23 must-read nonfiction books like Restricted Data: The History of Nuclear Secrecy in the United States by Alex Wellerstein

Cover of Restricted Data: The History of Nuclear Secrecy in the United States by Alex Wellerstein

Restricted Data: The History of Nuclear Secrecy in the United States

By: Alex Wellerstein

4.18

Format: 528 pages, Hardcover

The first full history of US nuclear secrecy, from its origins in the late 1930s to our post–Cold W…

If you liked the nonfiction plot in Restricted Data: The History of Nuclear Secrecy in the United States by Alex Wellerstein , here is a list of 23 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 Alex Wellerstein's Restricted Data: The History of Nuclear Secrecy in the United States

  • science
  • history
  • politics
  • military fiction
  • war
  • military history
  • nonfiction
  • technology
Cover of The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes

2. 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 Alex Wellerstein's Restricted Data: The History of Nuclear Secrecy in the United States

  • 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 The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare: How Churchill's Secret Warriors Set Europe Ablaze and Gave Birth to Modern Black Ops by Damien Lewis

3. The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare: How Churchill's Secret Warriors Set Europe Ablaze and Gave Birth to Modern Black Ops

By: Damien Lewis

3.79

Format: None pages, Kindle Edition

When France fell to the Nazis in the winter of 1939, Prime Minister Winston Churchill declared that… read more

Similar categories in Damien Lewis's The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare: How Churchill's Secret Warriors Set Europe Ablaze and Gave Birth to Modern Black Ops book and Alex Wellerstein's Restricted Data: The History of Nuclear Secrecy in the United States

  • history
  • military fiction
  • war
  • military history
  • nonfiction
Cover of The Pentagon's Brain by Annie Jacobsen

4. The Pentagon's Brain

By: Annie Jacobsen

3.70

Format: 336 pages, Hardcover

The definitive history of DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency, from the author of t… read more

Similar categories in Annie Jacobsen's The Pentagon's Brain book and Alex Wellerstein's Restricted Data: The History of Nuclear Secrecy in the United States

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

5. Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency from the Cold War Through the Dawn of a New Century

By: James Bamford

3.43

Format: 331 pages, Paperback

The National Security Agency is the world's most powerful, most far-reaching espionage. Now with a … read more

Similar categories in James Bamford's Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency from the Cold War Through the Dawn of a New Century book and Alex Wellerstein's Restricted Data: The History of Nuclear Secrecy in the United States

Cover of One Summer: America, 1927 by Bill Bryson

6. One Summer: America, 1927

By: Bill Bryson

4.09

Format: 456 pages, Hardcover

In One Summer Bill Bryson, one of our greatest and most beloved nonfiction writers, transports read… read more

Similar categories in Bill Bryson's One Summer: America, 1927 book and Alex Wellerstein's Restricted Data: The History of Nuclear Secrecy in the United States

  • nonfiction
  • american
  • history
"It was a lot more fun to get famous than to be famous."

-Bill Bryson, One Summer: America, 1927

"He [Henry Ford] seldom let facts or logic challenge the certainty of his instincts"

-Bill Bryson, One Summer: America, 1927

"The romance of travel wasn't always terribly evident to those who were actually experiencing it."

-Bill Bryson, One Summer: America, 1927

"Even with the benefit of steroids most modern players still couldn't hit as many home runs as Babe Ruth hit on hotdogs."

-Bill Bryson, One Summer: America, 1927

7. Shadow Divers

By: Robert Kurson

4.04

Format: 176 pages, Hardcover

In the tradition of Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air comes a true tale of riveting adventure in which t… read more

Similar categories in Robert Kurson's Shadow Divers book and Alex Wellerstein's Restricted Data: The History of Nuclear Secrecy in the United States

8. Raven Rock: The Story of the U.S. Government’s Secret Plan to Save Itself -- While the Rest of Us Die

By: Garrett M. Graff

3.67

Format: 350 pages, Hardcover

A fresh window on American history: The eye-opening truth about the government's secret plans to su… read more

Similar categories in Garrett M. Graff's Raven Rock: The Story of the U.S. Government’s Secret Plan to Save Itself -- While the Rest of Us Die book and Alex Wellerstein's Restricted Data: The History of Nuclear Secrecy in the United States

9. The Hunt for Red October (Jack Ryan Universe, #4)

By: Tom Clancy

4.16

Format: 293 pages, Paperback

Here is the runaway bestseller that launched Tom Clancy's phenomenal career. A military thriller so… read more

Similar categories in Tom Clancy's The Hunt for Red October (Jack Ryan Universe, #4) book and Alex Wellerstein's Restricted Data: The History of Nuclear Secrecy in the United States

10. The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II

By: Denise Kiernan

3.27

Format: None pages, Hardcover

The incredible story of the young women of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, who unwittingly played a crucial r… read more

Similar categories in Denise Kiernan's The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II book and Alex Wellerstein's Restricted Data: The History of Nuclear Secrecy in the United States

11. Designing Your Life: Build a Life that Works for You

By: None , Dave Evans

3.82

Format: 287 pages, Paperback

*** The #1 New York Times Bestseller *** Whether we're 20, 40, 60 or older, many of us are still l… read more

Similar categories in None's Designing Your Life: Build a Life that Works for You book and Alex Wellerstein's Restricted Data: The History of Nuclear Secrecy in the United States

12. Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed

By: None , Ben R. Rich

3.83

Format: 432 pages, Paperback

From the development of the U-2 to the Stealth fighter, the never-before-told story behind the high… read more

Similar categories in None's Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed book and Alex Wellerstein's Restricted Data: The History of Nuclear Secrecy in the United States

13. Failure is Not an Option: Mission Control From Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond

By: Gene Kranz

4.60

Format: 200 pages,

Gene Kranz was present at the creation of America's manned space program and was a key player in it… read more

Similar categories in Gene Kranz's Failure is Not an Option: Mission Control From Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond book and Alex Wellerstein's Restricted Data: The History of Nuclear Secrecy in the United States

Cover of The Guns of August by Barbara W. Tuchman

14. The Guns of August

By: Barbara W. Tuchman

4.18

Format: 658 pages, Kindle Edition

The Proud Tower, the Pulitzer Prize–winning The Guns of August, and The Zimmerman Telegram comprise… read more

Similar categories in Barbara W. Tuchman's The Guns of August book and Alex Wellerstein's Restricted Data: The History of Nuclear Secrecy in the United States

  • history
  • politics
  • military fiction
  • war
  • military history
  • nonfiction
"Nothing so comforts the military mind as the maxim of a great but dead general."

-Barbara W. Tuchman, The Guns of August

"Now according to German logic, a declaration of war was found to be unnecessary because of imaginary bombings"

-Barbara W. Tuchman, The Guns of August

"Human beings, like plans, prove fallible in the presence of those ingredients that are missing in maneuvers - danger, death, and live ammunition."

-Barbara W. Tuchman, The Guns of August

"To think meant to give room for freedom of initiative, for the imponderable to win over the material, for will to demonstrate its power over circumstance."

-Barbara W. Tuchman, The Guns of August

Cover of Collapse: The Fall of the Soviet Union by Vladislav M. Zubok

15. Collapse: The Fall of the Soviet Union

By: Vladislav M. Zubok

4.26

Format: 576 pages, Hardcover

A major study of the collapse of the Soviet Union—showing how Gorbachev’s misguided reforms led to … read more

Similar categories in Vladislav M. Zubok's Collapse: The Fall of the Soviet Union book and Alex Wellerstein's Restricted Data: The History of Nuclear Secrecy in the United States

  • politics
  • history
  • nonfiction
Cover of Nuclear War: A Scenario by Annie Jacobsen

16. Nuclear War: A Scenario

By: Annie Jacobsen

4.47

Format: 400 pages, Hardcover

There is only one scenario other than an asteroid strike that could end the world as we know it in … read more

Similar categories in Annie Jacobsen's Nuclear War: A Scenario book and Alex Wellerstein's Restricted Data: The History of Nuclear Secrecy in the United States

  • history
  • politics
  • military fiction
  • war
  • military history
  • nonfiction
  • science
"The fundamental idea behind this book is to demonstrate, in appalling detail, just how horrifying nuclear war would be."

-Annie Jacobsen, Nuclear War: A Scenario

"Humans are wired to advance. Humans do whatever it takes. And yet, nuclear war zeros it all out. Nuclear weapons reduce human brilliance and ingenuity, love and desire, empathy and intellect, to ash."

-Annie Jacobsen, Nuclear War: A Scenario

Cover of Rocket Men: The Daring Odyssey of Apollo 8 and the Astronauts Who Made Man's First Journey to the Moon by Robert Kurson

17. Rocket Men: The Daring Odyssey of Apollo 8 and the Astronauts Who Made Man's First Journey to the Moon

By: Robert Kurson

4.53

Format: 384 pages, Hardcover

The inside, lesser-known story of NASA's boldest and riskiest mission: Apollo 8, mankind's first jo… read more

Similar categories in Robert Kurson's Rocket Men: The Daring Odyssey of Apollo 8 and the Astronauts Who Made Man's First Journey to the Moon book and Alex Wellerstein's Restricted Data: The History of Nuclear Secrecy in the United States

  • nonfiction
  • history
  • science
  • technology
Cover of Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout by Cal Newport

18. Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout

By: Cal Newport

3.73

Format: 244 pages, Hardcover

Do fewer things. Work at a natural pace. Obsess over quality. From the New York Times bestsellin… read more

Similar categories in Cal Newport's Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout book and Alex Wellerstein's Restricted Data: The History of Nuclear Secrecy in the United States

  • nonfiction
"What are we really doing here?"

-Cal Newport, Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout

"Wouldn’t it be nice to have a job like that where you didn’t have to worry about being productive?"

-Cal Newport, Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout

"The world of cognitive work lacks coherent ideas about how our efforts should be organized and measured."

-Cal Newport, Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout

"The pandemic didn’t introduce this trend so much as push its worst excesses beyond the threshold of tolerability."

-Cal Newport, Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout

Cover of The Achilles Trap: Saddam Hussein, the C.I.A., and the Origins of America's Invasion of Iraq by Steve Coll

19. The Achilles Trap: Saddam Hussein, the C.I.A., and the Origins of America's Invasion of Iraq

By: Steve Coll

4.44

Format: 576 pages, Hardcover

From bestselling and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Steve Coll, the definitive story of the decades-… read more

Similar categories in Steve Coll's The Achilles Trap: Saddam Hussein, the C.I.A., and the Origins of America's Invasion of Iraq book and Alex Wellerstein's Restricted Data: The History of Nuclear Secrecy in the United States

  • american
  • history
  • politics
  • military fiction
  • war
  • military history
  • nonfiction
Cover of The Abyss: Nuclear Crisis Cuba 1962 by Max Hastings

20. The Abyss: Nuclear Crisis Cuba 1962

By: Max Hastings

4.40

Format: 538 pages, Hardcover

Bestselling author Max Hastings offers a welcome re-evaluation of one of the most gripping and tens… read more

Similar categories in Max Hastings's The Abyss: Nuclear Crisis Cuba 1962 book and Alex Wellerstein's Restricted Data: The History of Nuclear Secrecy in the United States

  • history
  • politics
  • military fiction
  • war
  • military history
  • nonfiction
Cover of Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space by Adam Higginbotham

21. 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 Alex Wellerstein's Restricted Data: The History of Nuclear Secrecy in the United States

  • history
  • technology
  • politics
  • nonfiction
  • science
"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 What This Comedian Said Will Shock You by Bill Maher

22. What This Comedian Said Will Shock You

By: Bill Maher

4.27

Format: 400 pages, Hardcover

The hilarious and controversial host of HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher has written his funniest, m… read more

Similar categories in Bill Maher's What This Comedian Said Will Shock You book and Alex Wellerstein's Restricted Data: The History of Nuclear Secrecy in the United States

  • politics
  • history
  • nonfiction
Cover of When the Sea Came Alive: An Oral History of D-Day by Garrett M. Graff

23. When the Sea Came Alive: An Oral History of D-Day

By: Garrett M. Graff

4.59

Format: 608 pages, Hardcover

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Only Plane in the Sky and Pulitzer Prize finalist… read more

Similar categories in Garrett M. Graff's When the Sea Came Alive: An Oral History of D-Day book and Alex Wellerstein's Restricted Data: The History of Nuclear Secrecy in the United States

  • history
  • military fiction
  • war
  • military history
  • nonfiction
Cover of The Button: The New Nuclear Arms Race and Presidential Power from Truman to Trump by William J. Perry

24. The Button: The New Nuclear Arms Race and Presidential Power from Truman to Trump

By: William J. Perry

4.01

Format: 335 pages, Hardcover

Since the Truman administration, America has been one push of a button away from nuclear war--a dec… read more

Similar categories in William J. Perry's The Button: The New Nuclear Arms Race and Presidential Power from Truman to Trump book and Alex Wellerstein's Restricted Data: The History of Nuclear Secrecy in the United States

  • history
  • politics
  • war
  • nonfiction
  • science
Cover of Spyfail: Foreign Spies, Moles, Saboteurs, and the Collapse of America’s Counterintelligence by James Bamford

25. Spyfail: Foreign Spies, Moles, Saboteurs, and the Collapse of America’s Counterintelligence

By: James Bamford

3.64

Format: 496 pages, Hardcover

James Bamford, the bestselling author of  The Puzzle Palace  and  Body of Secrets , unveils a hidde… read more

Similar categories in James Bamford's Spyfail: Foreign Spies, Moles, Saboteurs, and the Collapse of America’s Counterintelligence book and Alex Wellerstein's Restricted Data: The History of Nuclear Secrecy in the United States

  • politics
  • history
  • nonfiction
Cover of Burning the Sky: Operation Argus and the Untold Story of the Cold War Nuclear Tests in Outer Space by Mark Wolverton

26. Burning the Sky: Operation Argus and the Untold Story of the Cold War Nuclear Tests in Outer Space

By: Mark Wolverton

3.65

Format: 354 pages, Kindle Edition

The unbelievable true story of an American Cold War scheme to detonate nuclear bombs in space is re… read more

Similar categories in Mark Wolverton's Burning the Sky: Operation Argus and the Untold Story of the Cold War Nuclear Tests in Outer Space book and Alex Wellerstein's Restricted Data: The History of Nuclear Secrecy in the United States

  • history
  • politics
  • military fiction
  • military history
  • nonfiction
  • science
Cover of The Last Honest Man: The CIA, the FBI, the Mafia, and the Kennedys―and One Senator's Fight to Save Democracy by James Risen

27. The Last Honest Man: The CIA, the FBI, the Mafia, and the Kennedys―and One Senator's Fight to Save Democracy

By: James Risen

4.13

Format: 480 pages, Hardcover

Witnesses were mysteriously murdered. The FBI, NSA, CIA, and even the IRS were on the warpath. It w… read more

Similar categories in James Risen's The Last Honest Man: The CIA, the FBI, the Mafia, and the Kennedys―and One Senator's Fight to Save Democracy book and Alex Wellerstein's Restricted Data: The History of Nuclear Secrecy in the United States

  • politics
  • american
  • history
  • nonfiction
Cover of The Twilight of the Bombs: Recent Challenges, New Dangers, and the Prospects for a World Without Nuclear Weapons (The Making of the Nuclear Age Book 4) by Richard Rhodes

28. The Twilight of the Bombs: Recent Challenges, New Dangers, and the Prospects for a World Without Nuclear Weapons (The Making of the Nuclear Age Book 4)

By: Richard Rhodes

4.04

Format: 393 pages, Kindle Edition

The culminating volume in Richard Rhodes’s monumental and prizewinning history of nuclear weapons, … read more

Similar categories in Richard Rhodes's The Twilight of the Bombs: Recent Challenges, New Dangers, and the Prospects for a World Without Nuclear Weapons (The Making of the Nuclear Age Book 4) book and Alex Wellerstein's Restricted Data: The History of Nuclear Secrecy in the United States

  • science
  • history
  • politics
  • military fiction
  • war
  • nonfiction
  • physics
  • technology
Cover of Restricted Data: The History of Nuclear Secrecy in the United States by Alex Wellerstein

29. Restricted Data: The History of Nuclear Secrecy in the United States

By: Alex Wellerstein

4.18

Format: 528 pages, Hardcover

The first full history of US nuclear secrecy, from its origins in the late 1930s to our post–Cold W… read more

Similar categories in Alex Wellerstein's Restricted Data: The History of Nuclear Secrecy in the United States book and Alex Wellerstein's Restricted Data: The History of Nuclear Secrecy in the United States

  • science
  • american
  • history
  • politics
  • military fiction
  • war
  • military history
  • nonfiction
  • physics
  • technology
Cover of The Evolution of Nuclear Strategy by Lawrence Freedman

30. The Evolution of Nuclear Strategy

By: Lawrence Freedman

4.11

Format: 584 pages, Paperback

First published 20 years ago, Lawrence Freedman's Evolution of Nuclear Strategy was immediately acc… read more

Similar categories in Lawrence Freedman's The Evolution of Nuclear Strategy book and Alex Wellerstein's Restricted Data: The History of Nuclear Secrecy in the United States

  • history
  • politics
  • military fiction
  • war
  • military history
  • nonfiction
  • science
Cover of Autocracy, Inc. by Anne Applebaum

31. Autocracy, Inc.

By: Anne Applebaum

4.28

Format: 224 pages, Hardcover

All of us have in our minds a cartoon image of what an autocratic state looks like, with a bad man … read more

Similar categories in Anne Applebaum's Autocracy, Inc. book and Alex Wellerstein's Restricted Data: The History of Nuclear Secrecy in the United States

  • politics
  • history
  • nonfiction
"Americans who rarely think about Russia would be stunned to learn how much time Russian state television devotes to America’s culture wars, especially arguments over gender. Putin himself has display…"

-Anne Applebaum, Autocracy, Inc.

"Isolationism is an instinctive and even understandable reaction to the ugliness of the modern interconnected world. For some politicians in democracies, it will continue to offer a successful path to…"

-Anne Applebaum, Autocracy, Inc.

"The temptation of what is sometimes called realism—the belief that nations are solely motivated by a struggle for power, that they have eternal interests and permanent geopolitical orientations—is as…"

-Anne Applebaum, Autocracy, Inc.

22 best-selling history books like Restricted Data: The History of Nuclear Secrecy in the United States by Alex Wellerstein

Transform Your Habits

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

Eric Schlosser

4.26

Transform Your Habits

The Making of the Atomic Bomb

Richard Rhodes

4.39

Transform Your Habits

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare: How Churchill's Secret Warriors Set Europe Ablaze and Gave Birth to Modern Black Ops

Damien Lewis

3.79

Transform Your Habits

The Pentagon's Brain

Annie Jacobsen

3.70

View all the books

15 Top audiobook books like Burning the Sky: Operation Argus and the Untold Story of the Cold War Nuclear Tests in Outer Space by Mark Wolverton

Transform Your Habits

A Man on the Moon

Michael Kramer , Bronson Pinchot , Tom Hanks , Andrew Chaikin

4.49

Transform Your Habits

Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power

Jon Meacham

4.04

Transform Your Habits

The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook

Hampton Sides

4.51

Transform Your Habits

The Mysterious Case of Rudolf Diesel: Genius, Power, and Deception on the Eve of World War I

Douglas Brunt

4.23

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