Robert S. Norris | Britannica

Robert S. Norris

Contributor

LOCATION: Washington, DC, United States

Websites : Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, Britannica Partner Page (Society for Military History), Federation of American Scientists

Associated with The Society for Military History, part of Encyclopaedia Britannica's Publishing Partner Program.

BIOGRAPHY

Dr. Norris was a senior research associate with the Natural Resources Defense Council in Washington, DC from 1984 to his retirement in 2011. His principal areas of expertise include writing and research on all aspects of the nuclear weapons programs of the United States, Soviet Union/Russia, Britain, France, and China, as well as India, Pakistan, and Israel.

He received his Ph.D. in Political Science from New York University in 1976, and has taught at New York University, Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, Miami University’s European campus in Luxembourg, and American University in Washington, DC.

His books include Racing for the Bomb: The True Story of General Leslie R. Groves, the Man behind the Birth of the Atomic Age (2014), A Guide to the Manhattan Project in Manhattan (2012), and The U.S. Nuclear Arsenal: A History of Weapons and Delivery Systems since 1945 (2009), among others.

Primary Contributions (9)

Articles

A test of a U.S. hydrogen bomb in the Marshall Islands

nuclear weapon

Nuclear weapon, device designed to release energy in an explosive manner as a result of nuclear fission, nuclear fusion, or a combination of the two processes. Fission weapons are commonly referred to as atomic bombs. Fusion weapons are also referred to as thermonuclear bombs or, more commonly,…

Abdul Qadeer Khan

thermonuclear warhead

nuclear electromagnetic pulse

Andrey Sakharov

Leslie Richard Groves

Yuly Borisovich Khariton

Igor Yevgenyevich Tamm

Igor Vasilyevich Kurchatov

Publications (3)

Racing for the Bomb: The True Story of General Leslie R. Groves, the Man behind the Birth of the Atomic Age (October 2014)

By Robert S. Norris

In September 1942, Colonel Leslie R. Groves was given the job of building the atomic bomb. As a career officer in the Army Corps of Engineers, Groves had overseen hundreds of military construction projects, including the Pentagon. Until now, scientists have received the credit for the Manhattan Project’s remarkable achievements. And yet, it was Leslie R. Groves who made things happen. It was Groves who drove manufacturers, construction crews, scientists, industrialists, and military and civilian...

A Guide to the Manhattan Project in Manhattan (2012)

By Cynthia C. Kelly, Robert S. Norris

A Guide to the Manhattan Project in Manhattan provides an excellent overview to this fascinating, but largely unknown, chapter in Manhattan's history. The Manhattan Project is usually associated with Los Alamos, where the weapons laboratory was directed by New York native J. Robert Oppenheimer, and the title itself is commonly thought to be a misnomer. But the first offices of the Manhattan Project were actually in Manhattan, at 270 Broadway. General Leslie Groves, who oversaw the nationwide project,...

The U.S. Nuclear Arsenal: A History of Weapons and Delivery Systems since 1945 (July 2009)

By Norman Polmar, Robert S. Norris

The atomic bomb ended the war against Japan in 1945 and became the centerpiece of U.S. and Soviet military strategy for the next 45 years. In the late 1940s the debate over whether the atomic bomb was the ultimate arbitrator of international differences led to the infamous carrier-versus-B-36 controversy in American defense policy; American school children in the 1950s practiced "duck and cover" as we feared an atomic attack against American cities; and billions were spent to develop and procure...