The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II by Denise Kiernan

You might expect that because this is a book about the creation of the atomic bomb and everything that went into compiling the materials needed that it would be dry and boring. You would be very wrong.

I had to keep reminding myself that this was all real and these women were all real. The writing is so engaging and well paced that it felt like a story about some amazing women with WWII as the backdrop. 

The story of The Manhattan Project and the testing of atomic bombs in New Mexico is pretty well known. What is lesser known is the story of Oak Ridge Tennessee and the community that sprung up there in almost complete secrecy. No one knew exactly what and why they were doing things, they only knew what to do to get their job done. It was forbidden to talk to each other about what you did at your job. And people complied. The people who came to Oak Ridge to work believed in their mission, to help end the war and bring their men home.

Kiernan doesn't sugar coat the story of Oak Ridge. One of the women whose story she writes about is a black woman names Kattie. Because of her skin color she was not allowed to bring her children or even live with her husband who also worked there. The white families were allowed to bring children, married couples were allowed to live together. The food served to the white population was better, many of the black residents got sick from the poor food they were served. The housing conditions were much better for the white residents. White residents lived in dorms, trailers and prefab houses while the black residents lived in crowded sub-par structures. The pay for the same job was less for the black workers than what was paid to their white counter parts. Part of Kattie's story was how she managed to get a worker to make her some biscuit pans out of scrap metal and she was able to make cornbread and biscuits and used them to bribe the guards so she wouldn't get hassled for visiting her husband and for cooking in the hutments even though it was forbidden. She was a loving wife and mother, a very patriotic woman who did her job above and beyond what was expected of her and just wanted to help her country and make money to support her family. She never complained.

This was a really interesting story and a part of history that should be remembered.

(Finished March 20, 2014)