Sign-In
Cart
The Most Awful Responsibility: Truman and the Secret Struggle for Control of the Atomic Age
Hardcover
Presidents & Heads of State20th Century United States HistoryWeaponry & Vehicles
Publisher Price: $32.00
ISBN13: 9780063379435
Publisher: Harper
Published: Dec 9 2025
Pages: 432
Weight: 1.16
Height: 1.27 Width: 6.36 Depth: 9.29
Language: English
I thought I knew the story but learned much that I didn't know. Outstanding!-- Richard Rhodes
This is historical research at its best. -- Dan Carlin
President Truman's choice to drop the atomic bomb is the most debated decision in the 20th Century. But what if Truman's actual decision wasn't what everyone thinks it was?
The conventional narrative is that American leaders had a choice: Invade Japan, which would have cost millions of Allied and Japanese lives, or instead, use the atom bomb in the hope of convincing Japan to surrender. Truman, the story goes, carefully weighed the pros and cons before deciding that the atomic bomb would be used against Japanese cities, as the lesser of two evils.
But nuclear historian Alex Wellerstein argues that is not what happened.
Not only did Truman not take part in the decision to use the bomb, but the one major decision that he did make was a very different one -- one that he himself did not fully understand until after the atomic bomb was used. The weight of that decision, and that misunderstanding, became the major reason that atomic bombs have not been used again since World War II.
Based on a close reading of the historical record, The Most Awful Responsibility shows that, despite his reputation as an ardent defender of the atomic bomb, Truman:
- Wanted to avoid the murder and slaughter of innocent civiliansBelieved that the atomic bomb should never be used againHoped that nuclear weapons would be outlawed in his lifetime
Wellerstein makes a startling case that Truman was possibly the most anti-nuclear American president of the twentieth century, but his ambitions were strongly constrained by the domestic and international politics of the postwar world and the early Cold War. This book is a must-read for all who want to truly understand not only why the bomb was dropped on Japan but also why it has not been used since.
Also from
Wellerstein, Alex
The Most Awful Responsibility: Truman and the Secret Struggle for Control of the Atomic Age
Wellerstein, Alex
Audio Book
The Most Awful Responsibility: Truman and the Secret Struggle for Control of the Atomic Age
Wellerstein, Alex
Audio Book
Also in
20th Century United States History
1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History--And How It Shattered a Nation
Sorkin, Andrew Ross
Hardcover
The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America
Rothstein, Richard
Paperback
The Devil Reached Toward the Sky: An Oral History of the Making and Unleashing of the Atomic Bomb
Graff, Garrett M.
Hardcover
The CIA Book Club: The Secret Mission to Win the Cold War with Forbidden Literature
English, Charlie
Hardcover
Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation
Kobes Du Mez, Kristin
Paperback
The Gods of New York: Egotists, Idealists, Opportunists, and the Birth of the Modern City: 1986-1990
Mahler, Jonathan
Hardcover
The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics
Brown, Daniel James
Paperback
Book and Dagger: How Scholars and Librarians Became the Unlikely Spies of World War II
Graham, Elyse
Paperback
The Martians: The True Story of an Alien Craze That Captured Turn-Of-The-Century America
Baron, David
Hardcover
A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them
Egan, Timothy
Paperback
The Feather Detective: Mystery, Mayhem, and the Magnificent Life of Roxie Laybourne
Sweeney, Chris
Hardcover
The Beast in the Clouds: The Roosevelt Brothers' Deadly Quest to Find the Mythical Giant Panda
Holt, Nathalia
Hardcover
1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History--And How It Shattered a Nation (Large Print Edition)
Sorkin, Andrew Ross
Paperback
The Radical Fund: How a Band of Visionaries and a Million Dollars Upended America
Witt, John Fabian
Hardcover
Lincoln's Ghost: Houdini's War on Spiritualism and the Dark Conspiracy Against the American Presidency
Ricca, Brad
Hardcover
The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl
Egan, Timothy
Paperback
The Forgotten 500: The Untold Story of the Men Who Risked All for the Greatest Rescue Mission of World War II
Freeman, Gregory A.
Paperback
Born in Flames: The Business of Arson and the Remaking of the American City
Ansfield, Bench
Hardcover
Ghosts of Honolulu: A Japanese Spy, a Japanese American Spy Hunter, and the Untold Story of Pearl Harbor
Harmon, Mark
Paperback
Those Angry Days: Roosevelt, Lindbergh, and America's Fight Over World War II, 1939-1941
Olson, Lynne
Paperback
Kingmaker: Pamela Harriman's Astonishing Life of Power, Seduction, and Intrigue
Purnell, Sonia
Paperback
Kingmaker: Pamela Harriman's Astonishing Life of Power, Seduction, and Intrigue
Purnell, Sonia
Hardcover
The Hiroshima Men: The Quest to Build the Atomic Bomb, and the Fateful Decision to Use It
MacGregor, Iain
Hardcover
Capturing Kahanamoku: How a Surfing Legend and a Scientific Obsession Redefined Race and Culture
Rossi, Michael
Hardcover
Pre-Code Essentials: Must-See Cinema from Hollywood's Untamed Era, 1930-1934
Luperi, Kim
Reid, Danny
Paperback
Martyrs to the Unspeakable: The Assassinations of Jfk, Malcolm, Martin, and Rfk
Douglass, James W.
Hardcover
How the South Won the Civil War: Oligarchy, Democracy, and the Continuing Fight for the Soul of America
Richardson, Heather Cox
Paperback
When the Clock Broke: Con Men, Conspiracists, and How America Cracked Up in the Early 1990s
Ganz, John
Paperback
This Nonviolent Stuff'll Get You Killed: How Guns Made the Civil Rights Movement Possible
Cobb, Charles E., Jr.
Paperback
Access: Inside the Abortion Underground and the Sixty-Year Battle for Reproductive Freedom
Grant, Rebecca
Hardcover
Everything Is Now: The 1960s New York Avant-Garde--Primal Happenings, Underground Movies, Radical Pop
Hoberman, J.
Hardcover
The Sailing of the Intrepid: The Incredible Wartime Voyage of the Navy's Iconic Aircraft Carrier
Williams, Montel
Hardcover
Season of the Witch: Enchantment, Terror, and Deliverance in the City of Love
Talbot, David
Paperback
The Fifteen: Murder, Retribution, and the Forgotten Story of Nazi POWs in America
Geroux, William
Hardcover
The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the Cia, and the Rise of America's Secret Government
Talbot, David
Paperback
Guerra Contra Todos Los Puertorriqueños: Revolución Y Terror En La Colonia Americana
Denis, Nelson A.
Paperback
Banished Citizens: A History of the Mexican American Women Who Endured Repatriation
Ramírez, Marla A.
Hardcover
Five Bullets: The Story of Bernie Goetz, New York's Explosive '80s, and the Subway Vigilante Trial That Divided the Nation
Williams, Elliot
Hardcover
The Great Miscalculation: The Race to Save New York City's Citicorp Tower
Greenburg, Michael M.
Hardcover
The Azusa Street Mission and Revival: The Birth of the Global Pentecostal Movement
Robeck, Cecil M.
Paperback
True Blue: The Dramatic History of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Told by the Men Who Lived It
Delsohn, Steve
Paperback
Stonewall: The Definitive Story of the LGBTQ Rights Uprising That Changed America
Duberman, Martin
Paperback
The Assassination of Fred Hampton: How the FBI and the Chicago Police Murdered a Black Panther
Haas, Jeffrey
Paperback
The Silver Snarling Trumpet: The Birth of the Grateful Dead--The Lost Manuscript of Robert Hunter
Hunter, Robert
Hardcover
The War Correspondents: The Incredible Stories of the Brave Men and Women Who Covered the Fight Against Hitler's Germany
Lloyd, Keith Warren
Hardcover
Stuck: How the Privileged and the Propertied Broke the Engine of American Opportunity
Appelbaum, Yoni
Hardcover
A Place Called Yellowstone: The Epic History of the World's First National Park
Wilson, Randall K.
Paperback
One Man's Freedom: Goldwater, King, and the Struggle Over an American Ideal
Buccola, Nicholas
Hardcover
The Worst Day: A Plane Crash, a Train Wreck, and Remarkable Acts of Heroism in Washington, DC
Goldfarb, Bruce
Paperback
A Pope and a President: John Paul II, Ronald Reagan, and the Extraordinary Untold Story of the 20th Century
Kengor, Paul
Paperback
Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II
Blackmon, Douglas A.
Paperback
The Upswing: How America Came Together a Century Ago and How We Can Do It Again
Putnam, Robert D.
Paperback
Black Soldiers, White Laws: The Tragedy of the 24th Infantry in 1917 Houston
Haymond, John A.
Hardcover
A Blacklist Education: American History, a Family Mystery, and a Teacher Under Fire
Smith, Jane S.
Hardcover
The Raider: The Untold Story of a Renegade Marine and the Birth of U.S. Special Forces in World War II
Platt, Stephen R.
Hardcover
The Fight for Sex Ed: The Century-Long Battle Between Truth and Doctrine
Myers, Margaret Grace
Hardcover
Presidents at War: How World War II Shaped a Generation of Presidents, from Eisenhower and JFK Through Reagan and Bush
Gillon, Steven M.
Hardcover
The Book of Charlie: Wisdom from the Remarkable American Life of a 109-Year-Old Man
Von Drehle, David
Paperback
The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America
Rothstein, Richard
Hardcover
Last Train to Paradise: Henry Flagler and the Spectacular Rise and Fall of the Railroad That Crossed an Ocean
Standiford, Les
Paperback
A Place Called Yellowstone: The Epic History of the World's First National Park
Wilson, Randall K.
Hardcover
The Six: The Extraordinary Story of the Grit and Daring of America's First Women Astronauts
Grush, Loren
Paperback
Myth America: Historians Take on the Biggest Legends and Lies about Our Past
Kruse, Kevin M.
Zelizer, Julian E.
Hardcover
American Poison: A Deadly Invention and the Woman Who Battled for Environmental Justice
Stone, Daniel
Hardcover
Aberration in the Heartland of the Real: The Secret Lives of Timothy McVeigh
Painting, Wendy S.
Paperback
Making Sense of Slavery: America's Long Reckoning, from the Founding Era to Today
Spillman, Scott
Hardcover
G-Man (Pulitzer Prize Winner): J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century
Gage, Beverly
Paperback
El Paso: Five Families and One Hundred Years of Blood, Migration, Race, and Memory
Ulloa, Jazmine
Hardcover
In Search of a Boy Named Chester: A gift to my father for his 100th birthday
Worthy, Ford S.
Paperback
I Have a Dream - Special Anniversary Edition: Writings and Speeches That Changed the World
King, Martin Luther
Paperback
The Happiest Place on Earth: The Incredible Story of Walt Disney's Disneyland
Hahn, Don
Merritt, Christopher
Hardcover
Against All Odds: A True Story of Ultimate Courage and Survival in World War II
Kershaw, Alex
Paperback
The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order: America and the World in the Free Market Era
Gerstle, Gary
Paperback
Days of Rage: America's Radical Underground, the Fbi, and the Forgotten Age of Revolutionary Violence
Burrough, Bryan
Paperback
American Midnight: The Great War, a Violent Peace, and Democracy's Forgotten Crisis
Hochschild, Adam
Paperback
Dividing Lines: How Transportation Infrastructure Reinforces Racial Inequality
Archer, Deborah N.
Hardcover
When the Clock Broke: Con Men, Conspiracists, and How America Cracked Up in the Early 1990s
Ganz, John
Hardcover
I Am Not Your Negro: A Companion Edition to the Documentary Film Directed by Raoul Peck
Baldwin, James
Peck, Raoul
Paperback
Wiseguys and the White House: Gangsters, Presidents, and the Deals They Made
Dezenhall, Eric
Hardcover
The Many Passions of Michael Hardwick: Sex and the Supreme Court in the Age of AIDS
Padgett, Martin
Hardcover
No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II
Goodwin, Doris Kearns
Paperback
Flapper: A Madcap Story of Sex, Style, Celebrity, and the Women Who Made America Modern
Zeitz, Joshua
Paperback
A Perfect Turmoil: Walter E. Fernald and the Struggle to Care for America's Disabled
Green, Alex
Paperback
Hellhound On His Trail: The Electrifying Account of the Largest Manhunt In American History
Sides, Hampton
Paperback
Sedition: How America's Constitutional Order Emerged from Violent Crisis
Gadson, Marcus Alexander
Hardcover