"Generally the presentation is clear and shows the care one expects of the four distinguished authors....The presentation can easily be followed by a scientific reader, and a non-scientist will get an interesting impression of the events." Rudolf Peierls, Science

"...provides detailed discussion of the many experiments that made up the project, including the implosion and gun assembly programs and the interesting consequences of spontaneous fission in reactor-produced plutonium and continues with details of the Trinity test and the actual dropping of the bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Recommended as an important addition to any college or university library." Choice

"...draw[s] upon a full lode of primary data and explore[s] for the first time the methodology by which researchers at Los Alamos succeeded in their wartime mission. The authors successfully avoid the "official history" pitfall by focusing on individual contributions to scientific and technological advances as opposed to the usual summary of divisional achievements...a well-documented, concise, chronological review of the combination of nuclear physics, chemistry and metallurgy that produced the first fission weapons...also examines the impact of Los Alamos upon the methodology of "big science" at national laboratories in the postwar era." Peter Neushal, Physics Today

"...this is the most technical account of Los Alamos's war years to appear in print...it considers Project Y's significant success in the use of 'big science' methodology....Critical Assembly is a masterful piece of technical writing accomplished by four authors in conjunction with six scientific advisors and editors....essential reading for technically-minded scholars interested in the history of Los Alamos, atomic research, and the development of modern research labs...." Richard Melzer, Western Historical Quarterly

"Critical Assembly has a lot to say about proliferation, much of it relevant to the present. Among other things, it provides a better foundation than ever for evaluating the problems facing countries (or terrorists) with nuclear ambitions." William Sweet, The Sciences

"...an indispensable book...." Barton C. Hacker, American Historical Review

"The book has the great merit of illustrating the depth and breadth of the scientific and technical problems faced by scientists in the laboratory at Los Alamos, New Mexico...This is an important book, for its insight into the enormously complex activities at Los alamos and, even more for its tantalizing survey of the implications of that research and development." Lawrence Badash, Journal of American History

"...the book certainly does bring together a lot of information that fleshes out the story." New Scientist

"...a notable and richly detailed work....Critical assembly sets a new standard for writings on wartime Los Alamos." Canadian Review of American Studies