Process Paper

Thomas W. Dowd, Thomas J. Riccio, Alex S. Demers, Liam J. Prior, and Joseph M.
Bertagna
Group Mentors: Michael Scott and Scott Hughes
For our project we decided to do the Manhattan Project and Truman's Decision to
Drop the Bomb. We wanted to do a dynamic and interesting topic that had a profound
impact on history as well as our society, so we decided on the Manhattan Project. Another
reason why the Manhattan project was a great choice for our group was that we love
science in addition to history and obviously the Manhattan Project has loads of science in
it so its an ideal choice. Direct quote from David McCullough (talking about our
group/topic) "Their perfect, just perfect".
Our group conducted an immense amount of research for this project. Every group
member had the same basic method of conducting research, which was searching through
archives and libraries for good books and on the World Wide Web for credible sources,
mostly primary sources such as the famous Einstein-Szilrd letter. We looked for
important analysis by historians, but more importantly we looked for primary sources that
backed our thesis, such as videos and obviously quotes from the time.
I think it's fair to say our group is extremely smart, borderline genius smart. So with
this immense knowledge we decided to make a website for a number of reasons. First off
we know how to use Weebly fairly well because we used it for our project last year. It
also lets us put riveting videos on our project, which we feel are some of the best primary
sources out there. Doing a website also allows for us to work on the project
independently thus meaning we do not have to have a meeting every day like the Title IX
group. But lastly and most importantly we decided to make a website because we are
making a conscious effort to go completely paperless because ITS OUR EARTH not the
corporations.
Another reason why we picked this topic was that we felt it went well with the 20142015 NHD Theme of Leadership and Legacy. Last year we realized that the sole reason
we did not advance was because of Title IX but others could argue it was because of our
reliability to the theme. Truman's decision shows an immense amount of strong
leadership and that decision has a tremendous amount of legacy as well. More to the
point of legacy, the Manhattan Project has forever changed our society and has shifted the
world's history into the Atomic Age. The effects/legacy are also fascinating to learn
about, such as the Cold War and Nuclear Power. Our project rules!