Books like The laser in America, 1950-1970 by Joan Lisa Bromberg

Here for the first time, in rich, human, political, and scientific detail, is the complete story of how the bomb was developed, from the turn-of-the-century discovery of the vast energy locked inside the atom to the dropping of the first bombs on Japan. Few great discoveries have evolved so swiftly -- or have been so misunderstood. From the theoretical discussions of nuclear energy to the bright glare of Trinity there was a span of hardly more than twenty-five years. What began as merely an interesting speculative problem in physics grew into the Manhattan Project, and then into the Bomb with frightening rapidity, while scientists known only to their peers -- Szilard, Teller, Oppenheimer, Bohr, Meitner, Fermi, Lawrence, and Von Neumann -- stepped from their ivory towers into the limelight. [source][1] [1]: http://books.google.com/books/about/The_Making_of_the_Atomic_Bomb.html?id=aSgFMMNQ6G4C

"Everyone knew that the great eclipse of 1831 was coming - and most Americans feared it. Newspapers and almanacs claimed it would be an unparalleled celestial event, and on February 12 citizen and slave alike, from New England to the South, anxiously gazed heavenward. In this new book, Louis P. Masur shows why Americans saw the eclipse as a portent of their future. The year 1831 was, for the United States, a crucial time when the nation was no longer a young, uncomplicated republic but, rather, a dynamic and conflicted country inching toward a cataclysm. By the year's end, nearly every aspect of its political, social, and cultural life had undergone profound change." "Masur organizes 1831 around the themes that he suggests underlie many of the tumultuous events of the year: slavery (or its abolition); the still unresolved tension between states' rights and national priorities; the competing passions of religion and politics; and the alarming effects of new machinery on Americans' relationship to the land. By the summer of 1831, Nat Turner's rebellion was sparking ever more violent arguments over the future of slavery; Andrew Jackson's administration threatened to unravel; and dissent over the economic future of the country festered. Religious revivalism sweeping the North inspired agitation in the working classes; steamboats, railroads, and mechanized reapers were introduced in the competitive rush for profits; and Jackson's harsh policies toward the Cherokee erased most Indians' last hopes of autonomy. Important visitors - including Gustave Beaumont and Alexis de Tocqueville - watched the developments closely. Their views on this turbulent year would shape world opinion of the new American nation for generations to come."--Jacket.

In How the Laser Happened, Nobel laureate Charles Townes provides a highly personal look at some of the leading events in twentieth-century physics. Townes was co-inventor of the maser, of which the laser is one example; an originator of spectroscopy using microwaves; and a pioneer in the study of gas clouds in galaxies and around stars. This memoir traces his multifaceted career from its beginnings on the family farm in South Carolina. Spanning decades of ground-breaking research, the book provides a hands-on description of how working scientists and inventors get their ideas. It also gives a behind-the-scenes look at the scientific community, showing how scientists respond to new ideas and how they approach a variety of issues, from priority and patents to the social and political implications of their work. In addition, Townes touches on the sociology of science, uncovering some of the traditions and values that are invisible to an outsider.

This is a duplicate. Please update your lists. See https://openlibrary.org/works/OL3259254W