The New York Times bestseller, now available in paperback--an
incredible true story of the top-secret World War II town of Oak Ridge,
Tennessee, and the young women brought there unknowingly to help build
the atomic bomb.
"The best kind of nonfiction: marvelously reported, fluidly written, and
a remarkable story...As meticulous and brilliant as it is compulsively
readable." --Karen Abbott, author of Sin in the Second City
At the height of World War II, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, was home to 75,000
residents, and consumed more electricity than New York City, yet it was
shrouded in such secrecy that it did not appear on any map. Thousands of
civilians, many of them young women from small towns across the U.S.,
were recruited to this secret city, enticed by the promise of solid
wages and war-ending work. What were they actually doing there? Very
few knew. The purpose of this mysterious government project was kept a
secret from the outside world and from the majority of the residents
themselves. Some wondered why, despite the constant work and
round-the-clock activity in this makeshift town, did no tangible product
of any kind ever seem to leave its guarded gates? The women who kept
this town running would find out at the end of the war, when Oak Ridge's
secret was revealed and changed the world forever.
Drawing from the voices and experiences of the women who lived and
worked in Oak Ridge, The Girls of Atomic City rescues a remarkable,
forgotten chapter of World War II from obscurity. Denise Kiernan
captures the spirit of the times through these women: their pluck, their
desire to contribute, and their enduring courage. "A phenomenal story,"
and Publishers Weekly called it an "intimate and revealing glimpse
into one of the most important scientific developments in history."
"Kiernan has amassed a deep reservoir of intimate details of what life
was like for women living in the secret city...Rosie, it turns out, did
much more than drive rivets." --The Washington Post
