Well, as some of you know, one of my hobbies is researching historical weapons of mass destruction. Both out of interest in the subject, and for later building simulated versions in my flight-sim of choice.
I’m not sure I’ve seen any books that compare with Rhodes’ works, but I’ve still found some good ones. To wit;
War of Nerves, a history of chemical warfare. The really fascinating stuff is the discovery, development, and production of nerve agents, but earlier chemical warfare agents are covered, too.
The Biology of Doom. The history of the US biowarfare program, with a good deal on the development of Anthrax weaponry, especially.
Biohazard by Ken Alibek, nee Kanatzhan Alibekov, former deputy director of the Soviet biowarfare agency, before he emigrated to the US. The Russian program was actually much more extensive and ambitious than it’s US counterpart, which was shut down in 1969, and there was (as indicated in both this and the book above) a real (and fascinating!) difference in biowarfare doctrine and strategy between the two superpowers.
The Soviet Biological Weapons Program: A History. Ah! Now, this one I actually might compare to Rhodes’ A-Bomb books. Very thick, and well-researched—especially compared to the more “general consumption” books like Alibek’s—a rather intriguing section I recall includes a technical criticism and questioning about Alibek’s claim that the Soviets had ICBMs prepared to carry bio-agents.
As I recall the gist I got was that, while the Soviets certainly were producing the agents (Smallpox, for one), and Alibek might have believed or been told that they were intended for missile warheads, the capabilities of the actual missiles in service and ones that had a known testing record at the time didn’t seem to support a redesigned (and refrigerated) bio-weapon RV having been put into service in numbers. For all I know, though, that might just mean such weapons were planned but not very far along in the design process; or Department “A” was far along, but Department “B” was having trouble, or maybe there were funding problems…who knows. My point being that mistakes, bureaucratic muddling, and a lot of secrecy could account for as much as deliberate deception or disinformation could. But in any case, that section alone made for fascinating reading, if you find it for yourself.
Chemical Warfare in Australia: Australia’s Involvement in Chemical Warfare 1914 - Today, a rather hefty tome, complete with illustrations, and actually rather meticulously done, about (naturally) the history of the stockpiling, testing, transporting, etc. of chemical weapons in Australia, mostly by the British and US militaries during the Second World War, for potential use/retaliation against Japan.
Lots of fascinating accounts of the development of how agents were stored—from, literally, just being left in storage canisters leaned up against trees in a secluded orchard (!), to being stored in former railway tunnels transformed into makeshift bunkers, with aboveground support buildings disguised as a harmless small town, complete with business signs, fake horses, etc—accounts of the hazards of working with and manhandling the agents on a mass scale—guys living with essentially chronic chemical burns from the small amounts of Mustard Gas leaking from containers, and especially soaking into ropes used to secure them—exposure experiments performed in Australia—against unprotected volunteers, and even against aircraft with (protected) crews to see what effect Mustard agents would have on the avionics and the ability to use the vehicle, etc.
Anyway…on a less-horrifying note, there’s always Gunpowder, a history of the development, production, and use of black powder.
On a more horrifying one, there’s The Factories of Death, on the Japanese Unit-731, and the human medical experimentation/bio warfare program in Manchuria. Especially hideous stuff, as you might imagine, even if you aren’t even passingly familiar with what they did. But, really, that makes the subject more worth studying and remembering, I think, even aside from the technical and historical aspects.