The relationship of science and the military and the management of "Big Science" are two themes which have become increasingly important in contemporary science and technology studies in the United States. The paradigm case for both themes is the Manhattan Project for the crash program during World War II to develop the first atomic bomb. While a number of biographies of the leading scientific figures involved in this project have already been produced, there has yet to be an adequate study of the principal military director of the project, General Leslie R. Groves. It is the purpose of Dr. Goldberg to produce such a study. The fact that no scholarly biography of Groves has been written is reason enough to justify such a project. In almost all treatments of Groves, he appears full blown and unexplained, in September, 1942, in the office of the Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD) Director Vannevar Bush. This biographical study will provide a context for understanding who Leslie R. Groves was and why he was picked to manage development of the atom bomb--one of the largest efforts ever made to mobilize large numbers of scientists and engineers for a single effort. In addition, this biography will be a vehicle for analyzing anew the changing relationships between the military and civilian sectors of the American scientific and technological research communities during and immediately after World War II.
