RaveThe New York Times Book ReviewOn one hand, the book reads like a riveting novel as Wallace reveals the machinations and internal debates among the scientific community to devise a workable atomic bomb as quickly as possible...But Countdown 1945 is also a profound story of decision making at the highest levels — and of pathos ... filled with fascinating details ... superb, masterly.
Andre Agassi
RaveThe Wall Street Journal\"His career-comeback tale is inspiring but even more so is another Open storyline. It could be called: The punk grows up ... Open is a superb memoir, but it hardly closes the book on an extraordinary life.\
Michael Beschloss
RaveThe New York Times Book ReviewOne of the book’s more intriguing contributions is in noting that the founders could not have envisioned war in the nuclear age, when the president would have the ability to eviscerate hundreds of millions in less than an hour—all resting on \'the whim\' of a single person. However, beyond pointing this out, Beschloss says little more. The issue cries out for a treatment of its own ... Beschloss’s writing is clean and concise, and he admirably draws upon new documents. Some of the more titillating tidbits of the book are in the footnotes ... The book also has some delicious asides ... It is noticeable that Beschloss only modestly touches on 9/11, Afghanistan or Iraq, asserting, I think rightly, that they are too recent to be written about as history ... Moreover, Beschloss does not say much about the Cold War, itself a momentous conflict that long held the world hostage to potential nuclear war. But all this is mere quibbling. There are fascinating nuggets on virtually every page of Presidents of War. It is a superb and important book, superbly rendered.
