Reception: 4:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m. CT | Event: 5:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. CT

This event is free and open to the public. Register today to join us in person or to view the event online.

Join us in conversation with Garrett M. Graff, author of The Devil Reached Toward the Sky: An Oral History of the Making and Unleashing of the Atomic Bomb, which explores one of humanity’s most daring ventures—the clandestine, high-stakes race by a small cadre of scientists and engineers to tap into the universe’s most elemental force and create the atomic bomb.

A reception from 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. will precede the event, and Graff will sign copies of his book following the presentation.

For additional information, please email Connie Gentry, Conference and Programs Manager, at connie.gentry@nationalww2museum.org.

About The Devil Reached Toward the Sky

While American troops fought and died on battlefronts in the Pacific, Manhattan Project researchers and technicians on the Home Front raced to crack the atom’s code. Ordinary individuals are thrust into extraordinary circumstances, from scientists and engineers wrestling with ethical dilemmas and laborers unknowingly contributing to an unprecedented weapon, to military crews embarking on missions shrouded in secrecy. Then, on August 6, 1945, the world caught a glimpse of the unprecedented destruction of war’s final act—and the dawn of a new geopolitical era. In The Devil Reached Toward the Sky, Pulitzer Prize finalist Garrett M. Graff presents a sweeping, human-centered narrative of this unparalleled moment in history through meticulous research drawn from oral histories, declassified documents, personal letters, and eyewitness testimony. Figures like J. Robert Oppenheimer, General Leslie Groves, and President Harry S. Truman share the stage with bomber crews and the Hibakusha—survivors forever marked by the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Both a chronicle of scientific genius and a sobering reminder of its cost, The Devil Reached Toward the Sky is a gripping, resonant exploration of how the atomic age was born and the profound impact left in its wake.

About the Author

Garrett M. Graff has spent two decades covering politics, technology, and national security. The former editor of POLITICO Magazine and longtime WIRED and CNN contributor, he writes the popular Doomsday Scenario newsletter and hosts the Edward R. Murrow Award–winning podcast Long Shadow. He is the author of 10 books, including the #1 national bestseller The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11, the FBI history The Threat Matrix, Raven Rock (about the government’s Cold War Doomsday plans), and the New York Times best-sellers When the Sea Came Alive (an oral history of D-Day) and Watergate: A New History, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in History.