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American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer
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 mid-century, 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.
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 mid-century, 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.
721 pages, Paperback
First published April 5, 2005
About the author
Kai Bird
9 books505 followersKai Bird is an American Pulitzer Prize-winning author and journalist, best known for his biographies of political figures. He has also won the National Book Critics Circle Award for biography, the Duff Cooper Prize, a Woodrow Wilson Center Fellowship, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. He is a Contributing Editor of The Nation magazine.
Bird was born in 1951. His father was a U.S. Foreign Service officer, and he spent his childhood in Jerusalem, Beirut, Dhahran, Cairo and Bombay. He finished high school in 1969 at Kodaikanal International School in Tamil Nadu, South India. He received his BA from Carleton College in 1973 and a M.S. in Journalism from Northwestern University in 1975. Bird now lives in Miami Beach, Florida with his wife, Susan Goldmark, and their son, Joshua.
Bird was born in 1951. His father was a U.S. Foreign Service officer, and he spent his childhood in Jerusalem, Beirut, Dhahran, Cairo and Bombay. He finished high school in 1969 at Kodaikanal International School in Tamil Nadu, South India. He received his BA from Carleton College in 1973 and a M.S. in Journalism from Northwestern University in 1975. Bird now lives in Miami Beach, Florida with his wife, Susan Goldmark, and their son, Joshua.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 4,238 reviews
April 12, 2013
Let’s do the numbers.
599 pages of text
256 books read for research
44 articles and dissertations consulted
41 manuscript collections pillaged
10 government document collections accessed
1 Pulitzer Prize
6 newspapers/magazines named it best book of the year
19 quality blurbs
41 listed abbreviations
20 page-long index
83 pages of notes
112 people interviewed (several more than once)
2 authors
25 years in the making
38 days to read across 3 cities
23 corners folded by this girl to mark something fascinating
To describe this book as merely “well researched” would be an insult. It is an exhaustively thorough look at an important American figure…that I had never heard of when my dad gave this book to me as a Christmas gift several years ago. I had a vague notion that J. Robert Oppenheimer was in the newspaper business.
Oppie (as I now refer to him) was a brilliant physicist and character, who headed the American development of the atomic bomb during WWII only to be stripped of his security clearance years later for petty political reasons. When I finished this book, I was all “Oppie said the cleverest thing about [insert topic]” and “Oppie would have loved this [documentary/book/color shirt].” I swear I was that annoying person who just achieved a (likely one-sided) friendship with someone much cooler and can’t shut up about it.
What exactly can you expect to learn aboutMY NEW BESTIE in this book?
(1) Speculation about whether Oppie was a closet Communist
There are paragraphs, pages, and chapters playing the was-he-or-wasn’t-he game. What exactly did he learn at that wacko school as a youngster? Did he pay party dues? Why didn’t he report that conversation earlier? Why did he meet with that person on that day?
The only person who really had the answer to the main question is Oppie, and he said “no.” Repeatedly. This speculation may sound boring (and it was at times), but it was integral to the story as it later brought down a man who had devoted his life to doing what he thought was best for this country.
(2) Luminaries of the day
As brilliant as Oppie was, he was also surrounded by brilliant people. After nearly every description of his physicist buddies, there was a note that “so-and-so went on to receive the Nobel Prize.” You will also learn about key political and military figures of the day. And for all these people, you will get more than just a rehashing of their image. You’ll get a quick glimpse of their personality, weakness, opinions, antics. This book breathes with characters.
(3) A critical era of American history
The authors evoked not just the people, but also stepped back and evoked the times – starting with the rush to develop the atomic bomb before the Germans (hurry, hurry, hurry!) and then the debate that followed Hiroshima (was that really necessary? what now? build another?). It was a dicey time for America and the world. I had learned some of this during my undergraduate, but this book bought it home for me.
(4) Absolutely nothing about science
If you are curious regarding the specifics of how the bomb was built or the physics behind it, you will be sorely disappointed while I was greatly pleased.
(5) His wife!
I have become increasingly interested in the stories of the women behind important men: how they helped made their men great and even how they suffered for it. For example, I remember walking through a museum about Einstein a couple years ago and thinking his wife deserved a medal, bucket of tears, her own museum, something for the crap she put up with. And Oppie’s wife, Kitty was similarly intriguing. Here is a brief review of her, count ‘em, four marriages:
Husband #1: Why you should read your spouse’s diary
When Kitty was “studying” aboard in Europe, she impulsively married a musician only to discover, when she snooped in his diary, that he was a gay drug addict. Strike one.
Husband #2: Voluntary poverty followed by voluntary death
Kitty bounced back quickly and married a handsome American activist. Although both came from well-to-do families, they chose to live in poverty to show their commitment to Communist ideals. Kitty eventually got fed up with lifestyle and walked away. The two were just starting to rekindle their love when he was killed fighting in the Spanish Civil War on the side of, you guessed it, the leftists.
Husband #3: “This is Robert calling. Your wife is pregnant with my child.”
Kitty’s next pick was an emotionally distant doctor. It was during this marriage that Kitty met Oppie and started some extramarital hanky-panky. When she discovered she was pregnant with Oppie’s child, Husband #3 and Oppie had a very civilized phone conversation where they decided it would be best if Kitty divorced one and married the other. I really wish the FBI had wire-tapped that call! What kind of husband can calmly discuss his wife’s infidelity with her lover? He must have been cold as a block of ice!
Husband #4: Loved by Oppie, hated by everyone else
After all the duds, Oppie was “the one.” The general consensus was that Oppie’s wife was a rude, habitually tipsy, and mediocre housewife, as well as a cold mother. Her one redeeming quality was her fierce loyalty to Oppie and his career. Yet she seemed frustrated in his shadows having given up her burgeoning career in botany for his sake. My favorite quote about Kitty was that “she made small talk, but she really wanted to make big talk.”
Whew! I don’t know about you, but Kitty wears me out. And since she is not likeable enough to be the subject of her own biography, I am glad these authors gave her such good coverage here. As many anecdotes that made me sympathize with her, there were just as many times when I wanted to reach back in time and shake her.
That’s enough about Kitty.
It’s not often that I have a picture of myself reading the book I’m reviewing. But today is your lucky day! In a scene that is probably familiar to GoodReaders, here I am reading my book off in a corner during a family get-together.
[image error]
This time we were bunkered down in a cabin in a state park right as the temperature plummeted. Off camera were my cousins and uncles playing rowdy board and computer games. While they clicked their mouses to send imaginary bombs at enemy troops in whatever game (Extra Bloody DeathCom War Unlimited 4?), I was reading about Oppie’s ethical doubts after an actual bomb killed hundreds of thousands of Japanese. Who was having more fun?!?
I should probably let this review end with the picture. But since we started with the numbers, I think we should finish with one more.
5 stars.
599 pages of text
256 books read for research
44 articles and dissertations consulted
41 manuscript collections pillaged
10 government document collections accessed
1 Pulitzer Prize
6 newspapers/magazines named it best book of the year
19 quality blurbs
41 listed abbreviations
20 page-long index
83 pages of notes
112 people interviewed (several more than once)
2 authors
25 years in the making
38 days to read across 3 cities
23 corners folded by this girl to mark something fascinating
To describe this book as merely “well researched” would be an insult. It is an exhaustively thorough look at an important American figure…that I had never heard of when my dad gave this book to me as a Christmas gift several years ago. I had a vague notion that J. Robert Oppenheimer was in the newspaper business.
Oppie (as I now refer to him) was a brilliant physicist and character, who headed the American development of the atomic bomb during WWII only to be stripped of his security clearance years later for petty political reasons. When I finished this book, I was all “Oppie said the cleverest thing about [insert topic]” and “Oppie would have loved this [documentary/book/color shirt].” I swear I was that annoying person who just achieved a (likely one-sided) friendship with someone much cooler and can’t shut up about it.
What exactly can you expect to learn about
(1) Speculation about whether Oppie was a closet Communist
There are paragraphs, pages, and chapters playing the was-he-or-wasn’t-he game. What exactly did he learn at that wacko school as a youngster? Did he pay party dues? Why didn’t he report that conversation earlier? Why did he meet with that person on that day?
The only person who really had the answer to the main question is Oppie, and he said “no.” Repeatedly. This speculation may sound boring (and it was at times), but it was integral to the story as it later brought down a man who had devoted his life to doing what he thought was best for this country.
(2) Luminaries of the day
As brilliant as Oppie was, he was also surrounded by brilliant people. After nearly every description of his physicist buddies, there was a note that “so-and-so went on to receive the Nobel Prize.” You will also learn about key political and military figures of the day. And for all these people, you will get more than just a rehashing of their image. You’ll get a quick glimpse of their personality, weakness, opinions, antics. This book breathes with characters.
(3) A critical era of American history
The authors evoked not just the people, but also stepped back and evoked the times – starting with the rush to develop the atomic bomb before the Germans (hurry, hurry, hurry!) and then the debate that followed Hiroshima (was that really necessary? what now? build another?). It was a dicey time for America and the world. I had learned some of this during my undergraduate, but this book bought it home for me.
(4) Absolutely nothing about science
If you are curious regarding the specifics of how the bomb was built or the physics behind it, you will be sorely disappointed while I was greatly pleased.
(5) His wife!
I have become increasingly interested in the stories of the women behind important men: how they helped made their men great and even how they suffered for it. For example, I remember walking through a museum about Einstein a couple years ago and thinking his wife deserved a medal, bucket of tears, her own museum, something for the crap she put up with. And Oppie’s wife, Kitty was similarly intriguing. Here is a brief review of her, count ‘em, four marriages:
Husband #1: Why you should read your spouse’s diary
When Kitty was “studying” aboard in Europe, she impulsively married a musician only to discover, when she snooped in his diary, that he was a gay drug addict. Strike one.
Husband #2: Voluntary poverty followed by voluntary death
Kitty bounced back quickly and married a handsome American activist. Although both came from well-to-do families, they chose to live in poverty to show their commitment to Communist ideals. Kitty eventually got fed up with lifestyle and walked away. The two were just starting to rekindle their love when he was killed fighting in the Spanish Civil War on the side of, you guessed it, the leftists.
Husband #3: “This is Robert calling. Your wife is pregnant with my child.”
Kitty’s next pick was an emotionally distant doctor. It was during this marriage that Kitty met Oppie and started some extramarital hanky-panky. When she discovered she was pregnant with Oppie’s child, Husband #3 and Oppie had a very civilized phone conversation where they decided it would be best if Kitty divorced one and married the other. I really wish the FBI had wire-tapped that call! What kind of husband can calmly discuss his wife’s infidelity with her lover? He must have been cold as a block of ice!
Husband #4: Loved by Oppie, hated by everyone else
After all the duds, Oppie was “the one.” The general consensus was that Oppie’s wife was a rude, habitually tipsy, and mediocre housewife, as well as a cold mother. Her one redeeming quality was her fierce loyalty to Oppie and his career. Yet she seemed frustrated in his shadows having given up her burgeoning career in botany for his sake. My favorite quote about Kitty was that “she made small talk, but she really wanted to make big talk.”
Whew! I don’t know about you, but Kitty wears me out. And since she is not likeable enough to be the subject of her own biography, I am glad these authors gave her such good coverage here. As many anecdotes that made me sympathize with her, there were just as many times when I wanted to reach back in time and shake her.
That’s enough about Kitty.
It’s not often that I have a picture of myself reading the book I’m reviewing. But today is your lucky day! In a scene that is probably familiar to GoodReaders, here I am reading my book off in a corner during a family get-together.
[image error]
This time we were bunkered down in a cabin in a state park right as the temperature plummeted. Off camera were my cousins and uncles playing rowdy board and computer games. While they clicked their mouses to send imaginary bombs at enemy troops in whatever game (Extra Bloody DeathCom War Unlimited 4?), I was reading about Oppie’s ethical doubts after an actual bomb killed hundreds of thousands of Japanese. Who was having more fun?!?
I should probably let this review end with the picture. But since we started with the numbers, I think we should finish with one more.
5 stars.
July 21, 2023
“With the end of the Cold War, the danger of nuclear annihilation seemed to pass, but in another ironic twist, the threat of nuclear war and nuclear terrorism is probably more imminent in the twenty-first century than ever before. In the post-9/11 era, it is worth recalling that at the dawn of the nuclear age, the father of the atomic bomb warned us that it was a weapon of indiscriminate terror that instantly made America more vulnerable to attack. When [J. Robert Oppenheimer] was asked in a closed Senate hearing in 1946 ‘whether three or four men couldn’t smuggle units of an [atomic] bomb into New York and blow up the whole city,’ he responded pointedly, ‘Of course it could be done…’ To the follow-up question of a startled senator, ‘What instrument would you use to detect an atomic bomb hidden somewhere in a city?’ Oppenheimer quipped, ‘A screwdriver [to open each and every crate or suitcase].’ The only defense against nuclear terrorism was the elimination of nuclear weapons…”
- Kai Bird & Martin J. Sherwin, American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer
The creation of the atomic bomb was the work of many hands and many minds. A very short list of major contributors would include Ernest Rutherford, who explained the atom’s nucleus; Niels Bohr, who modeled the atom; Ernest Lawrence, who invented a cyclotron to smash atoms; and Enrico Fermi, who developed the nuclear reactor.
Yet none of these men has been dubbed “the Father of the Atomic Bomb.”
That unofficial title belongs to J. Robert Oppenheimer, who never – as far as I know – made a great scientific discovery or proposed a grand theory. Instead, he was an understander, a synthesizer, a man whose own genius was to collate the work of many other geniuses and direct it towards a single purpose: the creation of a bomb that could destroy with “the light of a thousands suns”; that could blast a person’s shadow onto a wall; that could not only flatten a city but – like the Romans salting the earth at Carthage – render it uninhabitable.
Oppenheimer also realized – earlier than most, but already far too late – that the power he helped to unleash threatened all life on earth.
***
Oppenheimer’s life is worthy of study, not just for his substantive impact as the scientific leader of the Manhattan Project, but because it is dramatic, filled with the kinds of twists and turns, the meteoric rise and stone-heavy fall, that led authors Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin to compare him to the unfortunate Titan who stole fire from Zeus and gave it to the mortals, earning him the punishment of a regenerating liver that was devoured by an eagle each day.
American Prometheus is a hefty biography of this enigmatic, brilliant, flawed man. In 591-pages of text, they take you from Oppenheimer’s cradle to his grave, from theoretical physicist to the head of the Manhattan Project’s secret weapons laboratory, and from prophet of impending doom to Cold War outcast, shunned due to early-life communist sympathies, and for speaking uncomfortable truths to powerful men.
Though I never entirely connected with this tome, there is no doubt about the effort put forth by its authors. There are eighty-three pages of notes, many of them annotated, and an extensive bibliography. Bird and Sherwin have also conducted personal interviews with key players. The fact that some of these interviews date to the seventies show that the authors have been at work on this project long before its 2005 publication.
In terms of raw materials, American Prometheus has all the makings of an intimate epic. Oppenheimer is an endlessly compelling character, a man who would have loved being alluded to in terms of Greek mythology. He was an exceptional polymath, his interests and intellect encompassing poetry, philosophy, history, and languages. He was bright and far-seeing, but also overbearing, brusque, impatient, condescending, and inflexible. While Bird and Sherwin clearly sympathize with their subject, they do not hide the messy details: the rampant adultery; the alcoholic wife; the political tone-deafness; and his relatively passive final surrender to his enemies.
With such a conflicted leading man, an impossibly important stage (the endgame of the Second World War), and the highest imaginable stakes (the fate of human existence, in a way), this should have been a slam-dunk winner of a biography.
For many, it was. For me, it was just fine.
***
Early in my reading life, I was quick to dismiss books without a lot of critical reflection. Now, when a highly-lauded book elicits only a shoulder shrug, I struggle to understand why.
Here, I think part of the reason is a lack of context for Oppenheimer’s “triumph.” Despite all the information densely packed into these pages, I don’t feel like Bird and Sherwin did a great job explaining – in functional terms – what Oppenheimer actually did to help birth the first atomic bombs. American Prometheus is full of quotations from people telling me how great he was, but very few of them explained why.
If you were to look at my physics grades in both high school and college, you would know that I’m the last person asking for a physics textbook. However, the science is important to this story, and it’s just missing from the book. Aside from one or two mostly-unilluminating sentences breaking down quantum physics, this aspect is mostly ignored, while the achievements of the other scientists working with Oppenheimer barely mentioned, if at all.
With the understanding that random comparisons are not exactly helpful, I feel compelled to refer to Richard Rhodes’s masterful twofer of The Making of the Atomic Bomb and Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb. Though not devoted solely to Oppenheimer, Rhodes gives the man a fully-realized arc that does a much better job of exploring his actual scientific contributions while also following the tumultuous course of his life.
***
The “tragedy” portions of American Prometheus are marginally better, unaffected by the lack of scientific insight. Instead, we are in the thickets of McCarthyism, Cold War paranoia, and Red baiting with a smart and prickly man whose ego probably got the best of him.
Oppenheimer was at the vanguard of scientists who wanted to be open with the Soviet Union about nuclear arms, thereby hoping to forestall an arms race. Whether naïve or enlightened, this is probably an opinion he should have guarded a bit more closely, or worded a bit more carefully. After all, preaching “candor” while holding a top-secret security clearance as a consultant to the Atomic Energy Commission is ripe for misinterpretation by one’s enemies. Ultimately, Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Lewis Strauss orchestrated a kangaroo-court hearing to revoke Oppenheimer’s security clearance.
With his clearance gone, all that Oppenheimer had left was his wealth, his family, the ability to travel the world, and a beachside house in the Virgin Islands, showing once again that all tragedy is relative.
The larger calamity of a potential nuclear war, of course, looms much larger than Oppenheimer’s foreshortened career. Hard as he tried, he could not stitch the atom back together, once it had been divided.
***
American Prometheus won the National Book Critics Circle Award upon its release. Soon enough, it will be turned into a Christopher Nolan biopic starring half the actors in Hollywood. Far be it for me to tell you to avoid this.
Nevertheless, I’m not going to recommend it. One of the ways I rank biographies is to ask myself this question: Have I learned what it would be like to stand in this person’s presence? In American Prometheus, the answer is no. The Oppenheimer presented here is a collection of descriptions, a figure moving along a timeline. The authors told me to feel, but never gave me a reason. Oppenheimer was the most human of historical movers, but for some reason, his humanity never leapt off the page in the way I expected or required.
- Kai Bird & Martin J. Sherwin, American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer
The creation of the atomic bomb was the work of many hands and many minds. A very short list of major contributors would include Ernest Rutherford, who explained the atom’s nucleus; Niels Bohr, who modeled the atom; Ernest Lawrence, who invented a cyclotron to smash atoms; and Enrico Fermi, who developed the nuclear reactor.
Yet none of these men has been dubbed “the Father of the Atomic Bomb.”
That unofficial title belongs to J. Robert Oppenheimer, who never – as far as I know – made a great scientific discovery or proposed a grand theory. Instead, he was an understander, a synthesizer, a man whose own genius was to collate the work of many other geniuses and direct it towards a single purpose: the creation of a bomb that could destroy with “the light of a thousands suns”; that could blast a person’s shadow onto a wall; that could not only flatten a city but – like the Romans salting the earth at Carthage – render it uninhabitable.
Oppenheimer also realized – earlier than most, but already far too late – that the power he helped to unleash threatened all life on earth.
***
Oppenheimer’s life is worthy of study, not just for his substantive impact as the scientific leader of the Manhattan Project, but because it is dramatic, filled with the kinds of twists and turns, the meteoric rise and stone-heavy fall, that led authors Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin to compare him to the unfortunate Titan who stole fire from Zeus and gave it to the mortals, earning him the punishment of a regenerating liver that was devoured by an eagle each day.
American Prometheus is a hefty biography of this enigmatic, brilliant, flawed man. In 591-pages of text, they take you from Oppenheimer’s cradle to his grave, from theoretical physicist to the head of the Manhattan Project’s secret weapons laboratory, and from prophet of impending doom to Cold War outcast, shunned due to early-life communist sympathies, and for speaking uncomfortable truths to powerful men.
Though I never entirely connected with this tome, there is no doubt about the effort put forth by its authors. There are eighty-three pages of notes, many of them annotated, and an extensive bibliography. Bird and Sherwin have also conducted personal interviews with key players. The fact that some of these interviews date to the seventies show that the authors have been at work on this project long before its 2005 publication.
In terms of raw materials, American Prometheus has all the makings of an intimate epic. Oppenheimer is an endlessly compelling character, a man who would have loved being alluded to in terms of Greek mythology. He was an exceptional polymath, his interests and intellect encompassing poetry, philosophy, history, and languages. He was bright and far-seeing, but also overbearing, brusque, impatient, condescending, and inflexible. While Bird and Sherwin clearly sympathize with their subject, they do not hide the messy details: the rampant adultery; the alcoholic wife; the political tone-deafness; and his relatively passive final surrender to his enemies.
With such a conflicted leading man, an impossibly important stage (the endgame of the Second World War), and the highest imaginable stakes (the fate of human existence, in a way), this should have been a slam-dunk winner of a biography.
For many, it was. For me, it was just fine.
***
Early in my reading life, I was quick to dismiss books without a lot of critical reflection. Now, when a highly-lauded book elicits only a shoulder shrug, I struggle to understand why.
Here, I think part of the reason is a lack of context for Oppenheimer’s “triumph.” Despite all the information densely packed into these pages, I don’t feel like Bird and Sherwin did a great job explaining – in functional terms – what Oppenheimer actually did to help birth the first atomic bombs. American Prometheus is full of quotations from people telling me how great he was, but very few of them explained why.
If you were to look at my physics grades in both high school and college, you would know that I’m the last person asking for a physics textbook. However, the science is important to this story, and it’s just missing from the book. Aside from one or two mostly-unilluminating sentences breaking down quantum physics, this aspect is mostly ignored, while the achievements of the other scientists working with Oppenheimer barely mentioned, if at all.
With the understanding that random comparisons are not exactly helpful, I feel compelled to refer to Richard Rhodes’s masterful twofer of The Making of the Atomic Bomb and Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb. Though not devoted solely to Oppenheimer, Rhodes gives the man a fully-realized arc that does a much better job of exploring his actual scientific contributions while also following the tumultuous course of his life.
***
The “tragedy” portions of American Prometheus are marginally better, unaffected by the lack of scientific insight. Instead, we are in the thickets of McCarthyism, Cold War paranoia, and Red baiting with a smart and prickly man whose ego probably got the best of him.
Oppenheimer was at the vanguard of scientists who wanted to be open with the Soviet Union about nuclear arms, thereby hoping to forestall an arms race. Whether naïve or enlightened, this is probably an opinion he should have guarded a bit more closely, or worded a bit more carefully. After all, preaching “candor” while holding a top-secret security clearance as a consultant to the Atomic Energy Commission is ripe for misinterpretation by one’s enemies. Ultimately, Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Lewis Strauss orchestrated a kangaroo-court hearing to revoke Oppenheimer’s security clearance.
With his clearance gone, all that Oppenheimer had left was his wealth, his family, the ability to travel the world, and a beachside house in the Virgin Islands, showing once again that all tragedy is relative.
The larger calamity of a potential nuclear war, of course, looms much larger than Oppenheimer’s foreshortened career. Hard as he tried, he could not stitch the atom back together, once it had been divided.
***
American Prometheus won the National Book Critics Circle Award upon its release. Soon enough, it will be turned into a Christopher Nolan biopic starring half the actors in Hollywood. Far be it for me to tell you to avoid this.
Nevertheless, I’m not going to recommend it. One of the ways I rank biographies is to ask myself this question: Have I learned what it would be like to stand in this person’s presence? In American Prometheus, the answer is no. The Oppenheimer presented here is a collection of descriptions, a figure moving along a timeline. The authors told me to feel, but never gave me a reason. Oppenheimer was the most human of historical movers, but for some reason, his humanity never leapt off the page in the way I expected or required.
July 20, 2023
I thought this was fascinating! J. Robert Oppenheimer had a unique upbringing I found very interesting. He grew up in a nonobservant Jewish family and completed grade school in a private institution called The Ethical Cultural Society. This was a Judaic reformist school where "students were taught 'Ethical Imagination,' to 'see things not as they are, but as they might be.'", pg. 19
Oppenheimer described his childhood "My life as a child did not prepare me for the fact that the world is full of cruel and bitter things.", pg. 21. He was described as odd, neurotic, and depressed by his university classmates. He eventually had a breakdown where he attacked a classmate (pg. 47). His poor social interactions and self-alienating behaviors led him tell a friend "I need physics more than friends", pg. 91
He was brilliant, extremely intelligent, and internalized the knowledge he acquired. He eventually read the Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads in the original Sanskrit (pgs. 99-102). His deep reflection and internalizing of the Gita would have a heavy impact during his work on the atomic bomb. "He liked things that were difficult. And since almost everything was easy for him, the things that would attract his attention were essentially the difficult. He had a taste for the mystical and the cryptic.", pg. 99
Oppenheimer's credentials and reputation proceeded himself and landed him the job at the Los Alamos Research Laboratory in New Mexico. "In May 1942 he was appointed director of the fast-neutron research with the curious title Coordinator of Rapid Rapture. Almost immediately, he began to organize a highly secret summer seminar of top theoretical physicists whose job it was to outline a bare-bones design of an atomic bomb.", pg. 180
At the successful detonation of the atomic bomb at the Trinity Site he later told an interviewer "I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad Gita; Vishnu is trying to persuade the prince that he should do his duty, and to impress him, takes his multi-armed form and says Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds." pg. 309
Eventually his past actions and who he socialized with put him in the cross-hairs of the Department of Justice and the FBI. His loyalty was questioned after he had accusations of being a Communist sympathizer, being unpatriotic, and was deemed a risk to national security. Towards the end of his life, he gave lectures at universities and dwelt on broader themes of culture and science. He became a humanist, pondering man's survival in an age of weapons of mass destruction, pg. 574
I really enjoyed this one. It was highly detailed and contained a lot of thoroughly researched information. I would recommend it! Thanks!
Oppenheimer described his childhood "My life as a child did not prepare me for the fact that the world is full of cruel and bitter things.", pg. 21. He was described as odd, neurotic, and depressed by his university classmates. He eventually had a breakdown where he attacked a classmate (pg. 47). His poor social interactions and self-alienating behaviors led him tell a friend "I need physics more than friends", pg. 91
He was brilliant, extremely intelligent, and internalized the knowledge he acquired. He eventually read the Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads in the original Sanskrit (pgs. 99-102). His deep reflection and internalizing of the Gita would have a heavy impact during his work on the atomic bomb. "He liked things that were difficult. And since almost everything was easy for him, the things that would attract his attention were essentially the difficult. He had a taste for the mystical and the cryptic.", pg. 99
Oppenheimer's credentials and reputation proceeded himself and landed him the job at the Los Alamos Research Laboratory in New Mexico. "In May 1942 he was appointed director of the fast-neutron research with the curious title Coordinator of Rapid Rapture. Almost immediately, he began to organize a highly secret summer seminar of top theoretical physicists whose job it was to outline a bare-bones design of an atomic bomb.", pg. 180
At the successful detonation of the atomic bomb at the Trinity Site he later told an interviewer "I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad Gita; Vishnu is trying to persuade the prince that he should do his duty, and to impress him, takes his multi-armed form and says Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds." pg. 309
Eventually his past actions and who he socialized with put him in the cross-hairs of the Department of Justice and the FBI. His loyalty was questioned after he had accusations of being a Communist sympathizer, being unpatriotic, and was deemed a risk to national security. Towards the end of his life, he gave lectures at universities and dwelt on broader themes of culture and science. He became a humanist, pondering man's survival in an age of weapons of mass destruction, pg. 574
I really enjoyed this one. It was highly detailed and contained a lot of thoroughly researched information. I would recommend it! Thanks!
August 28, 2023
I think that the world in which we shall live these next thirty years will be a pretty restless and tormented place; I do not think that there will be much of a compromise possible between being of it, and being not of it.
A slight digression before my review:
Imagine you are a key scientist holding the recipe of how to make a bomb that may blow the whole world up. Now imagine it is an era, when every country is trying to get hold of that recipe. It is an age of spies and accusations.
Now imagine you have attended communist meeting, have contributed money to communist causes, you have communist friends and even your wife is (was!?!) a communist and also you are so candid that you can’t stop yourself criticizing certain goings on in the country.
Now, imagine at the time of the making of the above-mentioned bomb, you go visit your ex-lover who also happens to be a communist.
Would you be shocked or outraged if after your successful bomb-making and killing all those innocent people and drinking all the champagne and all the fireworks, you are being investigated and interrogated; that all those meetings and contributions have come to the fore and have bit you in the rear? Would you?
In certain countries, you, the scientist who knew too much, would have had an unfortunate accident or would have disappeared without a trace.
Back to my review:
The authors of this book have taken biography-writing to a whole new level. I love to read biographies and memoires, but I want to enjoy reading them, not get frustrated to death by pages and pages of details which could have been edited out.
There is too much omittable information in the book. There are endless, very similar quotes and perspectives of every person Oppenheimer, his brother, his wife and lovers have ever shaken hands with. Every aspect of Opie’s life, even his outfit is talked about thoroughly, step by boring step, over and over again.
In a word, this was an excellently researched but not very well written book.
A slight digression before my review:
Imagine you are a key scientist holding the recipe of how to make a bomb that may blow the whole world up. Now imagine it is an era, when every country is trying to get hold of that recipe. It is an age of spies and accusations.
Now imagine you have attended communist meeting, have contributed money to communist causes, you have communist friends and even your wife is (was!?!) a communist and also you are so candid that you can’t stop yourself criticizing certain goings on in the country.
Now, imagine at the time of the making of the above-mentioned bomb, you go visit your ex-lover who also happens to be a communist.
Would you be shocked or outraged if after your successful bomb-making and killing all those innocent people and drinking all the champagne and all the fireworks, you are being investigated and interrogated; that all those meetings and contributions have come to the fore and have bit you in the rear? Would you?
In certain countries, you, the scientist who knew too much, would have had an unfortunate accident or would have disappeared without a trace.
Back to my review:
The authors of this book have taken biography-writing to a whole new level. I love to read biographies and memoires, but I want to enjoy reading them, not get frustrated to death by pages and pages of details which could have been edited out.
There is too much omittable information in the book. There are endless, very similar quotes and perspectives of every person Oppenheimer, his brother, his wife and lovers have ever shaken hands with. Every aspect of Opie’s life, even his outfit is talked about thoroughly, step by boring step, over and over again.
In a word, this was an excellently researched but not very well written book.
August 6, 2022
“Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.”
Revisiting the life of Robert Oppenheimer after finishing John Smith’s amazingly surrealistic fictionalization, Little Boy, I am continually struck by how this man’s life really was “stranger than fiction”.
In this Pulitzer prize-winning biography, American Prometheus, Bird and Sherwin portray the famous atomic scientist’s life in mythic proportions. A lot of biographers do this with their subjects, but in this case it doesn’t seem like much of an exaggeration. This really was a man whose decisions changed the world in a fundamental way, and whose life had as many twists and turns as a Greek tragedy.
Bird and Sherwin include a lot of information on the political climate of the 1950s and go into a huge amount of detail about Oppenheimer’s personal politics. It can be a little dry as they spend so much time on whether or not he was a Communist, but it’s clear that they did their research and their portrayal is fair and even-handed.
February 15, 2016
This is a very thorough book in some respects, and yet it is so narrow in scope I almost want to run out and read another Oppenheimer biography, and some histories that cover the same time period to get the personal details and background history the authors assumed you knew in THIS book. Almost.
Sure, I'm familiar with the basic details of WWII, the McCarthy Era, and the atomic bomb, but if I wasn't this book wouldn't have helped much. Instead, the authors follow J. Robert Oppenheimer's life in detail from birth to death with a laser's focus on every political relationship and communist connection he ever had, so much so everything else is in soft focus. The book becomes at times a laundry list of names, connected to their political affiliations and possible communist leanings. Even Robert himself is given short shrift to the communist question. Every possible Communist connection is examined and re-examined so often, I felt like the authors had in effect become Oppenheimer's belated defense team.
Why did they feel Oppenheimer needed defending, you may be asking? Wasn't he a brilliant physicist, the one who headed the Manhattan Project that developed the atomic bomb? Yes, he certainly was. Everyone in the scientific community was concerned that Germany was developing a bomb, including Oppenheimer, who was especially appalled over what was happening in fascist Germany, and horrified about what was being done to the Jews. He was eager to use his scientific skills in service of his country. But the power of the bomb that was developed filled him with concern, especially after seeing it used against a Japan that was essentially already defeated.
Oppenheimer felt that the use of such weapons should be regulated not just by the U.S., and that secrecy would lead to an arms race with the Soviet Union, and he was right. But his advocacy for free sharing of information, and an international committee to guide the use of atomic power was not what the U.S. government wanted to hear in the 50s. His opposition to the development of the H-bomb opened him up to suspicion, and he was investigated by the FBI, including the illegal wiretapping of his phones.
Oppenheimer had been working as a professor at Berkeley before the war, and as a liberal thinker he had had friends and family who were Communist, back when that meant opposition to the fascist regime in Spain, and improving social conditions at home. He had donated money to various causes through the U.S. Communist party, which wasn't unusual for the time. His own brother and his wife had been members of the Communist party at one time, although Robert himself never had been. All of these connections were used against him by his opponents many years later, in hearings in the 50s.
Everything in the book leads up to Oppenheimer's hearings before the Personnel Security Board team put together by General Lewis Strauss, who was determined to both remove Oppenheimer from the Atomic Energy Commission, and remove his security clearance. Strauss had clashed with Oppenheimer over the development of the H-bomb, and had developed a personal antipathy to the scientist. With the tacit consent of President Eisenhower, Strauss set up a star chamber hearing to railroad Oppenheimer out, using unfair tactics such as denying access to evidence and not releasing the list of witnesses to Oppenheimer's lawyers ahead of time.
Oppenheimer became seen as a Galileo type martyr to the scientific community, and though he was eventually rehabilitated and honored by President Johnson, Oppenheimer never truly recovered from the hearings.
All of this part of Oppenheimer's life we get in exhaustive detail. What you won't learn so much about is Oppenheimer's personal life, which is present in the book, but not examined. Oppenheimer had a magnetic personality, and many relationships with women that we hear just a little about. He had affairs, even after his marriage to Kitty, whose previous husband was a Communist who had died fighting in the Spanish Civil War. I wanted to know more about his relationship with Kitty, a tempestuous woman with a big drinking problem. We hear that the Oppenheimers gave parties where they lavished their guests with drinks, but then skimped on the food. That's fascinating, I wanted to know more about what was going on there, and hear what people thought about it. I wanted to know more about his children, and how they felt being raised in such a family. We get tantalizing bits and pieces about how Robert tried to give his daughter away to another family at Los Alamos, and never bonded with his son, but then we are torn away to hear again about more Communist stuff. Can you hear my frustration?
Sure, I figure there is WAY more documentation out there on the Communist issue, thanks to the FBI, than to Oppenheimer's personal life, and that's what the authors focused on. They do a good job of presenting this information chronologically and clearly, and if that's what you're interested in, you won't be disappointed. You will get every detail you could ever hope for! But if you want to know Oppenheimer, the man, you will only get glimpses here.
Sure, I'm familiar with the basic details of WWII, the McCarthy Era, and the atomic bomb, but if I wasn't this book wouldn't have helped much. Instead, the authors follow J. Robert Oppenheimer's life in detail from birth to death with a laser's focus on every political relationship and communist connection he ever had, so much so everything else is in soft focus. The book becomes at times a laundry list of names, connected to their political affiliations and possible communist leanings. Even Robert himself is given short shrift to the communist question. Every possible Communist connection is examined and re-examined so often, I felt like the authors had in effect become Oppenheimer's belated defense team.
Why did they feel Oppenheimer needed defending, you may be asking? Wasn't he a brilliant physicist, the one who headed the Manhattan Project that developed the atomic bomb? Yes, he certainly was. Everyone in the scientific community was concerned that Germany was developing a bomb, including Oppenheimer, who was especially appalled over what was happening in fascist Germany, and horrified about what was being done to the Jews. He was eager to use his scientific skills in service of his country. But the power of the bomb that was developed filled him with concern, especially after seeing it used against a Japan that was essentially already defeated.
Oppenheimer felt that the use of such weapons should be regulated not just by the U.S., and that secrecy would lead to an arms race with the Soviet Union, and he was right. But his advocacy for free sharing of information, and an international committee to guide the use of atomic power was not what the U.S. government wanted to hear in the 50s. His opposition to the development of the H-bomb opened him up to suspicion, and he was investigated by the FBI, including the illegal wiretapping of his phones.
Oppenheimer had been working as a professor at Berkeley before the war, and as a liberal thinker he had had friends and family who were Communist, back when that meant opposition to the fascist regime in Spain, and improving social conditions at home. He had donated money to various causes through the U.S. Communist party, which wasn't unusual for the time. His own brother and his wife had been members of the Communist party at one time, although Robert himself never had been. All of these connections were used against him by his opponents many years later, in hearings in the 50s.
Everything in the book leads up to Oppenheimer's hearings before the Personnel Security Board team put together by General Lewis Strauss, who was determined to both remove Oppenheimer from the Atomic Energy Commission, and remove his security clearance. Strauss had clashed with Oppenheimer over the development of the H-bomb, and had developed a personal antipathy to the scientist. With the tacit consent of President Eisenhower, Strauss set up a star chamber hearing to railroad Oppenheimer out, using unfair tactics such as denying access to evidence and not releasing the list of witnesses to Oppenheimer's lawyers ahead of time.
Oppenheimer became seen as a Galileo type martyr to the scientific community, and though he was eventually rehabilitated and honored by President Johnson, Oppenheimer never truly recovered from the hearings.
All of this part of Oppenheimer's life we get in exhaustive detail. What you won't learn so much about is Oppenheimer's personal life, which is present in the book, but not examined. Oppenheimer had a magnetic personality, and many relationships with women that we hear just a little about. He had affairs, even after his marriage to Kitty, whose previous husband was a Communist who had died fighting in the Spanish Civil War. I wanted to know more about his relationship with Kitty, a tempestuous woman with a big drinking problem. We hear that the Oppenheimers gave parties where they lavished their guests with drinks, but then skimped on the food. That's fascinating, I wanted to know more about what was going on there, and hear what people thought about it. I wanted to know more about his children, and how they felt being raised in such a family. We get tantalizing bits and pieces about how Robert tried to give his daughter away to another family at Los Alamos, and never bonded with his son, but then we are torn away to hear again about more Communist stuff. Can you hear my frustration?
Sure, I figure there is WAY more documentation out there on the Communist issue, thanks to the FBI, than to Oppenheimer's personal life, and that's what the authors focused on. They do a good job of presenting this information chronologically and clearly, and if that's what you're interested in, you won't be disappointed. You will get every detail you could ever hope for! But if you want to know Oppenheimer, the man, you will only get glimpses here.
August 18, 2023
Trial and Punishment.
The story of J. Robert Oppenheimer should be one of success; the brilliant scientist who invented the atomic bomb, which ended the Second World War and saved millions of lives. However, it is not. His tale is actually sad, a man who had to live with the consequences of the bomb, the blood of thousands of innocents on his hands and also the hounding of his own government and the FIB. The very people who pressed him to forge the bomb on the first place. Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin tell the amazing story of the American Prometheus.
At first glance it is hard to see why his government would turn on him and he would end up dying in obscurity. After all hadn’t he done what everyone had asked him to do, what no one else could do? This book, thirty years in the making, through painful research and extensive interviews shows how and the answers are not complicated in the slightest. The story of Oppenheimer or ‘Oppie’ to contemporaries, is tragic. Born in 1904 of a multimillionaire Jewish businessman from Germany, Oppenheimer was a genius, there is no question. He was extremely talented. Like all geniuses he was flawed, in his case socially awkward. In his youth he was also heavily associated with the communists in American and had far left viewpoints, if not totally amalgamated with them. He studied chemistry at Harvard, then went to Cambridge and studied in Göttingen. Hating practical work and not liked by his peers, this child prodigy stumbled on his way to the top of the great quantum mechanics advance of the 1920s and 1930s.
Following a physicist throughout his studies and teaching may seem boring, but this book is far from it. There is almost no mathematics and very little physics. What is there is explained on a very basic level. The mechanics and engineering of the bomb are nearly entirely missed out. We taken on the story that took him at the height of WWII to lead 6,000 scientists and military men in the Los Alamos complex, in New Mexico, a state he loved to visit. We learn of his famous pork pie hats, excessive chain smoking and expensive woven suits.
What happens from there is explosive and makes addictive reading. Should the bomb have been dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki? There is a lot of evidence to suggest the Japanese were already defeated and looking for a peace highly favourable to the USA, the only clause being the retention of their emperor. The bombs were dropped and the guilt set in. This was highly controversial. From seeing tests in the pacific and results of the two bombs in Japan, Oppenheimer could not no longer look at certain creatures, knowing he’d killed many. He also did not enjoy the work at Los Alamos and disagreed how President Truman used the bombs and the knowledge they’d uncovered. With his heavy associations with far left politics and his views on a post WWII and nuclear world he became continuously estranged from the establishment.
Lewis Strauss was appointed head of the Atomic Energy Commission and the two fell famously out. Oppenheimer wanted international control and multiple states to have a say on when or where bombs could be used. He ultimately wanted to undo his work and turn back the clock, but knew he couldn’t. Strauss for his part found Oppenheimer arrogant and difficult to work with. Their relationship was a disaster. He tried to revoke Oppenheimer’s security clearances and the FIB began to watch him for Soviet related activities. There was a fear he would defect. The Grey board hearing runs as a courtroom drama as Strauss and J Edgar Hoover tried to bring him down. Oppenheimer did not deny his associations, but by this time had moved away from the oppressive communist regimes around the world. The only option was self imposed exile on the island of St John, dying in obscurity and quiet in 1969.
The book is truly a great biography of one of the most important figures in science and of the Second World War. We learn about Oppie from all angles, the son, brother, husband, father, scientist, colleague, patriot and accused. He has to live with the horror of his creation and his outspokenness about this rocked the establishment, who had just given everything to defeat Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. The tension was there for someone who felt very American, but at the same time very human. This was a difficult position that anyone must appreciate. The bombs today are still controversial and provide stimulating talking points. A great book that I recommend.
The story of J. Robert Oppenheimer should be one of success; the brilliant scientist who invented the atomic bomb, which ended the Second World War and saved millions of lives. However, it is not. His tale is actually sad, a man who had to live with the consequences of the bomb, the blood of thousands of innocents on his hands and also the hounding of his own government and the FIB. The very people who pressed him to forge the bomb on the first place. Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin tell the amazing story of the American Prometheus.
At first glance it is hard to see why his government would turn on him and he would end up dying in obscurity. After all hadn’t he done what everyone had asked him to do, what no one else could do? This book, thirty years in the making, through painful research and extensive interviews shows how and the answers are not complicated in the slightest. The story of Oppenheimer or ‘Oppie’ to contemporaries, is tragic. Born in 1904 of a multimillionaire Jewish businessman from Germany, Oppenheimer was a genius, there is no question. He was extremely talented. Like all geniuses he was flawed, in his case socially awkward. In his youth he was also heavily associated with the communists in American and had far left viewpoints, if not totally amalgamated with them. He studied chemistry at Harvard, then went to Cambridge and studied in Göttingen. Hating practical work and not liked by his peers, this child prodigy stumbled on his way to the top of the great quantum mechanics advance of the 1920s and 1930s.
Following a physicist throughout his studies and teaching may seem boring, but this book is far from it. There is almost no mathematics and very little physics. What is there is explained on a very basic level. The mechanics and engineering of the bomb are nearly entirely missed out. We taken on the story that took him at the height of WWII to lead 6,000 scientists and military men in the Los Alamos complex, in New Mexico, a state he loved to visit. We learn of his famous pork pie hats, excessive chain smoking and expensive woven suits.
What happens from there is explosive and makes addictive reading. Should the bomb have been dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki? There is a lot of evidence to suggest the Japanese were already defeated and looking for a peace highly favourable to the USA, the only clause being the retention of their emperor. The bombs were dropped and the guilt set in. This was highly controversial. From seeing tests in the pacific and results of the two bombs in Japan, Oppenheimer could not no longer look at certain creatures, knowing he’d killed many. He also did not enjoy the work at Los Alamos and disagreed how President Truman used the bombs and the knowledge they’d uncovered. With his heavy associations with far left politics and his views on a post WWII and nuclear world he became continuously estranged from the establishment.
Lewis Strauss was appointed head of the Atomic Energy Commission and the two fell famously out. Oppenheimer wanted international control and multiple states to have a say on when or where bombs could be used. He ultimately wanted to undo his work and turn back the clock, but knew he couldn’t. Strauss for his part found Oppenheimer arrogant and difficult to work with. Their relationship was a disaster. He tried to revoke Oppenheimer’s security clearances and the FIB began to watch him for Soviet related activities. There was a fear he would defect. The Grey board hearing runs as a courtroom drama as Strauss and J Edgar Hoover tried to bring him down. Oppenheimer did not deny his associations, but by this time had moved away from the oppressive communist regimes around the world. The only option was self imposed exile on the island of St John, dying in obscurity and quiet in 1969.
The book is truly a great biography of one of the most important figures in science and of the Second World War. We learn about Oppie from all angles, the son, brother, husband, father, scientist, colleague, patriot and accused. He has to live with the horror of his creation and his outspokenness about this rocked the establishment, who had just given everything to defeat Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. The tension was there for someone who felt very American, but at the same time very human. This was a difficult position that anyone must appreciate. The bombs today are still controversial and provide stimulating talking points. A great book that I recommend.
August 25, 2023
Incredibly proud of myself for finishing this monster of a book in 3 days! This was deeply moving, well researched, incredibly detailed, the writing was sharp and witty. The biography of this very ambiguous, but undeniably genius, man made me think how with all the possibilities fiction has, real life can shake you like a made-up thunderstorm never would!
March 13, 2024
Catching up…
This book was donated to my Little Free Library Shed last summer. I chose not to list it on Goodreads as something I was currently reading, because I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. But I was reading it. Very, very slowly. To be clear, this was another big book. And I am not a fan of big books. This was the paperback version. There are 5 parts to it. An Author’s note and acknowledgement, notes, bibliography and an index. 591 pages for the story. From the author’s notes – onward, 721 pages. That is an investment of time.
And, this book was the inspiration for the major motion picture “Oppenheimer,” which just won the Academy Award this past Sunday. Also, this book, was the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Biography in 2006. And you already heard my rant about Pulitzer’s when I discussed the book, “Trust” in that review. Thankfully, I liked that book.
So, how did I feel about this one?
Well, it is obviously voluminous. And it is truly a multifaceted portrait of a complicated person that gets to his essential nature. Brilliant. Innovative. Competitive. Inscrutable leader. A mixture of charisma and cruelty.
Readers will see him in the midst of Communism in the 1930’s, politics (think the McCarthy era), and ethics questionability. This book is a thorough examination of all things, overwhelming in its detail.
Its title comes from a quiet little Santa Fe office that served as a gateway to the hidden research colony at Los Alamos.
And then there is Hiroshima. Were they really back slapping and showing triumph for that bomb? And then the fallout from it. How Oppenheimer feels about what he contributed to, well, that is for readers to contemplate.
I have yet to watch the movie. This book was a journey. Not easily taken.
3.5 stars rounded up.
This book was donated to my Little Free Library Shed last summer. I chose not to list it on Goodreads as something I was currently reading, because I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. But I was reading it. Very, very slowly. To be clear, this was another big book. And I am not a fan of big books. This was the paperback version. There are 5 parts to it. An Author’s note and acknowledgement, notes, bibliography and an index. 591 pages for the story. From the author’s notes – onward, 721 pages. That is an investment of time.
And, this book was the inspiration for the major motion picture “Oppenheimer,” which just won the Academy Award this past Sunday. Also, this book, was the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Biography in 2006. And you already heard my rant about Pulitzer’s when I discussed the book, “Trust” in that review. Thankfully, I liked that book.
So, how did I feel about this one?
Well, it is obviously voluminous. And it is truly a multifaceted portrait of a complicated person that gets to his essential nature. Brilliant. Innovative. Competitive. Inscrutable leader. A mixture of charisma and cruelty.
Readers will see him in the midst of Communism in the 1930’s, politics (think the McCarthy era), and ethics questionability. This book is a thorough examination of all things, overwhelming in its detail.
Its title comes from a quiet little Santa Fe office that served as a gateway to the hidden research colony at Los Alamos.
And then there is Hiroshima. Were they really back slapping and showing triumph for that bomb? And then the fallout from it. How Oppenheimer feels about what he contributed to, well, that is for readers to contemplate.
I have yet to watch the movie. This book was a journey. Not easily taken.
3.5 stars rounded up.
January 21, 2024
Kai Bird and Martin Sherman's American Prometheus is an impressive biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the nuclear physicist who went from obscurity to international fame as the director of the Manhattan Project, to ignominy and exile over his ambivalence towards nuclear weapons and leftist political views. Bird and Sherwin depict Oppenheimer throughout as a genius who, like many great men and women, is riven through with contradictions and personal foibles. He's a great lecturer and mentor to students and juniors, but somewhat ill-at-ease around peers and non-scientists; a devoted husband (to Kitty, his brilliant but mentally troubled wife) who nonetheless carried on several affairs; his beliefs, a strange admixture of Eastern philosophy, cutting edge physics (though, as the authors readily admit, more in applying extant theories to practical application) and a naivety bordering on credulity towards Communism. Indeed, Bird and Sherwin spend much time on Oppenheimer's politics, showing that he moved in the same circles as the Far Left (his wife was friends with Steve Nelson, a notorious CPUSA organizer; his brother, Frank, joined the Party; he attended meetings but spurned recruitment) through the idealism that led many New Deal-era progressives to find common cause with the Far Left: dislike of fascism (Oppenheimer was Jewish, with relatives killed in the Holocaust), support for labor reforms and racial justice, which weighed more heavily than Stalin's atrocities. The book's passages on the Manhattan Project and the development of the A-bomb are much lighter on science than, say, Richard Rhodes' Making of the Atomic Bomb. There's more emphasis on Oppenheimer's relationships with General Groves and his fellow scientists, the government's ongoing distrust of him (which caused him to expel several suspected Soviet spies from the Project) and how his scientific enthusiasm vanished as the disturbing ramifications of nuclear weapons become clear. Oppenheimer all but renounced his achievements after WWII, leading to investigations by Congress and the FBI, the humiliating revocation of his security clearance and a vagabond life drifting between teaching at Princeton, foreign lectures and warnings about the Cold War. For its immersive prose, sharp judgments and capturing Oppenheimer in all his maddening complexity - a great man fatally inured to risk, in science, politics and romance - this biography stands, in all likelihood, as definitive. It has also inspired Christopher Nolan's 2023 film Oppenheimer, which presumably will bring it a wider (and much deserved) audience.
January 19, 2023
American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer was the Pulitzer prize-winning book in 2006. This was a comprehensive biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer and the birth of Los Alamos and the atomic bomb, devised to bring the end to World War II with the devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The irony of this book may be that Oppenheimer, as a young man, came to New Mexico, finding not only himself, but that he loved this beautiful country. Many years later, I think that a regret that he had was bringing the attention of the world to northern New Mexico.
". . . he craved the exhilaration and the invigorating calmness induced by Perro Caliente. There was a rhythm now to his life: intense, intellectual work, at times to the point of near exhaustion, followed by a month or more of near exhaustion, followed by a month or more of renewal on horseback in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of New Mexico."
"We learned to watch the snow on the Sangres, and to look for deer in Water Canyon," Phil Morrison later wrote, with a lyricism that reflected the emotional attachment to the land that seized many residents. "We found that on the mesas and the valley that there was an old and strange culture; there were our neighbors, the people of the pueblos, and there were the caves of Otowi canyon to remind us that other men had sought water in the dry land."
Having spent my early childhood in Los Alamos, I am still very conflicted about that time in our history. Oppenheimer was not only the choice of General Groves, but also the one who was able to assemble a group of physicists and scientists to come to a remote part of the United States and pioneer this daunting project. Much of the genius of Oppenheimer was his uncanny ability to ferret out the best talent and to relentlessly pursue that talent and to motivate and inspire them. However, the underlying and dark theme throughout this book was the hysteria that was rampant in the 1950's about communism.
This is also a tale of a very complex man, not only a brilliant scientist and leader and a true twentieth century "Renaissance Man", but one who was devastated with the human toll that was wrought with the unleashing of the science that he had shepherded. This was a man who was well versed in Shakespeare and The Bhagavad Gita, who spent many years urging nuclear arms control.
"Today that pride must be tempered with a profound concern. If atomic bombs are to be added as new weapons to the arsenals of a warring world, or to the arsenals of nations preparing for war, then the time will come when mankind will curse the names of Los Alamos and Hiroshima." -- J. Robert Oppenheimer on October 16, 1946
"We may be likened to two scorpions in a bottle, each capable of killing the other, but only at the risk of his own life." -- J. Robert Oppenheimer, 1953
". . . he craved the exhilaration and the invigorating calmness induced by Perro Caliente. There was a rhythm now to his life: intense, intellectual work, at times to the point of near exhaustion, followed by a month or more of near exhaustion, followed by a month or more of renewal on horseback in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of New Mexico."
"We learned to watch the snow on the Sangres, and to look for deer in Water Canyon," Phil Morrison later wrote, with a lyricism that reflected the emotional attachment to the land that seized many residents. "We found that on the mesas and the valley that there was an old and strange culture; there were our neighbors, the people of the pueblos, and there were the caves of Otowi canyon to remind us that other men had sought water in the dry land."
Having spent my early childhood in Los Alamos, I am still very conflicted about that time in our history. Oppenheimer was not only the choice of General Groves, but also the one who was able to assemble a group of physicists and scientists to come to a remote part of the United States and pioneer this daunting project. Much of the genius of Oppenheimer was his uncanny ability to ferret out the best talent and to relentlessly pursue that talent and to motivate and inspire them. However, the underlying and dark theme throughout this book was the hysteria that was rampant in the 1950's about communism.
This is also a tale of a very complex man, not only a brilliant scientist and leader and a true twentieth century "Renaissance Man", but one who was devastated with the human toll that was wrought with the unleashing of the science that he had shepherded. This was a man who was well versed in Shakespeare and The Bhagavad Gita, who spent many years urging nuclear arms control.
"Today that pride must be tempered with a profound concern. If atomic bombs are to be added as new weapons to the arsenals of a warring world, or to the arsenals of nations preparing for war, then the time will come when mankind will curse the names of Los Alamos and Hiroshima." -- J. Robert Oppenheimer on October 16, 1946
"We may be likened to two scorpions in a bottle, each capable of killing the other, but only at the risk of his own life." -- J. Robert Oppenheimer, 1953
February 12, 2017
“The trouble with Oppenheimer is that he loves a woman who doesn’t love him—the United States government."
- Albert Einstein, Quoted in American Prometheus
There is way too exploding in my head after reading this tonight to write a full and even meaningful review. I've always been fascinated with the Manhattan Project and last year read Rhode's amazing book, The Making of the Atomic Bomb. I've also read several of Richard Feynman's memoirs that detail aspects of his work and stories, but this has been the fullest investigation I've read into Oppenheimer's life.
Things I'll probably write a bit about tomorrow:
1. Oppenheimer, and Modern Physicists as founding father's of the modern age.
2. The show trials of the AEC.
3. Disappointment in Bernard Baruch, Teller, American Institutions, and even Oppenheimer.
3. Current atmosphere of suspicion of Science.
4. Current atmosphere of extreme vetting and loyalty tests.
5. Other Myths for Oppenheimer: Pandora's Box or Flying too close to the Sun.
- Albert Einstein, Quoted in American Prometheus
There is way too exploding in my head after reading this tonight to write a full and even meaningful review. I've always been fascinated with the Manhattan Project and last year read Rhode's amazing book, The Making of the Atomic Bomb. I've also read several of Richard Feynman's memoirs that detail aspects of his work and stories, but this has been the fullest investigation I've read into Oppenheimer's life.
Things I'll probably write a bit about tomorrow:
1. Oppenheimer, and Modern Physicists as founding father's of the modern age.
2. The show trials of the AEC.
3. Disappointment in Bernard Baruch, Teller, American Institutions, and even Oppenheimer.
3. Current atmosphere of suspicion of Science.
4. Current atmosphere of extreme vetting and loyalty tests.
5. Other Myths for Oppenheimer: Pandora's Box or Flying too close to the Sun.
July 28, 2023
I am in the middle of moving from one country to another, so I just do not have the time to write a decent review of this excellent, marvelous book! Please, if you are at all interested in either history or amazing people grab this book soon. On closing this book the reader truly understands the atmosphere that swallowed up America during the era of McCarthyism and the Cold War. The reader comes to understand Oppenheimer - his creativity, his imagination and his failings too. The list of the latter is long, but boy do I admire the guy! There is so much I could tell you about this man who I knew nothing about before I read this book, except his label as the "Father of the Atomic Bomb".
I don't regret reading Bomb: The Race to Build—and Steal—the World's Most Dangerous Weapon, but the two don't compare! You in no way need to read one to read the other. The first is about the bomb, the Manhattan project and spying, but this about Oppenheimer is about the person and his era.
I listened to the audiobook read by Jeff Cummings. I have no complaints with the narration. Read the book or listen to it. You choose which ever suits you best. Just don't add it to one of those never-ending lists of books that you don't get around to actually reading!
I don't regret reading Bomb: The Race to Build—and Steal—the World's Most Dangerous Weapon, but the two don't compare! You in no way need to read one to read the other. The first is about the bomb, the Manhattan project and spying, but this about Oppenheimer is about the person and his era.
I listened to the audiobook read by Jeff Cummings. I have no complaints with the narration. Read the book or listen to it. You choose which ever suits you best. Just don't add it to one of those never-ending lists of books that you don't get around to actually reading!
February 4, 2024
[умопомрачително добра филмова адаптация на Нолан]
Опасенията на част от учените от Лос Аламос през 1945 г., че три века несекващ прогрес нa физиката могат да завършат в един (ядрен) взрив, изглежда са имали известно основание.
Животът на Робърт Опенхаймер е любопитна панорама на 20-ти век. Когато членовете на клуб на любители минералолози канят да изнесе лекция техен задочен член с очевидно блестящи познания по минералите, те нямат понятие, че това всъщност е едно 12 годишно момче, син на германски евреи, постигнали американската мечта и разполагащи с имение и яхта.
Младият Опенхаймер е любопитна смесица от изумителен талант, влудяваща амбиция да остави ярък отпечатък (нямаща нищо общо с ограничена алчност или властолюбие) и доста крехка индивидуалност със склонност към неувереност и депресия. Така че младият Робърт е звездата на меката на довоенната физика - Гьотинген - но същевременно е подготвил и поставил отровна ябълка (в буквалния смисъл) на бюрото на научния си ръководител в Англия. Талантлив и енциклопедичен, влюбен в интелектуалните предизвикателства, той по същество се изгражда по-скоро като мултидисциплинарна личност с талант в квантовата физика, отколкото само като физик. Любител на психологията, литературата, езиците, със силно изявена склонност да търси и социална справедливост, той процъфтява като дете-чудо през Новия Курс на Рузвелт, когато симпатиите към комунизма в САЩ се разбират от американските леви интелектуалци като зов за социална справедливост и премахване на расовата дискриминация.
Втората световна война изтласква на заден план либерализма, и натъртва на патриотизма. А Опенхаймер е патриот, при това интелектуално изключително амбициозен патриот, жаден да докаже себе си в най-дълбоките дебри на познанието, и проектът “Манхатън” изглежда навременния отговор на всички тези стремежи. Всички участвали в него са единодушни, че атомната бомба не би могла да има по-успешен, харизматичен, целенасочен и гъвкав ръководител. Притесненията за разрушенията и жертвите са теоретично ясни на Опенхаймер, но бомбата е делото на живота му и те в никакъв случай не са първостепенен приоритет за него.
Но като всеки силен (и не само) интелект Опенхаймер мисли и в по-широк мащаб от ястребите във Вашингтон и в щаба, и след войната настоява за регулации и международно сътрудничество и открит научен обмен по отношение на атомната енергия. Когато САЩ се готви за водородната бомба, Опенхаймер активно се противопоставя на проекта с мотива, че в този случай има оръжие за геноцид - то никога не може да се ограничи в “тесния” периметър на един град, а поразява в огромни, континентални мащаби.
В началото на Студената война такава позиция е ерес. И поддръжниците на въоръжаването се заемат с Опенхаймер по маккартисткия маниер на лова на вещици. През 1954 г. след “изслушване”, което е чиста пародия на съдебен процес, Опенхаймер е отлъчен като ненадежден елемент. Така е изпратено и послание към несъгласните учени - да си затварят устите за политически изказвания и да изпълняват заповедите на военните стриктно и само в техническите си области.
Опенхаймер не е Нютон. Умът му обитава твърде много области извън чистата наука, и далеч не е научен идеалист. Опенхаймер не е и изцяло мъченик - има твърде много натрупани грехове, макар ФБР и Хувър действително да дават максимума от себе си в параноичния си тормоз и непрекъснато си шизофренно следене, за да го направят такъв. Дори не е винаги и добър човек. Но е определено умен и значим човек, неразривно показал заплетения възел между наука и военно приложение, наука и его, наука и политика, наука и свобода, наука и отговорност.
——
Конкретната биография черпи от изобилие от архивни материали - публични или за известен период засекретени. И точно тук е големият пропуск на авторите - те често се губят из изобилието и скачат от име на име и случка на случка. Цитати има безброй - на колеги, съседи и познати, на речи на самия Опенхаймер. Но реалната личност - противоречива и достатъчно хлъзгава, какъвто е бил и маниерът му - си остава все така забулена в изпарения и мъгли. В някои моменти впечатлението ми беше, сякаш се възпроизвеждат нечии клюки, но на силно странични и неинформирани свидетели, които не са в състояние да предоставят надеждни данни. В други биографии авторите изграждат собствена интерпретация, каквато тук предимно липсва. Това, разбира се, е добре за безпристрастността, но в прекалено количество уморява, задълбавайки в несъществени детайли, само за да реферират към някой външен източник.
Странна е и липсата на научни подробности. Физиката не е от лесните науки, но авторите действително всячески я избягват, което стои като голяма кръпка.
Все пак информацията е интересна и достатъчно представителна, очертава нееднозначна картина на епохата, всъщност на няколко епохи. А и е написана достъпно и с достатъчно мръвки от полезни насоки за осмисляне.
3,5⭐️
Опасенията на част от учените от Лос Аламос през 1945 г., че три века несекващ прогрес нa физиката могат да завършат в един (ядрен) взрив, изглежда са имали известно основание.
Животът на Робърт Опенхаймер е любопитна панорама на 20-ти век. Когато членовете на клуб на любители минералолози канят да изнесе лекция техен задочен член с очевидно блестящи познания по минералите, те нямат понятие, че това всъщност е едно 12 годишно момче, син на германски евреи, постигнали американската мечта и разполагащи с имение и яхта.
Младият Опенхаймер е любопитна смесица от изумителен талант, влудяваща амбиция да остави ярък отпечатък (нямаща нищо общо с ограничена алчност или властолюбие) и доста крехка индивидуалност със склонност към неувереност и депресия. Така че младият Робърт е звездата на меката на довоенната физика - Гьотинген - но същевременно е подготвил и поставил отровна ябълка (в буквалния смисъл) на бюрото на научния си ръководител в Англия. Талантлив и енциклопедичен, влюбен в интелектуалните предизвикателства, той по същество се изгражда по-скоро като мултидисциплинарна личност с талант в квантовата физика, отколкото само като физик. Любител на психологията, литературата, езиците, със силно изявена склонност да търси и социална справедливост, той процъфтява като дете-чудо през Новия Курс на Рузвелт, когато симпатиите към комунизма в САЩ се разбират от американските леви интелектуалци като зов за социална справедливост и премахване на расовата дискриминация.
Втората световна война изтласква на заден план либерализма, и натъртва на патриотизма. А Опенхаймер е патриот, при това интелектуално изключително амбициозен патриот, жаден да докаже себе си в най-дълбоките дебри на познанието, и проектът “Манхатън” изглежда навременния отговор на всички тези стремежи. Всички участвали в него са единодушни, че атомната бомба не би могла да има по-успешен, харизматичен, целенасочен и гъвкав ръководител. Притесненията за разрушенията и жертвите са теоретично ясни на Опенхаймер, но бомбата е делото на живота му и те в никакъв случай не са първостепенен приоритет за него.
Но като всеки силен (и не само) интелект Опенхаймер мисли и в по-широк мащаб от ястребите във Вашингтон и в щаба, и след войната настоява за регулации и международно сътрудничество и открит научен обмен по отношение на атомната енергия. Когато САЩ се готви за водородната бомба, Опенхаймер активно се противопоставя на проекта с мотива, че в този случай има оръжие за геноцид - то никога не може да се ограничи в “тесния” периметър на един град, а поразява в огромни, континентални мащаби.
В началото на Студената война такава позиция е ерес. И поддръжниците на въоръжаването се заемат с Опенхаймер по маккартисткия маниер на лова на вещици. През 1954 г. след “изслушване”, което е чиста пародия на съдебен процес, Опенхаймер е отлъчен като ненадежден елемент. Така е изпратено и послание към несъгласните учени - да си затварят устите за политически изказвания и да изпълняват заповедите на военните стриктно и само в техническите си области.
Опенхаймер не е Нютон. Умът му обитава твърде много области извън чистата наука, и далеч не е научен идеалист. Опенхаймер не е и изцяло мъченик - има твърде много натрупани грехове, макар ФБР и Хувър действително да дават максимума от себе си в параноичния си тормоз и непрекъснато си шизофренно следене, за да го направят такъв. Дори не е винаги и добър човек. Но е определено умен и значим човек, неразривно показал заплетения възел между наука и военно приложение, наука и его, наука и политика, наука и свобода, наука и отговорност.
——
Конкретната биография черпи от изобилие от архивни материали - публични или за известен период засекретени. И точно тук е големият пропуск на авторите - те често се губят из изобилието и скачат от име на име и случка на случка. Цитати има безброй - на колеги, съседи и познати, на речи на самия Опенхаймер. Но реалната личност - противоречива и достатъчно хлъзгава, какъвто е бил и маниерът му - си остава все така забулена в изпарения и мъгли. В някои моменти впечатлението ми беше, сякаш се възпроизвеждат нечии клюки, но на силно странични и неинформирани свидетели, които не са в състояние да предоставят надеждни данни. В други биографии авторите изграждат собствена интерпретация, каквато тук предимно липсва. Това, разбира се, е добре за безпристрастността, но в прекалено количество уморява, задълбавайки в несъществени детайли, само за да реферират към някой външен източник.
Странна е и липсата на научни подробности. Физиката не е от лесните науки, но авторите действително всячески я избягват, което стои като голяма кръпка.
Все пак информацията е интересна и достатъчно представителна, очертава нееднозначна картина на епохата, всъщност на няколко епохи. А и е написана достъпно и с достатъчно мръвки от полезни насоки за осмисляне.
3,5⭐️
February 19, 2024
I don't think I will ever read another biography the same way again after reading this... My expectations have gone up the roof. Easiest 5 stars of the year.
August 21, 2023
Personally, all that I knew about J. Robert Oppenheimer was his time during Project Manhattan and a few details about his show trial in 1954. And that is where this book comes in.
The research put on display here is astonishing, I must say I am surprised so many records from his early life have survived. We have insane detail about his upbringing, early life, politics, correspondence from very famous contemporaries, anecdotes, Project Manhattan, Red Scare, life at Institute for Advanced Study and his tragic end. This book managed to bring a lot more context to these events and show me as close it is possible the real Oppenheimer.
What else can I say, this is probably the best biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer there is and together with Richard Rhodes' Making of the Atomic Bomb and Dark Sun makes the penultimate atomic trilogy.
The research put on display here is astonishing, I must say I am surprised so many records from his early life have survived. We have insane detail about his upbringing, early life, politics, correspondence from very famous contemporaries, anecdotes, Project Manhattan, Red Scare, life at Institute for Advanced Study and his tragic end. This book managed to bring a lot more context to these events and show me as close it is possible the real Oppenheimer.
What else can I say, this is probably the best biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer there is and together with Richard Rhodes' Making of the Atomic Bomb and Dark Sun makes the penultimate atomic trilogy.
August 15, 2023
Биографията към момента е любимият ми литературен жанр. Имам високи изисквания от една биография - да е добре проучена, да има щателно проведени интервюта, да има добър каст от бекграунд герои. Но най-вече: да има добре предадени противоречия.
Животът на човек е пълен с противоречия, а когато човекът е митична фигура като Опенхаймер, пукнатините на стената на мита се разцепват точно там където са противоречията: противоречията между Опенхаймер през 1927 и Опенхаймер през 1943, 1936 и 1947 г. И т.н.
Описанието на смъртта на Опенхаймер в последната глава ми подейства изключително потискащо, което за мен значи, че историческата биография успешно еволюира в литературна биография - за читателите, които искат и могат да я четат така.
Животът на човек е пълен с противоречия, а когато човекът е митична фигура като Опенхаймер, пукнатините на стената на мита се разцепват точно там където са противоречията: противоречията между Опенхаймер през 1927 и Опенхаймер през 1943, 1936 и 1947 г. И т.н.
Описанието на смъртта на Опенхаймер в последната глава ми подейства изключително потискащо, което за мен значи, че историческата биография успешно еволюира в литературна биография - за читателите, които искат и могат да я четат така.
September 11, 2023
Reseña completa en Youtube:
https://youtu.be/dBMif2e-VvE?si=hNHMk...
Esta es la biografía de #Oppenheimer, en la que ha basado su película Christopher Nolan, desde el origen de sus padres, estudios.., como se embarca en el proyecto del desarrollo de la bomba atómica, la construcción de Los Álamos, la Trinity, el lanzamiento de la bomba atómica contra los japoneses en Hiroshima y Nagasaki en agosto de 1945 dentro del conflicto bélico de la IIGM, qué pasó después y las consecuencias del mismo hasta su fallecimiento en 1967.
El groso de este libro se centra en una crónica periodística sobre los estudios e investigaciones de este físico teórico y asesor jefe en la Comisión de Energía Atómica de Estados Unidos, primero como héroe en una carrera contrarreloj para la creación de la bomba atómica antes que los alemanes y después acusado de comunista, lo llevó a una investigación manipulada y feroz en 1954 por sus ideales políticos antes de embarcarse en este proyecto, para desacreditarlo por su influencia al proponer un control internacional del armamento nuclear, que no se utilizara la energía nuclear como armamento cuando ya estaba en marcha el debate de la creación de la bomba H y que tuvo graves consecuencias para él e incluso para su familia.
Muestra a “Oppie” amante de la lectura, intelectual, extraordinariamente inteligente, gran conversador, profesor y conferenciante, un hombre complejo y atormentado que sentía sus manos manchadas de sangre.
Me quedo sin palabras ante la titánica obra, completa y compleja labor de investigación, pero de asequible lectura si no entiendes la física, compuesta por 859 págs. de las que 159 son notas, da una idea de la labor de documentación de los autores que tardaron 25 años en completarla, merecedora del Premio Pulitzer de Biografía y del retrato de un hombre extraordinario en su época por los avances creados pero que sufrió como nadie, su propia creación y que me deja una gran resaca lectora, hasta siempre Oppie.
Mención especial a la traductora, que si ya es complejo el libro de por sí, traducirlo ha tenido que ser una obra titánica.
Ahora ya sí, voy a ver la peli de Nolan, que aunque seguro es un peliculón, hay detalles que es imposible llevarlos a la gran pantalla por la duración de la misma y por la gran cantidad de detalles de la obra.
Por favor, leedlo.
https://youtu.be/dBMif2e-VvE?si=hNHMk...
Esta es la biografía de #Oppenheimer, en la que ha basado su película Christopher Nolan, desde el origen de sus padres, estudios.., como se embarca en el proyecto del desarrollo de la bomba atómica, la construcción de Los Álamos, la Trinity, el lanzamiento de la bomba atómica contra los japoneses en Hiroshima y Nagasaki en agosto de 1945 dentro del conflicto bélico de la IIGM, qué pasó después y las consecuencias del mismo hasta su fallecimiento en 1967.
El groso de este libro se centra en una crónica periodística sobre los estudios e investigaciones de este físico teórico y asesor jefe en la Comisión de Energía Atómica de Estados Unidos, primero como héroe en una carrera contrarreloj para la creación de la bomba atómica antes que los alemanes y después acusado de comunista, lo llevó a una investigación manipulada y feroz en 1954 por sus ideales políticos antes de embarcarse en este proyecto, para desacreditarlo por su influencia al proponer un control internacional del armamento nuclear, que no se utilizara la energía nuclear como armamento cuando ya estaba en marcha el debate de la creación de la bomba H y que tuvo graves consecuencias para él e incluso para su familia.
Muestra a “Oppie” amante de la lectura, intelectual, extraordinariamente inteligente, gran conversador, profesor y conferenciante, un hombre complejo y atormentado que sentía sus manos manchadas de sangre.
Me quedo sin palabras ante la titánica obra, completa y compleja labor de investigación, pero de asequible lectura si no entiendes la física, compuesta por 859 págs. de las que 159 son notas, da una idea de la labor de documentación de los autores que tardaron 25 años en completarla, merecedora del Premio Pulitzer de Biografía y del retrato de un hombre extraordinario en su época por los avances creados pero que sufrió como nadie, su propia creación y que me deja una gran resaca lectora, hasta siempre Oppie.
Mención especial a la traductora, que si ya es complejo el libro de por sí, traducirlo ha tenido que ser una obra titánica.
Ahora ya sí, voy a ver la peli de Nolan, que aunque seguro es un peliculón, hay detalles que es imposible llevarlos a la gran pantalla por la duración de la misma y por la gran cantidad de detalles de la obra.
Por favor, leedlo.
September 4, 2023
Escrito durante el asombroso período de 25 años y ganador de numerosos premios, el libro profundiza en varios aspectos de la vida de Oppenheimer dentro y fuera del Proyecto Manhattan: relación con sus padres, ambiciones, ideas, relación con otros físicos y su peculiares vínculos afectivos. El libro fue una de las principales referencias de Nolan para su película y, a pesar de su extensión, logra atrapar al lector sin dificultades. Pronto descubrimos una inteligencia privilegiada conviviendo con una personalidad curiosa, desconcertante y muchas veces aterradora. Mención especial para Kitty, personaje que se nos presenta en flashes: mujer altiva y frustrada, mente brillante, miembro comprometido de la sociedad, esposa valiente, madre fría y distante.
Una magistral obra, fruto de entrevistas a colegas, amigos, enemigos y familiares, investigaciones en archivos del FBI, documentos personales y grabaciones de discursos y declaraciones.
La vida de Oppie, sin duda, nos incomoda e interroga como sociedad y nos plantea la necesidad de dirimir si es posible la completa independencia económica de la investigación científica o, si en aras del bien común, debería responder ocasionalmente a intereses privados o bélicos. Este libro es un buen punto de partida para definir de qué lado estamos.
Una magistral obra, fruto de entrevistas a colegas, amigos, enemigos y familiares, investigaciones en archivos del FBI, documentos personales y grabaciones de discursos y declaraciones.
La vida de Oppie, sin duda, nos incomoda e interroga como sociedad y nos plantea la necesidad de dirimir si es posible la completa independencia económica de la investigación científica o, si en aras del bien común, debería responder ocasionalmente a intereses privados o bélicos. Este libro es un buen punto de partida para definir de qué lado estamos.
June 12, 2023
4.5 out of 5
Fascinating and very thorough! It took me a long time to get through it (mainly because I sometimes just felt like reading something quick and light instead), but I'm so glad I read it because I learned so much. I never knew what an interesting person Oppenheimer was!
The biography does feel a little dry and overly detailed in some parts, but the majority of it is flows very well, and despite its length it's not a difficult read. There is an excellent balance of biographical facts, personality, and political climate here, which really made me feel like I was getting the full picture. I would definitely recommend it to anyone even remotely interested in Oppenheimer.
Fascinating and very thorough! It took me a long time to get through it (mainly because I sometimes just felt like reading something quick and light instead), but I'm so glad I read it because I learned so much. I never knew what an interesting person Oppenheimer was!
The biography does feel a little dry and overly detailed in some parts, but the majority of it is flows very well, and despite its length it's not a difficult read. There is an excellent balance of biographical facts, personality, and political climate here, which really made me feel like I was getting the full picture. I would definitely recommend it to anyone even remotely interested in Oppenheimer.
August 5, 2023
Великолепна книга, но трябва да върви в комплект с "Ръководството по физика за пълни идиоти" (визирам себе си) за всички онези, които не са внимавали достатъчно в часовете по точни науки. Оттам и загубата на петата звезда. Иначе, поздравявам авторите - не е шега работа писането на подобна книга.
December 24, 2023
4 stars for the sheer unbiased depth of this biography. It took me nearly 6 months to read this, but I wouldn't fault the author for this as it is my fault. Oppenheimer's youth, his intelligence, his personality, his feelings about his work with the atomic bomb are spoken about in-depth, but I'd say his 'was he or wasn't he a Communist and pass secrets to the Russians?' was the biggest focus of the book. At times, I thought it was a bit tedious reading about who said this or who said that, but Bird's writing draws everything out, he makes his conclusion from the evidence and it seems logical and agreeable.
With that said above, I have decided that in order for me to read a full biography of someone, I'll really need to be interested in their whole life and I have failed to feel that right now. For some reason I don't connect to biographies, but can respect them for what they are. As I am a big fan of history, I will continue to read non-fiction, but perhaps steer clear of doorstopper bios that are so involved with the minutiae of someone's everyday life. Perhaps later in life when I'm tired of all the fiction on my bookshelves, I may revisit others lives, but now, I think I'll deal with my own.
With that said above, I have decided that in order for me to read a full biography of someone, I'll really need to be interested in their whole life and I have failed to feel that right now. For some reason I don't connect to biographies, but can respect them for what they are. As I am a big fan of history, I will continue to read non-fiction, but perhaps steer clear of doorstopper bios that are so involved with the minutiae of someone's everyday life. Perhaps later in life when I'm tired of all the fiction on my bookshelves, I may revisit others lives, but now, I think I'll deal with my own.
August 12, 2023
[ESP/ENG]
"Ahora he devenido muerte, el destructor de mundos."
Con el estreno de la película de Oppenheimer en ciernes, me recomendaron informarme un poco sobre el tema, porque hay muchos personajes y situaciones, y sabiendo más es más fácil entender por dónde va cada cosa. Buscando información me encontré con esta biografía en el servicio de eBiblio (un servicio fantástico, aprovechaos de ello cuando podáis) y estaba disponible en apenas un par de días, así que lo cogí. Al final he acabado el libro el mismo día que la voy a ir a ver, por lo que más fresco no puedo ir.
En esta biografía, o más bien habría que decir trabajo de arqueología, los autores, aunque principalmente ha sido Kai Bird, han dedicado 25 años a preparar este trabajo, y eso se nota. Tiene una profusión de notas y bibliografía que se podrían editar como libro independiente (en mi edición son casi 250 páginas de ello), y es por este motivo que le subo a 4⭐, ya que creo que todo este trabajo es de valorar.
En cuanto al libro en sí, es una biografía muy completa y exhaustiva de J. Robert Oppenheimer, físico teórico, aficionado a la poesía, a la psicología y a otras muchas cosas, un hombre conocido principalmente por la dirección del laboratorio que construyó la primera bomba atómica, pero que no solo hizo eso. Era un genio y lo que se puede llamar un hombre del renacimiento (palabras textuales del propio libro), que por supuesto tuvo sus luces y sus sombras.
El libro se distribuye en cinco partes, aunque no son tan marcadas como suele ser habitual, ya que no tuvo cambios radicales sino progresivos y es difícil decir donde acaba una etapa y empieza otra. Nos narran su infancia (incluso cosas previas a su nacimiento), su etapa formativa, su primera etapa docente, la obvia en que dirige el laboratorio de Los Álamos, su posterior etapa profesional y su etapa final. He de decir que no todo me ha resultado tan interesante, sobre todo la continua pregunta de si fue comunista o no (obviamente es un tema importante por lo que pasó durante toda su vida, pero creo que se reincide demasiado en el tema)
Por contra, la parte de Los Álamos me ha parecido muy interesante, ver cómo se veía aquello desde dentro, lo que supuso el proyecto Manhattan para muchos de los implicados, desde su concepción inicial hasta la consecución del objetivo. Me ha chocado saber que en algún punto, de manera altamente improbable pero no descartado del todo, se tenía en cuenta la posibilidad de que al detonar la bomba atómica se pudiese incendiar toda la atmósfera y mandarnos a todos al carajo. Otra de las partes que me ha gustado es el relato de su segunda etapa profesional, todo el mundo conoce lo anterior y lo posterior, pero su etapa como director del Instituto de estudios avanzados de Princeton (no la universidad) es también muy interesante.
«Señor presidente —murmuró—, siento que tengo las manos manchadas de sangre».
Después de los hechos de Hiroshima y Nagasaki, Oppenheimer tuvo un cambio de carácter. Nunca se arrepintió de lo que hizo, pero sí enfocó los hechos de otra manera y sobre todo su forma de pensar. Aquello, junto a su pasado posible de comunista (repito yo y repite el libro hasta la saciedad que jamás hubo prueba de ello) le ocasionaron unos problemas muy graves, detallados muy bien y acabados en una Audiencia de seguridad, que más bien era una encerrona premeditada y con prácticas altamente ilegales. De aquí salen nombres como Lewis Strauss o J. Edgar Hoover.
Una obra más que recomendable para saber todo lo que se quiera sobre la vida de este hombre, aunque en algunos pasajes se pueda hacer un pelín farragoso en cuanto a nombres o fechas.
No puedo dejar de decir que con tanto "nuclear" que se menciona, me ha venido constantemente esto a la cabeza (cuando uno es así de tonto no se puede hacer más 😅)
---------------------------------------
"Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds."
With the premiere of Oppenheimer's film just around the corner, they recommended that I learn a little about the subject, because there are many characters and situations, and knowing more makes it easier to understand where everything is going. Looking for information I came across this biography on the library and it was available in just a couple of days, so I took it. In the end I finished the book the same day that I'm going to see the movie, so I can't go any fresher.
In this biography, or rather one should say archeology work, the authors, although it has mainly been Kai Bird, have spent 25 years preparing this work, and it shows. It has a profusion of notes and a bibliography that could be edited as an independent book (in my edition there are almost 250 pages of it), and it is for this reason that I raise it to 4⭐, since I think that all this work is to be valued.
As for the book itself, it is a very complete and exhaustive biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer, theoretical physicist, fond of poetry, psychology and many other things, a man known mainly for directing the laboratory that built the first atomic bomb, but he didn't do that only. He was a genius and what can be called a renaissance man (exact words from the book itself), which of course had his lights and shadows.
The book is distributed in five parts, although they are not as marked as usual, since he did not have radical changes but progressive ones and it is difficult to say where one stage ends and another begins. They tell us about his childhood (including things prior to his birth), his formative stage, his first teaching stage, the obvious one in which he directs the Los Alamos laboratory, his subsequent professional stage and his final stage. I have to say that not everything has been so interesting to me, especially the continuous question of whether he was a communist or not (obviously it is an important subject because of what he went through throughout his life, but I think that the subject is repeated too much)
On the other hand, the Los Álamos part seemed very interesting to me, to see how it looked from the inside, what the Manhattan project meant for many of those involved, from its initial conception to the achievement of the objective. I was shocked to learn that at some point, highly improbable but not completely ruled out, the possibility was taken into account that by detonating the atomic bomb the entire atmosphere could be set on fire and send us all to hell. Another part that I liked is the account of his second professional stage, everyone knows the before and after, but his stage as director of the Princeton Institute for Advanced Studies (not the university) is also very interesting.
“Mr. President,” he said quietly, “I feel I have blood on my hands”.
After the events of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Oppenheimer had a change of character. He never regretted what he did, but he did approach the facts in a different way and above all his way of thinking. That, along with his possible past as a communist (I repeat and the book repeats endlessly that there was never any proof of it) caused him some very serious problems, very well detailed and ended in a security hearing, which was more like a trap, premeditated and with highly illegal practices. Names like Lewis Strauss or J. Edgar Hoover come from here.
A more than recommended work to know everything you want about the life of this man, although in some passages it can be a bit crowded with names or dates.
I can't help but say that with so much "nuclear" being mentioned, this has constantly come to my mind (when you're that stupid, you can't do anything about it😅)
"Ahora he devenido muerte, el destructor de mundos."
Con el estreno de la película de Oppenheimer en ciernes, me recomendaron informarme un poco sobre el tema, porque hay muchos personajes y situaciones, y sabiendo más es más fácil entender por dónde va cada cosa. Buscando información me encontré con esta biografía en el servicio de eBiblio (un servicio fantástico, aprovechaos de ello cuando podáis) y estaba disponible en apenas un par de días, así que lo cogí. Al final he acabado el libro el mismo día que la voy a ir a ver, por lo que más fresco no puedo ir.
En esta biografía, o más bien habría que decir trabajo de arqueología, los autores, aunque principalmente ha sido Kai Bird, han dedicado 25 años a preparar este trabajo, y eso se nota. Tiene una profusión de notas y bibliografía que se podrían editar como libro independiente (en mi edición son casi 250 páginas de ello), y es por este motivo que le subo a 4⭐, ya que creo que todo este trabajo es de valorar.
En cuanto al libro en sí, es una biografía muy completa y exhaustiva de J. Robert Oppenheimer, físico teórico, aficionado a la poesía, a la psicología y a otras muchas cosas, un hombre conocido principalmente por la dirección del laboratorio que construyó la primera bomba atómica, pero que no solo hizo eso. Era un genio y lo que se puede llamar un hombre del renacimiento (palabras textuales del propio libro), que por supuesto tuvo sus luces y sus sombras.
El libro se distribuye en cinco partes, aunque no son tan marcadas como suele ser habitual, ya que no tuvo cambios radicales sino progresivos y es difícil decir donde acaba una etapa y empieza otra. Nos narran su infancia (incluso cosas previas a su nacimiento), su etapa formativa, su primera etapa docente, la obvia en que dirige el laboratorio de Los Álamos, su posterior etapa profesional y su etapa final. He de decir que no todo me ha resultado tan interesante, sobre todo la continua pregunta de si fue comunista o no (obviamente es un tema importante por lo que pasó durante toda su vida, pero creo que se reincide demasiado en el tema)
Por contra, la parte de Los Álamos me ha parecido muy interesante, ver cómo se veía aquello desde dentro, lo que supuso el proyecto Manhattan para muchos de los implicados, desde su concepción inicial hasta la consecución del objetivo. Me ha chocado saber que en algún punto, de manera altamente improbable pero no descartado del todo, se tenía en cuenta la posibilidad de que al detonar la bomba atómica se pudiese incendiar toda la atmósfera y mandarnos a todos al carajo. Otra de las partes que me ha gustado es el relato de su segunda etapa profesional, todo el mundo conoce lo anterior y lo posterior, pero su etapa como director del Instituto de estudios avanzados de Princeton (no la universidad) es también muy interesante.
«Señor presidente —murmuró—, siento que tengo las manos manchadas de sangre».
Después de los hechos de Hiroshima y Nagasaki, Oppenheimer tuvo un cambio de carácter. Nunca se arrepintió de lo que hizo, pero sí enfocó los hechos de otra manera y sobre todo su forma de pensar. Aquello, junto a su pasado posible de comunista (repito yo y repite el libro hasta la saciedad que jamás hubo prueba de ello) le ocasionaron unos problemas muy graves, detallados muy bien y acabados en una Audiencia de seguridad, que más bien era una encerrona premeditada y con prácticas altamente ilegales. De aquí salen nombres como Lewis Strauss o J. Edgar Hoover.
Una obra más que recomendable para saber todo lo que se quiera sobre la vida de este hombre, aunque en algunos pasajes se pueda hacer un pelín farragoso en cuanto a nombres o fechas.
No puedo dejar de decir que con tanto "nuclear" que se menciona, me ha venido constantemente esto a la cabeza (cuando uno es así de tonto no se puede hacer más 😅)
---------------------------------------
"Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds."
With the premiere of Oppenheimer's film just around the corner, they recommended that I learn a little about the subject, because there are many characters and situations, and knowing more makes it easier to understand where everything is going. Looking for information I came across this biography on the library and it was available in just a couple of days, so I took it. In the end I finished the book the same day that I'm going to see the movie, so I can't go any fresher.
In this biography, or rather one should say archeology work, the authors, although it has mainly been Kai Bird, have spent 25 years preparing this work, and it shows. It has a profusion of notes and a bibliography that could be edited as an independent book (in my edition there are almost 250 pages of it), and it is for this reason that I raise it to 4⭐, since I think that all this work is to be valued.
As for the book itself, it is a very complete and exhaustive biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer, theoretical physicist, fond of poetry, psychology and many other things, a man known mainly for directing the laboratory that built the first atomic bomb, but he didn't do that only. He was a genius and what can be called a renaissance man (exact words from the book itself), which of course had his lights and shadows.
The book is distributed in five parts, although they are not as marked as usual, since he did not have radical changes but progressive ones and it is difficult to say where one stage ends and another begins. They tell us about his childhood (including things prior to his birth), his formative stage, his first teaching stage, the obvious one in which he directs the Los Alamos laboratory, his subsequent professional stage and his final stage. I have to say that not everything has been so interesting to me, especially the continuous question of whether he was a communist or not (obviously it is an important subject because of what he went through throughout his life, but I think that the subject is repeated too much)
On the other hand, the Los Álamos part seemed very interesting to me, to see how it looked from the inside, what the Manhattan project meant for many of those involved, from its initial conception to the achievement of the objective. I was shocked to learn that at some point, highly improbable but not completely ruled out, the possibility was taken into account that by detonating the atomic bomb the entire atmosphere could be set on fire and send us all to hell. Another part that I liked is the account of his second professional stage, everyone knows the before and after, but his stage as director of the Princeton Institute for Advanced Studies (not the university) is also very interesting.
“Mr. President,” he said quietly, “I feel I have blood on my hands”.
After the events of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Oppenheimer had a change of character. He never regretted what he did, but he did approach the facts in a different way and above all his way of thinking. That, along with his possible past as a communist (I repeat and the book repeats endlessly that there was never any proof of it) caused him some very serious problems, very well detailed and ended in a security hearing, which was more like a trap, premeditated and with highly illegal practices. Names like Lewis Strauss or J. Edgar Hoover come from here.
A more than recommended work to know everything you want about the life of this man, although in some passages it can be a bit crowded with names or dates.
I can't help but say that with so much "nuclear" being mentioned, this has constantly come to my mind (when you're that stupid, you can't do anything about it😅)
February 4, 2015
From a literary standpoint, this book was a true pleasure to read. A thorough biography of the brilliant but flawed physicist. Yet, from the view of being an American, I found it revolting. Oppenheimer, despite his propensity to be arrogant to the wrong people at the wrong times, deserved a far, far better fate than what ultimately came his way.
Sherwin and Bird tell a fabulous story. At almost 600 pages, I feel like they have exhaustively covered all of Oppenheimer's life, yet not a single page was boring or unimportant. Everything they write about has a purpose - either professionally or personally - in Oppenheimer's life. His character is fully developed, his brilliance shines through on so many levels, and his mistakes are discussed in a fair way that minimizes the ones that were not costly, and maximizes the ones that proved fatal to his career.
Oppenheimer was guilty of nothing worse than what all of us are guilty of: poor decisions when he was younger, and keeping questionable company. (NOTE: He did cheat on his wife, Kitty, but that is not what he was essentially on trial for in 1954.) Unfortunately, he was politically naïve and sometimes failed to grasp what others were trying to do to him. He was never a member of the Communist Party, was not a traitor, and did not pass atomic secrets to Russia or any other country.
He was far to the left in the 1930s, gradually moving towards the center in the early 1940s as WWII was underway. His brother and his wife had been Communists, as had many of Oppenheimer's friends and acquaintances in California. The FBI knew this, and he was still allowed to be named Director of Los Alamos Research Lab in New Mexico to begin work on the atomic bomb. From then on, he only became more centrist politically, and drifted further and further away from any positive feelings towards Communism.
Yet, he made a powerful enemy in Lewis Strauss, Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission. Strauss truly hated Oppenheimer both personally and professionally, and went to great (read: illegal) lengths to not only get his security clearance revoked, but permanently smear his reputation and destroy him. The things that Strauss did, how he did them, that he had the FBI's help, and was also backed by the obtuse, hysterical Red-baiting craze of the time, are appalling to read about.
Strauss is the main villain here, but several other people were less than upstanding individuals: Edward Teller, Ernest Lawrence, Harry Truman, J. Edgar Hoover (no surprise there), and Dwight Eisenhower, to name a few. Truman really comes across poorly: bent on being "decisive", he already has his mind made up about using the atomic bomb, and later on about moving forward with the development of the H bomb, without even listening to the scientists that he was paying to advise the government.
The best parts of the book were the detailed proceedings of the security clearance "trial" in 1954, and all of the interesting anecdotes and intimate items about Oppenheimer the man. When I reached the end of the book, with him dying a painful death due to throat cancer and chemotherapy, I truly felt sorry for the man. He had devoted his life to science, and to his country, only to be stabbed in the back, harassed, professionally tarnished, and personally smeared. He looks so much better today than all of the people who tried to ruin him.
Grade: A
Sherwin and Bird tell a fabulous story. At almost 600 pages, I feel like they have exhaustively covered all of Oppenheimer's life, yet not a single page was boring or unimportant. Everything they write about has a purpose - either professionally or personally - in Oppenheimer's life. His character is fully developed, his brilliance shines through on so many levels, and his mistakes are discussed in a fair way that minimizes the ones that were not costly, and maximizes the ones that proved fatal to his career.
Oppenheimer was guilty of nothing worse than what all of us are guilty of: poor decisions when he was younger, and keeping questionable company. (NOTE: He did cheat on his wife, Kitty, but that is not what he was essentially on trial for in 1954.) Unfortunately, he was politically naïve and sometimes failed to grasp what others were trying to do to him. He was never a member of the Communist Party, was not a traitor, and did not pass atomic secrets to Russia or any other country.
He was far to the left in the 1930s, gradually moving towards the center in the early 1940s as WWII was underway. His brother and his wife had been Communists, as had many of Oppenheimer's friends and acquaintances in California. The FBI knew this, and he was still allowed to be named Director of Los Alamos Research Lab in New Mexico to begin work on the atomic bomb. From then on, he only became more centrist politically, and drifted further and further away from any positive feelings towards Communism.
Yet, he made a powerful enemy in Lewis Strauss, Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission. Strauss truly hated Oppenheimer both personally and professionally, and went to great (read: illegal) lengths to not only get his security clearance revoked, but permanently smear his reputation and destroy him. The things that Strauss did, how he did them, that he had the FBI's help, and was also backed by the obtuse, hysterical Red-baiting craze of the time, are appalling to read about.
Strauss is the main villain here, but several other people were less than upstanding individuals: Edward Teller, Ernest Lawrence, Harry Truman, J. Edgar Hoover (no surprise there), and Dwight Eisenhower, to name a few. Truman really comes across poorly: bent on being "decisive", he already has his mind made up about using the atomic bomb, and later on about moving forward with the development of the H bomb, without even listening to the scientists that he was paying to advise the government.
The best parts of the book were the detailed proceedings of the security clearance "trial" in 1954, and all of the interesting anecdotes and intimate items about Oppenheimer the man. When I reached the end of the book, with him dying a painful death due to throat cancer and chemotherapy, I truly felt sorry for the man. He had devoted his life to science, and to his country, only to be stabbed in the back, harassed, professionally tarnished, and personally smeared. He looks so much better today than all of the people who tried to ruin him.
Grade: A
December 8, 2023
My own benefit from American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin is debunking the myth that Einstein was directly involved in the A-bomb's development. As a non-American, I'd never heard the phrase 'the father of the atomic bomb' until reading the book, and, for me, Einstein was the epitome of progressive physics as well as a refugee from Nazi Germany. Of course, that proved incorrect.
It's unnecessary to speak at length about the book so well-known and so well-advertized by the 2023 movie (which I have yet to see, by the way). It was highly enlightening in general and particularly in its part dealing with the frenzy behind the arms race. The Cold War hysteria was born at the dawn of atomic energy: If we didn't do it first (create the first bomb, then stockpile bombs, then make a more powerful H-bomb), 'they' would have the advantage over us. Oppenheimer and many physicists insisted on sharing all available information with the Russians. It was a utopian plan - Stalin wouldn't have reciprocated - but still admirable from hindsight.
Also, from hindsight, Oppenheimer's days as an innovative theoretical physicist seemed over after the Manhattan Project. He gained the undisputed reputation of a genius, yet political squabbles with the FBI had murked up his Princeton years.
As one reviewer noted, such a comprehensive biography running up to 721 pages, including indexes and a bibliography, needs more depth in parts concerning pure physics. The authors emasculated the text to make it readable for every audience member at the expense of those who would be okay with little bits of science. With respect to the amount of research on which the book is mounted, I still gave it five stars.
It's unnecessary to speak at length about the book so well-known and so well-advertized by the 2023 movie (which I have yet to see, by the way). It was highly enlightening in general and particularly in its part dealing with the frenzy behind the arms race. The Cold War hysteria was born at the dawn of atomic energy: If we didn't do it first (create the first bomb, then stockpile bombs, then make a more powerful H-bomb), 'they' would have the advantage over us. Oppenheimer and many physicists insisted on sharing all available information with the Russians. It was a utopian plan - Stalin wouldn't have reciprocated - but still admirable from hindsight.
Also, from hindsight, Oppenheimer's days as an innovative theoretical physicist seemed over after the Manhattan Project. He gained the undisputed reputation of a genius, yet political squabbles with the FBI had murked up his Princeton years.
As one reviewer noted, such a comprehensive biography running up to 721 pages, including indexes and a bibliography, needs more depth in parts concerning pure physics. The authors emasculated the text to make it readable for every audience member at the expense of those who would be okay with little bits of science. With respect to the amount of research on which the book is mounted, I still gave it five stars.
January 1, 2024
An amazing book, about an amazing man.
February 25, 2023
Among the many controversies that color American history, almost none of them evoke as much passionate argument as the decision to drop the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the Second World War. For decades people have quarreled over their necessity, with virtually every historian writing about the war compelled to declare a position on the matter. Yet few such doubts troubled people at the time when the bombs were dropped. Not only did the rudimentary opinion polls indicate that an overwhelming majority of Americans favored their use, but the news of their successful deployment turned the man who headed the project, Robert Oppenheimer, into a national hero.
Ironically, one of the few at the time who questioned the use of the bomb was Oppenheimer itself. While proud of the successful test in July 1945 of the device he spent nearly three demanding years shepherding into existence, this pride was soon tempered by the prospect of its use as a weapon of war. Confessing to the president, Harry Truman, that he felt that he had “blood on his hands,” he tried to use his newfound celebrity to influence the direction of American policymaking in the hopes of warding off an arms race that could end humanity. In less than a decade, however, Oppenheimer found himself driven from public life, forced into a melancholy exile from both physics and the corridors of power. The arc of this career is at the heart of Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin’s biography of the man. This approach fuels their explanation of how a brilliant, sensitive individual came to play such an important role in building an unprecedented means of destruction, and why he ended up ostracized from the very system his achievement had empowered.
The authors trace the origins of Oppenheimer’s humanistic outlook to his upbringing. As the son of a wealthy textile importer and his cultured, artistically inclined wife, Robert enjoyed a privileged upbringing. Though both of his parents were of Jewish extraction, they had been married by Felix Adler, the founder of a reformist sect known as Ethical Culture, which embraced a broader, more secularly-oriented and humanist approach. As a boy Robert was educated at the Ethical Culture Society School, where he excelled academically from the start. While Oppenheimer majored in chemistry at Harvard University, after graduating summa cum laude he turned to physics and pursued graduate studies in Europe at both Cambridge University and the University of Göttingen. It was at Göttingen that Oppenheimer found himself at the heart of a pivotal moment in the development of theoretical physics, one in which he soon made a number of notable contributions himself.
Upon earning his doctorate at the age of just 23 Oppenheimer returned to the United States, where he took up a position at the University of California. Once there he soon contributed markedly to the emergence of the school as a leading center for scientific study, and mentored an entire generation of promising young physicists. Oppenheimer was also increasingly drawn to support various political causes of the 1930s, particularly unionization and the fight against fascism in Europe. These brought him into association with several Communist Party members, which would create trouble for him in the decades that followed. Though Bird and Sherwin spend considerable space in the book delineating these relationships and exploring the question of whether Oppenheimer ever became a member of the party, their conclusion ultimately is an inconclusive one. In the end, only Oppenheimer could really say for certain whether or not he was a Communist.
Oppenheimer’s association with Communists brought him to the attention of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and made several officials wary about employing him in the effort to develop an atomic bomb during the Second World War. Yet Oppenheimer’s early contributions to the initial investigation of the “uranium problem” were so impressive that by the late summer of 1942 he had emerged as the clear choice to run the weapons laboratory where the bomb would be designed and built. Oppenheimer grew quickly into the role, developing the administrative skills needed to harness and organize the enormous amount of scientific talent recruited to work at the Los Alamos site. Despite the toll the enormous strain took on him, success vindicated his efforts, as within two and a half years the Los Alamos team built something that was unimaginable barely a half-decade earlier.
Troubled as he was by the consequences of his achievement, Oppenheimer dedicated himself after the war to promoting international control of atomic technology. These efforts were soon preempted, however, by the growing tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union. The circumstances of the emerging Cold War made Oppenheimer’s efforts to concede America’s advantage in atomic weapons particularly suspect, and the esteemed scientist increasingly found his counsel marginalized in policymaking circles. Foremost among his opponents was Lewis Strauss, a Republican and member of the newly-formed Atomic Energy Commission, who regarded Oppenheimer’s views with growing hostility. After being named as the commission’s chairman by Dwight Eisenhower in 1953 Strauss pushed to rescind Oppenheimer’s security clearance, with his efforts culminating in a series of hearings in the spring of 1954 that resulted in Oppenheimer losing his clearance the day before its expiration.
Bird and Sherwin argue that Oppenheimer’s humiliation had a chilling effect on the public debate over nuclear weapons by demonstrating that not even the scientists whose work made them possible were immune from retribution when they dissented openly. And while Oppenheimer enjoyed a measure of rehabilitation in the years before his death from cancer in 1967, he remained detached from public affairs to the end of his life. It is difficult to finish this book without regret over this, as the authors’ portrait of Oppenheimer underscores the singular mixture of intellectual brilliance and wisdom that was lost as a result. The sensitivity of their depiction of their subject is just one reason why their book is such an essential read for anyone interested in this fascinating figure. Though some may bog down in their almost granular examination of Oppenheimer’s political associations, their decades of archival research and interviews with dozens of people who know Oppenheimer make this an invaluable account of his life, one that recounts in clear and accessible prose both the scope of his achievements and the tragedy of his fate.
Ironically, one of the few at the time who questioned the use of the bomb was Oppenheimer itself. While proud of the successful test in July 1945 of the device he spent nearly three demanding years shepherding into existence, this pride was soon tempered by the prospect of its use as a weapon of war. Confessing to the president, Harry Truman, that he felt that he had “blood on his hands,” he tried to use his newfound celebrity to influence the direction of American policymaking in the hopes of warding off an arms race that could end humanity. In less than a decade, however, Oppenheimer found himself driven from public life, forced into a melancholy exile from both physics and the corridors of power. The arc of this career is at the heart of Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin’s biography of the man. This approach fuels their explanation of how a brilliant, sensitive individual came to play such an important role in building an unprecedented means of destruction, and why he ended up ostracized from the very system his achievement had empowered.
The authors trace the origins of Oppenheimer’s humanistic outlook to his upbringing. As the son of a wealthy textile importer and his cultured, artistically inclined wife, Robert enjoyed a privileged upbringing. Though both of his parents were of Jewish extraction, they had been married by Felix Adler, the founder of a reformist sect known as Ethical Culture, which embraced a broader, more secularly-oriented and humanist approach. As a boy Robert was educated at the Ethical Culture Society School, where he excelled academically from the start. While Oppenheimer majored in chemistry at Harvard University, after graduating summa cum laude he turned to physics and pursued graduate studies in Europe at both Cambridge University and the University of Göttingen. It was at Göttingen that Oppenheimer found himself at the heart of a pivotal moment in the development of theoretical physics, one in which he soon made a number of notable contributions himself.
Upon earning his doctorate at the age of just 23 Oppenheimer returned to the United States, where he took up a position at the University of California. Once there he soon contributed markedly to the emergence of the school as a leading center for scientific study, and mentored an entire generation of promising young physicists. Oppenheimer was also increasingly drawn to support various political causes of the 1930s, particularly unionization and the fight against fascism in Europe. These brought him into association with several Communist Party members, which would create trouble for him in the decades that followed. Though Bird and Sherwin spend considerable space in the book delineating these relationships and exploring the question of whether Oppenheimer ever became a member of the party, their conclusion ultimately is an inconclusive one. In the end, only Oppenheimer could really say for certain whether or not he was a Communist.
Oppenheimer’s association with Communists brought him to the attention of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and made several officials wary about employing him in the effort to develop an atomic bomb during the Second World War. Yet Oppenheimer’s early contributions to the initial investigation of the “uranium problem” were so impressive that by the late summer of 1942 he had emerged as the clear choice to run the weapons laboratory where the bomb would be designed and built. Oppenheimer grew quickly into the role, developing the administrative skills needed to harness and organize the enormous amount of scientific talent recruited to work at the Los Alamos site. Despite the toll the enormous strain took on him, success vindicated his efforts, as within two and a half years the Los Alamos team built something that was unimaginable barely a half-decade earlier.
Troubled as he was by the consequences of his achievement, Oppenheimer dedicated himself after the war to promoting international control of atomic technology. These efforts were soon preempted, however, by the growing tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union. The circumstances of the emerging Cold War made Oppenheimer’s efforts to concede America’s advantage in atomic weapons particularly suspect, and the esteemed scientist increasingly found his counsel marginalized in policymaking circles. Foremost among his opponents was Lewis Strauss, a Republican and member of the newly-formed Atomic Energy Commission, who regarded Oppenheimer’s views with growing hostility. After being named as the commission’s chairman by Dwight Eisenhower in 1953 Strauss pushed to rescind Oppenheimer’s security clearance, with his efforts culminating in a series of hearings in the spring of 1954 that resulted in Oppenheimer losing his clearance the day before its expiration.
Bird and Sherwin argue that Oppenheimer’s humiliation had a chilling effect on the public debate over nuclear weapons by demonstrating that not even the scientists whose work made them possible were immune from retribution when they dissented openly. And while Oppenheimer enjoyed a measure of rehabilitation in the years before his death from cancer in 1967, he remained detached from public affairs to the end of his life. It is difficult to finish this book without regret over this, as the authors’ portrait of Oppenheimer underscores the singular mixture of intellectual brilliance and wisdom that was lost as a result. The sensitivity of their depiction of their subject is just one reason why their book is such an essential read for anyone interested in this fascinating figure. Though some may bog down in their almost granular examination of Oppenheimer’s political associations, their decades of archival research and interviews with dozens of people who know Oppenheimer make this an invaluable account of his life, one that recounts in clear and accessible prose both the scope of his achievements and the tragedy of his fate.
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December 4, 2016It was an interesting read and an interesting life though during the course of it I realised that Oppenheimer didn't appeal to me at all as a person.
The background is interesting, particularly the role of Communism in the USA during the Popular Front period of opposition to Fascism before WWII and how that then panned out in the 1950s, ie what had been permissible came to be viewed as criminal even treacherous. Purely as a result of this Oppenheimer's younger brother ended up effectively in a form of internal exile in the USA unable to work at all in physics .
Oppenheimer emerges as a competitive, ambitious figure who was perfectly willing to overlook any moral scruples to have the atomic bomb constructed and then tested. Particularly interesting was how the team involved in developing the Atom bomb campaigned to have two Japanese target towns reserved for them to test the bomb out on (there's a discussion of the cost effectiveness of the development of the atomic bomb over investment in conventional weaponry in The Shock of the Old that is worth looking at in this context ).
This is also a life in science and worth reading for picture of how the new physics of the early 20th century was transmitted by Oppenheimer and others who were partially educated in Europe and then propagated those ideas in the USA in the pre-war period.
The background is interesting, particularly the role of Communism in the USA during the Popular Front period of opposition to Fascism before WWII and how that then panned out in the 1950s, ie what had been permissible came to be viewed as criminal even treacherous. Purely as a result of this Oppenheimer's younger brother ended up effectively in a form of internal exile in the USA unable to work at all in physics .
Oppenheimer emerges as a competitive, ambitious figure who was perfectly willing to overlook any moral scruples to have the atomic bomb constructed and then tested. Particularly interesting was how the team involved in developing the Atom bomb campaigned to have two Japanese target towns reserved for them to test the bomb out on (there's a discussion of the cost effectiveness of the development of the atomic bomb over investment in conventional weaponry in The Shock of the Old that is worth looking at in this context ).
This is also a life in science and worth reading for picture of how the new physics of the early 20th century was transmitted by Oppenheimer and others who were partially educated in Europe and then propagated those ideas in the USA in the pre-war period.
January 4, 2024
1st book of 2024.
Started in summer; finished in winter. I found it overly long and detailed, while paradoxically not digging deep enough into the man Oppenheimer himself. Whose motivations come across as somewhat of a cypher. The history from his time as a university student through the war to the immediate post-war period was the most interesting for me. His subsequent trial by the AEC and loss of security clearance less interesting—or at least that section could have been shortened; as too the post-trial period where he seems to have been mostly drinking cocktails in the Virgin Islands.
It's his passivity during and post-trial that is most disturbing. He was in a unique position to argue against nuclear proliferation after the war, but he seems to have largely given this up as soon as he lost his insider status.
An interesting, if overly long read.
4-stars.
Started in summer; finished in winter. I found it overly long and detailed, while paradoxically not digging deep enough into the man Oppenheimer himself. Whose motivations come across as somewhat of a cypher. The history from his time as a university student through the war to the immediate post-war period was the most interesting for me. His subsequent trial by the AEC and loss of security clearance less interesting—or at least that section could have been shortened; as too the post-trial period where he seems to have been mostly drinking cocktails in the Virgin Islands.
It's his passivity during and post-trial that is most disturbing. He was in a unique position to argue against nuclear proliferation after the war, but he seems to have largely given this up as soon as he lost his insider status.
An interesting, if overly long read.
4-stars.
July 23, 2023
I'm a fan of biographies of scientists and this one had been on my TBR since it was published. For obvious reasons it finally got off my TBR. And it is an amazing piece of writing but is not really a scientific biography. Which might be fair because if all Robert Oppenheimer did was science I probably would not be reading a biography of him (when I still have not gotten around to The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Mystic of the Atom, among others). But still I really wished the authors explained Oppenheimer's early scientific papers and their consequences. And discussed more of the science and engineering of the bomb and the role that Oppenheimer played in resolving them. I am left feeling that I'm soon going to need to take another book off my TBR shelf, one that has been there even longer, The Making of the Atomic Bomb.
The book does have everything a standard biography would have: A little about Oppenheimer's parents, his early life at the Ethical Culture School, college, grad school, early science, all the way through his last years and death. But the overwhelming focus is on his "trial" over revoking his security clearance. It is the not that the trial section itself is quite long (but riveting, like all courtroom dramas, even when you know how it will end). It is that much of what came earlier in the book was planting seeds that the authors come back to in the trial scene. Seeds like Oppenheimer's relationships to communists, his wife's communist first husband, and especially the "Chevalier incident" where someone asked him to spy which is told in gory detail multiple times throughout the book in a way that makes sense for a courtroom drama but in some sense does not for a biography, and certainly not for a scientific biography.
The biography is strong on nuance (for Oppenheimer, not for his tormentor Lewis Strauss who probably does not deserve any nuance). The ways in which Oppenheimer changed. The ways in which he was not the simple hero that the left subsequently wanted to make him (e.g., when he was opposing the H bomb he was supporting tactical nuclear weapons which he thought could actually be used in wars). A number of his political views at all stages were clearly naive and wrong in retrospect. Ultimately, however, he is a great character--fewer flashy anecdotes (and brilliant scientific contributions) than Richard Feynman but a complex and tragic tale that makes for great reading.
The book does have everything a standard biography would have: A little about Oppenheimer's parents, his early life at the Ethical Culture School, college, grad school, early science, all the way through his last years and death. But the overwhelming focus is on his "trial" over revoking his security clearance. It is the not that the trial section itself is quite long (but riveting, like all courtroom dramas, even when you know how it will end). It is that much of what came earlier in the book was planting seeds that the authors come back to in the trial scene. Seeds like Oppenheimer's relationships to communists, his wife's communist first husband, and especially the "Chevalier incident" where someone asked him to spy which is told in gory detail multiple times throughout the book in a way that makes sense for a courtroom drama but in some sense does not for a biography, and certainly not for a scientific biography.
The biography is strong on nuance (for Oppenheimer, not for his tormentor Lewis Strauss who probably does not deserve any nuance). The ways in which Oppenheimer changed. The ways in which he was not the simple hero that the left subsequently wanted to make him (e.g., when he was opposing the H bomb he was supporting tactical nuclear weapons which he thought could actually be used in wars). A number of his political views at all stages were clearly naive and wrong in retrospect. Ultimately, however, he is a great character--fewer flashy anecdotes (and brilliant scientific contributions) than Richard Feynman but a complex and tragic tale that makes for great reading.
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