A detailed study of how American culture grew out of the tensions between ideals of obedience and freedom, efficiency and democracy, brought to light by the dawn of the atomic age. Rather than focusing only on the major events and players in the development of the atomic bomb, Hales describes the everyday workers and small worlds impacted by this work. He concentrates on the three key sites of the Manhattan Project: Oak Ridge, Tennessee; Hanford, Washington; and Los Alamos, New Mexico. Hales draws his information from thousands of never-before-studied documents. Nicely presented with 60 photographs.  (USW425, $29.00)