Ebook Download American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, by Kai Bird Martin J. Sherwin
American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, by Kai Bird Martin J. Sherwin
Ebook Download American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, by Kai Bird Martin J. Sherwin
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Review
“The definitive biography. . . . Oppenheimer’s life doesn’t influence us. It haunts us.” –Newsweek“A masterful account of Oppenheimer’s rise and fall, set in the context of the turbulent decades of America’s own transformation. It is a tour de force.” –Los Angeles Times Book Review“A work of voluminous scholarship and lucid insight, unifying its multifaceted portrait with a keen grasp of Oppenheimer’s essential nature. . . . It succeeds in deeply fathoming his most damaging, self-contradictory behavior.” –The New York Times“There have been numerous books about Oppenheimer but they can't touch this extraordinary book's impressive breadth and scope.” –The Miami Herald“The first biography to give full due to Oppenheimer’s extraordinary complexity . . . Stands as an Everest among the mountains of books on the bomb project and Oppenheimer, and is an achievement not likely to be surpassed or equaled.”–The Boston Globe
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From the Inside Flap
"American Prometheus is the first full-scale biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer, "father of the atomic bomb," the brilliant, charismatic physicist who led the effort to capture the awesome fire of the sun for his country in time of war. Immediately after Hiroshima, he became the most famous scientist of his generation-one of the iconic figures of the twentieth century, the embodiment of modern man confronting the consequences of scientific progress. He was the author of a radical proposal to place international controls over atomic materials-an idea that is still relevant today. He opposed the development of the hydrogen bomb and criticized the Air Force's plans to fight an infinitely dangerous nuclear war. In the now almost-forgotten hysteria of the early 1950s, his ideas were anathema to powerful advocates of a massive nuclear buildup, and, in response, Atomic Energy Commission chairman Lewis Strauss, Superbomb advocate Edward Teller and FBI director J. Edgar Hoover worked behind the scenes to have a hearing board find that Oppenheimer could not be trusted with America's nuclear secrets. "American Prometheus sets forth Oppenheimer's life and times in revealing and unprecedented detail. Exhaustively researched, it is based on thousands of records and letters gathered from archives in America and abroad, on massive FBI files and on close to a hundred interviews with Oppenheimer's friends, relatives and colleagues. We follow him from his earliest education at the turn of the twentieth century at New York City's Ethical Culture School, through personal crises at Harvard and Cambridge universities. Then to Germany, where he studied quantum physics with the world's mostaccomplished theorists; and to Berkeley, California, where he established, during the 1930s, the leading American school of theoretical physics, and where he became deeply involved with social justice causes and their advocates, many of whom were communists. Then to Los Alamos, New Mexico, where he transformed a bleak mesa into the world's most potent nuclear weapons laboratory-and where he himself was transformed. And finally, to the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, which he directed from 1947 to 1966. "American Prometheus is a rich evocation of America at midcentury, a new and compelling portrait of a brilliant, ambitious, complex and flawed man profoundly connected to its major events-the Depression, World War II and the Cold War. It is at once biography and history, and essential to our understanding of our recent past-and of our choices for the future.
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Product details
Paperback: 721 pages
Publisher: Vintage Books; Reprint edition (May 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0375726268
ISBN-13: 978-0375726262
Product Dimensions:
5.2 x 1.2 x 8 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review:
4.6 out of 5 stars
340 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#31,883 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
I bought this book used. But doesn't much matter. One of the most enlightening and provocative books I have read. Opened my eyes to how our Government in those days basically ruined a man who had previous developed a bomb that defeated Japan. It gave me a totally different impression of Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower. What a tragic loss for a brilliant scientist like Robert Oppenheimer. In the end, unfortunately, his bad habit of chain smoking ended his life. It was sad that his ashes now sit on the bottom of the ocean near St. John. There are few, unfortunately, who come along and make a difference in this world, and Oppenheimer is one of them. Had it not been for him, we might not be living at all. The H-bomb could have wiped us off the face of the earth, and he fought valiantly to make sure that did not happen. God speed, Robert and rest in peace. Thanks to the authors who brought this man to us to admire, at least for a while.
Excellent. Not just a thorough biography of the man and his family and work, but also at the same time a history of the development of the atomic bomb. What is good is the objective treatment of the author of the realization in later years that WW2 was already ending and the bomb was used for political and military purposes, meaning, to beat the Russians from getting a part of Japan involvement and the actually damage that can occur from such a weapon, and that it was used twice, when once was more than enough. How Oppenheimer voiced his opinion against weapons proliferation was used against him and ruined his health in later years. He could have accomplished more in atomic research but political opponents would not allow him. Oppenheimer persevered and was given an award by President Johnson, but hardly enough for the persecution he endured. The tragedy of his children's lives was the result of their having to deal with the repercussions father Oppenheimer endured from members of government and military and even of his own scientific community. He was a victim of the Joe McCarthy era of suspected communist affiliation of many, although this was a weapon his opponents used due to envy of his accomplishments and his dedication to physics. He never got a Nobel Prize, but several of his students did.
Bird and Sherwin have produced what must be the definitive biography of Robert Oppenheimer, finding his unique personality and his remarkable gifts in every facet of his life, from childhood to scientific/political triumph to his persecuted twilight. The book - 25 years in the making! - is exhaustively researched and illuminates the trajectory of his life in intimate detail from beginning to end.Oppenheimer's reputation, of course, rests on his unprecedented and unequaled achievement in planning and running the Manhattan Project to its final earth-shaking success in August 1945, and secondarily on his post-war role as sachem of nuclear policy and his political destruction by Cold War hawks who resented his warnings about the threat to peace from unlimited nuclear competition. But Bird and Sherwin give each stage of Oppenheimer's life its due, including his gilded childhood, his troubled educational years, his rise to scientific prominence as the reigning American exponent of the new physics in the 1930s, and finally his mordant recasting as, essentially, speaker for the dead in the unstoppable post-war madness. Though Oppenheimer's life, from the late '30s on, was shaped and dominated by the atomic bomb he birthed and regretted, each successive period in that life was filled with its own personal drama and with the characteristically quirky incidents in which Oppenheimer tended to enmesh himself, and which said so much about his complex personality. The result is a comprehensive and balanced reading of the man through the whole of his life; the Manhattan Project and its aftermath loom large, as they have to, but they do not obscure the fact that there was a real person underneath those historic events, and that person comes through in a rich, subtle, and - inevitably - somewhat inconclusive portrait.The authors do not shy away from writing their own opinions into the story, giving reasonable interpretations of the many controversial incidents in Oppenheimer's life, but which are clearly interpretations nevertheless. The book is deeply researched and the events are reported with clear and extensive factual support; it is easy to read their reconstructions of the history as authoritative. It is necessary to remind oneself that other interpretations are possible, however compelling these authors are in their presentation. At the same time, the authors are open about identifying their own interpretations as such; the material seems fairly and honestly presented, and the authors' conclusions are convincing.The story of the Manhattan Project has been told many times, and this volume adds little to what is already known, though it illuminates the terrible strain of the project on Oppenheimer in a powerful way. The dramatic story of the Trinity test is told here in personalized fragments of detail about numerous individuals - rather than a technical focus on the Gadget - that gives that history a new and unique meaning. The treatment of the AEC investigation that led to Oppenheimer being stripped of his security clearance and government advisory role is perhaps the strongest part of the whole book - a tour de force of historical research, reportorial detail, and logical interpretation that makes it abundantly clear how shockingly dishonest that process was, and what a contrived and deliberate campaign of personal destruction drove it. Throughout, Oppenheimer's fascinating and often self-destructive personality is illuminated in intriguing detail. There is no part of the volume that does not make fascinating reading.It seems likely that "American Prometheus" will be the touchstone biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer for the foreseeable future (and, probably, forever: this will likely be the last major such work grounded so fully on primary research among surviving figures from Oppenheimer's life). It is strongly recommended to anyone with an interest in Oppenheimer as a person, as a scientist, and as a world figure. It is not a major contribution to the history of the Manhattan Project in its practical aspects, but does illuminate many of the personalities involved and life on "the Hill" during the project. It is exhaustive and authoritative on the subject of Oppenheimer's pre-war political dalliances and his post-war persecution. All in all, it is a moving, compelling, often heart-breaking study of an unique, difficult, indispensable American.
I've been reading a lot of biography lately, from Washington to Einstein, Jobs to Truman, and so far I've had good luck (thanks in large part to these Amazon reviews!) so I figure I'd give a brief review here. American Prometheus is quite a good read; never really dragging, and equally balanced between the importance of Oppie ('the Triumph') and his relationship with S-1 and 'the gadget,' to his later hearing with the Grey Board and (spoilers!) revocation of his security clearance ('the Tragedy'). While perhaps I don't know Oppie as well as I know Harry S Truman, Bird did an exceptional job of portraying the younger Oppie (in my opinion, the most important and difficult part of a biography) in order to fully appreciate his older self. Highly recommended as a biography, a history, and a scientific read.
I saw a documentary about the Manhattan Project and it stoked my interest in this biography. It was very eye opening how easily the government could turn someone from hero to villain. It would have been interesting to see what would have happened if Oppenheimer has lived longer. The tragedy of his family life was vey painful to read.
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