What is striking about The Making of the Atomic Bomb is that Rhodes brought a novelist's style to writing his history. It doesn't hurt that there were many truly interesting people involved of course, but Rhodes really makes people like Leo Szilard vividly alive on the page. It's a history that reads like a novel, starting from page one to the end. I've read other histories that come close to what Rhodes pulled off (James McPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom for one), but never one with the sort of verve Rhodes gave this work.