Physicist and polymath, as familiar with Hindu scriptures as he was with quantum mechanics, J. Robert Oppenheimer - director of the Manhattan Project that developed the atomic bomb - was the most famous scientist of his generation. In their meticulous and riveting biography, Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin reveal a brilliant, ambitious, complex and flawed man, profoundly involved with some of the momentous events of the twentieth century.
By:
Kai Bird,
Martin J. Sherwin
Imprint: Atlantic
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 198mm,
Width: 129mm,
Spine: 53mm
Weight: 706g
ISBN: 9781843547051
ISBN 10: 1843547058
Pages: 736
Publication Date: 01 April 2009
Audience:
General/trade
,
ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
"1: ""He Received Every New Idea as Perfectly Beautiful"" 2: ""His Separate Prison"" 3: ""I Am Having a Pretty Bad Time"" 4: ""I Find Work Hard, Thank God, & Almost Pleasant"" 5: ""I Am Oppenheimer"" 6: ""Oppie"" 7: ""The Nim Nim Boys"" 8: ""In 1936 My Interests Began to Change"" 9: ""[Frank] Clipped It Out and Sent it In"" 10: ""More and More Surely"" 11: ""I'm Going to Marry a Friend of Yours, Steve"" 12: ""We Were Pulling the New Deal to the Left"" 13: ""The Coordinator of Rapid Rupture"" 14: ""The Chevalier Affair"" 15: ""He'd Become Very Patriotic"" 16: ""Too Much Secrecy"" 17: ""Oppenheimer Is Telling the Truth"" 18: ""Suicide, Motive Unknown"" 19: ""Would You Like to Adopt Her?"" 20: Bohr Was God, and Oppie Was His Prophet"" 21: ""The Impact of the Gadget on Civilization"" 22: ""Now We're All Sons-of-Bitches"" 23: ""Those Poor Little People"" 24: ""I Feel I Have Blood on My Hands"" 25: ""People Could Destroy New York"" 26: ""Oppie Had a Rash and Is Now Immune"" 27: ""An Intellectual Hotel"" 28: ""He Couldn't Understand Why He Did It"" 29: ""I Am Sure That Is Why She Threw Things at Him"" 30: ""He Never Let On What His Opinion Was"" 31: ""Dark Words About Oppie"" 32: ""Scientist X"" 33: ""The Beast in the Jungle"" 34: ""It Looks Pretty Bad, Doesn't It?"" 35: ""I Fear That This Whole Thing Is a Piece of Idiocy"" 36: ""A Manifestation of Hysteria"" 37: ""A Black Mark on the Escutcheon of Our Country"" 38: ""I Can Still Feel the Warm Blood on My Hands"" 39: ""It Was Really Like a Never-Never-Land"" 40: ""It Should Have Been Done the Day After Trinity"" Epilogue: ""There's Only One Robert"""
A contributing editor at The Nation, Kai Bird is the author of several biographies. He lives in Washington, D.C., and Nepal, with his family. Martin J. Sherwin is Professor of History at TuftsUniversity, and University Professor at GeorgeMasonUniversity. He is the author of A World Destroyed: Hiroshima and Its Legacies. He and his wife live in Washington, D.C.
Reviews for American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer
'Quite simply, a giant among biographies.' Robin McKie, Observer 'Reads like a thriller, gripping and terrifying by turns... No more absorbing biography will, I predict, come out this year, nor, given the dangers we face, a more important one.' John Carey, Sunday Times 'All previous works on the topic are, in the nicest possible sense, blown out of the sky by a book which is, in both the proper and metaphorical meanings, monumental.' Mark Lawson, Esquire 'No previous biography has...matched the power, range and lucidity of Martin Sherwin and Kai Bird's Life... Riveting.' Kenan Malik, Sunday Telegraph 'Dazzling... Rich in incident and enigma... It wears its scholarship lightly and whisks the reader through the story at thriller-like page.' Brian Cathcart, New Statesman 'Magisterial.' Robin McKie, Observer
- Winner of Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography 2005 (United States)
