The Bastard Brigade

The True Story of the Renegade Scientists and Spies Who Sabotaged the Nazi Atomic Bomb

Hardcover, 464 pages

Published July 9, 2019 by Little, Brown and Company.

ISBN:
978-0-316-38168-0
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OCLC Number:
1105929368

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4 stars (1 review)

6 editions

Review of 'The Bastard Brigade' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

"So you two are the other GLG-20s..." This incredible book weaves together several fascinating threads involving an eccentric cast of characters, including a polyglot professional baseball player, bumbling egghead physicists, a wily white Russian, communist sympathizers, and the Kennedy clan, on their quests to neutralize Nazi super weapons, the supreme of which is a suspected atomic bomb. Through intrigue, sabotage, daring missions, sacrifice, and dumb luck, we see how this small group of misfits helped stymie the German atomic program. Along the way Kean gives a crash course in nuclear physics, introducing us to the various discoverers of radioactivity, neutrons, and fission. The outlandish and often comical nature of the story, including characters that probably shouldn't have been sneaking around behind enemy lines, indeed seems primed for a cinematic treatment, a WWII version of Spies Like Us.