages, Hardcover

A chilling account of more than half a century of nuclear catastrophes, by the author of the “defin… read more

Similar categories in Serhii Plokhy's Atoms and Ashes: A Global History of Nuclear Disasters book and Steve Olson's The Apocalypse Factory: Plutonium and the Making of the Atomic Age

  • science
  • history
  • politics
  • nonfiction
  • physics
  • technology
Cover of The Apocalypse Factory: Plutonium and the Making of the Atomic Age by Steve Olson

18. The Apocalypse Factory: Plutonium and the Making of the Atomic Age

By: Steve Olson

4.12

Format: 352 pages, Hardcover

A thrilling narrative of scientific triumph—and the unimaginable, world-ending peril it brought us.… read more

Similar categories in Steve Olson's The Apocalypse Factory: Plutonium and the Making of the Atomic Age book and Steve Olson's The Apocalypse Factory: Plutonium and the Making of the Atomic Age

  • american history
  • science
  • history
  • politics
  • military fiction
  • war
  • nonfiction
  • physics
  • environment
  • technology
Cover of Strange Glow: The Story of Radiation by Timothy J. Jorgensen

19. Strange Glow: The Story of Radiation

By: Timothy J. Jorgensen

4.25

Format: 512 pages, Hardcover

The fascinating science and history of radiation. More than ever before, radiation is a part of … read more

Similar categories in Timothy J. Jorgensen's Strange Glow: The Story of Radiation book and Steve Olson's The Apocalypse Factory: Plutonium and the Making of the Atomic Age

  • nonfiction
  • history
  • physics
  • science
Cover of The Quiet Damage: QAnon and the Destruction of the American Family by Jesselyn Cook

20. The Quiet Damage: QAnon and the Destruction of the American Family

By: Jesselyn Cook

4.45

Format: 272 pages, Hardcover

The riveting story of five families shattered by pernicious, pervasive conspiracy theories, and how… read more

Similar categories in Jesselyn Cook's The Quiet Damage: QAnon and the Destruction of the American Family book and Steve Olson's The Apocalypse Factory: Plutonium and the Making of the Atomic Age

  • politics
  • american history
  • history
  • nonfiction
Cover of Assured Destruction: Building the Ballistic Missile Culture of the U.S. Air Force (Transforming War) by David W. Bath

21. Assured Destruction: Building the Ballistic Missile Culture of the U.S. Air Force (Transforming War)

By: David W. Bath

4.00

Format: 249 pages, Kindle Edition

Assured Destruction documents the rapid development of nuclear ballistic missiles in the United Sta… read more

Similar categories in David W. Bath's Assured Destruction: Building the Ballistic Missile Culture of the U.S. Air Force (Transforming War) book and Steve Olson's The Apocalypse Factory: Plutonium and the Making of the Atomic Age

19 Best history books like The Apocalypse Factory: Plutonium and the Making of the Atomic Age by Steve Olson

Transform Your Habits

Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety

Eric Schlosser

4.26

Transform Your Habits

Israel: A Concise History of a Nation Reborn

Daniel Gordis

4.31

Transform Your Habits

Countdown to Zero Day: Stuxnet and the Launch of the World's First Digital Weapon

Kim Zetter

4.17

Transform Your Habits

The Making of the Atomic Bomb

Richard Rhodes

4.39

View all the books

6 must-read russia books like Chernobyl: The History of a Nuclear Catastrophe by Serhii Plokhy

Transform Your Habits

Chernobyl 01:23:40: The Incredible True Story of the World's Worst Nuclear Disaster

Andrew Leatherbarrow , Elizabeth Petrey

3.78

Transform Your Habits

Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster

Adam Higginbotham

4.37

Transform Your Habits

Beyond the Wall: East Germany, 1949-1990

Katja Hoyer

4.23

Transform Your Habits

1983: The World at the Brink

Taylor Downing

4.27

View all the books

Never miss a story from us, get weekly updates in your inbox.