"The Girls of Atomic City - The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II"

Denise Kiernan's book, "The Girls of Atomic City - The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II" is very well written and researched and reads with the fluency of a novel.  It wasn't a fast read for me at 309 pages (not including the epilogue) but I took it on a week's vacation with me and that is all I read in my spare time.

Oakridge, TN, was one of the sites that developed the atomic bomb and everyone who worked there was sworn to secrecy about their work even though they had no clue about the larger picture.  Even sharing something innocent about your work could get you fired.  This story follows the paths of nine specific women -- how they came to work at Oakridge, what they did, their personal and family lives.  As was not uncommon in those times (and still today), women were paid less and treated as less.  Negro women were treated even worse.  There were separate (and unequal) living quarters for the Negroes and they weren't even able to live with their spouses or bring their children to Oakridge with them but the money they could send home to the family caring for their children made a difference.

This book also chronicles their losses, their loves, and to some extent their lives after World War II ended.  It also examines the feelings the workers had about how their work ended the war but also caused mass loss of human life in Japan and the pain and suffering dropping the bomb brought on for that country.

It was a worthwhile read shedding light (for me) on a part of our history that I knew very little about since I was born in the middle of the war.  My husband, who has a great interest in history, was not surprised about what I shared with him as he already knew some of it.  I highly recommend this book to anyone...pazt