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- Format: Hardcover, 736 pages
- Publisher: Knopf
- On Sale: April 5, 2005
- Price: $40.00
- ISBN: 978-0-375-41202-8 (0-375-41202-6)
about this book
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 most accomplished 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.
“American Prometheus tells Oppenheimer’s story at length and exceedingly well. The authors employ a mix of thoroughness and judgment that makes this an essential book.” —Richard Lacayo, Time Magazine
“American Prometheus 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.” —Greg Herken, The Boston Globe
“The definitive biography...Oppenheimer’s life does not influence us. It haunts us.” —Malcom Jones, Newsweek
“A work of voluminous scholarship and lucid insight, unifying its multifaceted portrait with a keen grasp of Oppenheimer’s essential nature...charm and bravado on the surface, Dostoyevskian darkness underneath.” —Janet Maslin, The New York Times
“In this stunning blockbuster, two accomplished Cold War historians have come together to tell Robert Oppenheimer’s poignant and extraordinary story.” —Lawrence D. Freeman, Foreign Affairs
“Superb...A vivid portrait is painted of a charismatic, immensely human theoretical physicist, who was as talented as he was complex.” —Ike Seamans, The Miami Herald
“A masterful account—a tour de force, 25 years in the making—of Oppenheimer’s rise and fall, set in the context of the turbulent decades of American’s own transformation.” —Gerald Holton, Los Angeles Times
“Comprehensive, finely judged where it most matters, and sometimes revelatory . . . Bird and Sherwin capture all the drama and exhilaration and ironic glory (of Los Alamos) . . . and show how well he anticipated our own world, where nuclear materials and technologies percolate through shadowy networks.” —James Gleick, Washington Post Book World
“A nuanced and exacting portrait.” —Elizabeth Svoboda, San Francisco Chronicle
“Simply stunning. A riveting scholarly history, a psychological spy thriller, and a dark comedy are all woven into one grand and astonishing book.” —Jon Else, award-winning filmmaker, The Day After Trinity: J. Robert Oppenheimer and the Atomic Bomb
“War, politics, idealism, passion, deceit and betrayal all come together in this engrossing, important and compellingly readable history.” —Ronald Steel, author of Walter Lippmann and the American Century
“Robert Oppenheimer's life, like no other, provides a fateful sequence—from brilliant and dreadful weapons achievement, to doubt and opposition, to personal victimization bordering on crucifixion. In the process the most grave missteps of the twentieth century are laid bare. American Prometheus is indispensable for any real understanding of our present nuclear weapons dilemmas. Its riveting account of the psychological, political, and scientific struggles involved takes us to a beginning of wisdom.” —Robert J. Lifton, author of Superpower Syndrome and Death in Life: Survivors of Hiroshima
“American Prometheus is itself a triumph, a cautionary tale beautifully told. The writers Sherwin and Bird are perfectly matched for this large subject. Their exhaustive research is a model of historical inquiry, and their mastery of the questions raised by atomic politics is unsurpassed. Rarely has a work of biography had such narrative power—or urgent present relevance.” —James Carroll
“Four decades after his death, J. Robert Oppenheimer has finally received the indepth, insightful, and judicious biography he deserves. This book is a fascinating portrait of a brilliant and tragic life, and of America in the nuclear age.” —Eric Foner
“American Prometheus is the best—most thoroughly researched and most convincingly argued—study of J. Robert Oppenheimer to date. It is not only a great biography but also a cautionary tale about the excesses of government in a time of fear. No one interested in 20th-century America can afford to ignore this book.” —Robert Dallek, professor at Boston University, author of Hail to the Chief: The Making and Unmaking of American Presidents
“This fascinating and thoughtful book brilliantly captures the political and scientific struggles of the early atomic age. Oppenheimer's triumphs and trials show how public policy, scientific genius and private character become interwoven. Bird and Sherwin have triumphed in turning their prodigious research about the father of the bomb into a poignant narrative.” —Walter Isaacson
“This superb biography provides fresh revelations and penetrating insights about the complex and fascinating personality of Robert Oppenheimer. American Prometheus is meticulously researched, eloquently written and a joy to read. The account of his 1954 trial is spellbinding.” —Robert S. Norris, author of Racing for the Bomb, General Leslie R. Groves the Manhattan Project’s Indispensable Man
“From the way I read and marked this fine new biography I could distill how much I had learned from reading this volume myself. My teacher became present again. The friendly diminutive Opje came as fresh to me as it sounded when JRO carried it away from the Dutch theorist where Oppie himself had found it. This engaged student of long ago can confirm the warmness of the nicknames for JRO. This full biography is the one that stirs memory deeply enough to bring this student of a generation past and his once teacher to sharp recollection. The forms supply the recollection of the genuine warmth that has escaped more than a few biographers. Robert for clear recall, Opje for heartfelt teaching, JR Oppenheimer for formal model. —Phil Morrison
