Product Description
J. Robert Oppenheimer is one of the iconic figures of the twentieth century, a brilliant physicist who led the effort to build the atomic bomb for his country in a time of war, and who later found himself confronting the moral consequences of scientific progress. In this magisterial, acclaimed biography twenty-five years in the making, Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin capture Oppenheimer’s life and times, from his early career to his central role in the Cold War. This is biography and history at its finest, riveting and deeply informative.

Amazon.com Review
In American Prometheus, Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin delve deep into J. Robert Oppenheimer's life and deliver a thorough and devastatingly sad biography of the man whose very name has come to represent the culmination of 20th century physics and the irrevocable soiling of science by governments eager to exploit its products. Rich in historical detail and personal narratives, the book paints a picture of Oppenheimer as both a controlling force and victim of the mechanisms of power.

By the time the story reaches Oppenheimer's fateful Manhattan Project work, readers have been swept along much as the project's young physicists were by fate and enormous pressure. The authors allow the scientists to speak for themselves about their reactions to the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, avoiding any sort of preacherly tone while revealing the utter, horrible ambiguity of the situation. For instance, Oppenheimer wrote in a letter to a friend, "The thing had to be done," then, "Circumstances are heavy with misgiving."

Many biographies of Oppenheimer end here, with the seeds of his later pacifism sown and the dangers of mixing science with politics clearly outlined. But Bird and Sherwin devote the second half of this hefty book to what happened to Oppenheimer after the bomb. For a short time, he was lionized as the ultimate patriot by a victorious nation, but things soured as the Cold War crept forward and anti-communist witchhunts focused paranoia and anti-Semitism onto Oppenheimer, destroying his career and disillusioning him about his life's work. Devastated by the atom bomb's legacy of fear, he became a vocal and passionate opponent of the Strangelovian madness that gripped the world because of the weapons he helped develop.

Twenty-five years of research went into creating American Prometheus, and there has never been a more honest and complete biography of this tragic scientific giant. The many great ironies of Oppenheimer's life are revealed through the careful reconstruction of a wealth of records, conversations, and ideas, leaving the clearest picture yet of his life. --Therese Littleton

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.5 based on 72 reviews)

First rate biography

This is an excellent biography of Oppenheimer.While it seems likely the authors started out sympathetic towards their subject it seems to be a fairly well balanced book which tends to focus on his associations and his friends and whether he could be considered a national security threat as he was eventually found to be. In that sense the book can be considered to be political in nature. However it is very well researched and written and the authours conclusions seem reasonable. From its first pages the book makes clear that the ultimate issue the book will consider is the reasonableness of the governments decision to pull Oppenheimers security clearance. The actions of the goverment seem almost ridiculous now but a weakness of the book is the failure to consider the "tenor of the times". It is always easy to Monday morning quarterback. Even given this the conclusions of the authors that pulling Oppenheimers clearance was unsupported by the facts should have been obvious even under the then existing political climate. All in all a very good book.
August 28, 2008

A brilliant presentation of history

The wife purchased this book for me as a Christmas present. What she didn't know is it is arguably one of the finest examples of biography, writing, and history. This book delivers. It is the type of work most historians wish they were capable of writing.

It has taken years to research and write. In many cases first-hand accounts and personal interviews with some of the keenest minds of the time were used to present Oppenheimer's story in a clear and fascinating way.

This work starts with the early life of Oppenhemier and chronicles his parents desire to make his life better than theirs. It shows how they struggled to provide him with an education and helped cultivate a keen mind. The book continues to show his early life, choice in collegiate education, and an impressive foundation in academia. It obviously follows his time in service to our nation and his post war activities.

Interestingly enough, a reader will find his work to be contemporary to the finest minds in the study of cosmology and physics at the time.

Oppenheimer was a man of brilliance. He was also a man plagued by rights and wrongs he struggled with his entire life. His bomb saved thousands of lives by killing thousands. His science changed the world and we live with the ramifications of the post atomic age today.

His name remains inescapably associated with these conundrums and puzzles that have plagued 20th century history ever since. Some of the most interesting reading consisted of information regarding his affiliations with known communists and socialist organizers before and after the war. Especially, interesting information on how he was treated in the McCarthy era.

I think in a way, the authors point out Oppenheimer's own personal failures and faults, as duplication of the historical record. As much of a place he holds as critical mind of the 20th century...he was a hard drinker, a smoker, and eventually the reader can develop a sense that he was a flawed and challenged person much like the rest of us. I would, however, say he was a far more tortured soul than most of us ever know.

A review of this book simply doesn't do it justice. This is awesome work worthy of the awards it has received and more. It is truly a magnum opus in the area of history. It is easy to read and hard to put down. This book is arguably one of the finest books I've ever read.

August 22, 2008

Missing book

I cannot find this book. It came with one other book that I am now reading. I can't remember if this book was actually including in the package (as indicating by the packing statement)and it got immediately misplaced or accidentally thrown out with the package or if it was inadvertently not included in the package when it was sent to me.
June 19, 2008

Do you remember when Gulliver woke on the beach bound and helpless?

Just imagine, an American kid, rich for the times, with a saintly brother, the mind of a polymath, and a knack for atomic physics. Sounds like trouble? It wouldn't have been if he had proceeded down the Nobelist path making his name a household word in thirty other academic households. Fortune would have it that he be associated with an Army General from the Corps of Engineers who had just constructed the Pentagon. This unlikely pair were charged with creating a nuclear bomb. (Thank God Hitler didn't couple Klaus Werner Heisenberg with Albert Speer giving the Germans a bomb in 1941) Oppenheimer and Groves got together the world's best talent in a pasture in New Mexico and with branches all over the place and made the bomb. It worked!
What a nice story. One would hope that Oppenheimer would find a sinecure and while away the rest of his life teaching, further extending his education, and becoming a scientist statesman. An immortal victory.
But there was a problem. In the thirties both brothers had feelings about social justice for the working class in California. Neither of them seriously considered armed overthrow of the government, direct action, sabotage or traitorous conspiracies. They were simply parlor pink in the midst of the depression. Sadly, J. Edgar Hoover (in addition to his other activities with the ubiquitous Clyde) took on the issue of spying on American citizens whom he thought were security risks. Worse still, Oppenheimer's wife had lost a previous husband in the Spanish Civil War and both she and he had been dues paying members of the Communist Party. Since Hoover's illegal spying efforts were in no way conclusive, he bided his time. After the war, the government was replete with advisory groups divided between the grossly incompetent political favorites and a minority of real experts. The age of Joseph McCarthy and Roy Cohn. One of the Republican forms was a financial type far better known as a fund raiser than a nuclear physicist. Lewis Strauss, a close friend of the advertising executive (Lasker) who named Kotex and Kleenex. Strauss developed a real hate for Oppenheimer and set out to destroy him by removing all of his security clearances.
Strauss was remarkable in that he never finished college or university but convinced Eisenhower he would be a good member of the Atomic Energy Commission.
Oppenheimer, Director of the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study, looked on this insult to him as a deeply personal wound that never healed. Strauss was later rejected as Secretary of Commerce in part because of his own little scandals and in part because of the injustice delt to J. Robert.
This story would be sad and humiliating to any American Scientist. Coming as it does, in the midst of an administration so studiously ignorant of personal justice with abundant evidence that it could be repeated at any time will not inhibit the courage and steadfastness that scientists must also have.
April 20, 2008

How the bomb got built here first

My father spent most of his career in nuclear engineering researching the mathematics of nuclear reactors at Brookhaven. My father had visited all the national labs and got to know all the key players in nuclear physics in the period from 1950-1970. Growing up in that environment I naturally knew a bit about Oppenheimer and Teller and others. It was clear to me that my father had sympathy for Oppenheimer and a great deal of respect. teller was viewed more as a politician looking for fame and publicity. This became even more apparent tto me when in the 1980s I saw how he lobbied the Reagan administration for research on laser based strategic defense satellites.

This book is an account of Oppenheimer's life from childhood through the Manhattan Project with emphasis on the most crucial part of his career as the head of the Los Alamos Laboratory where physicists mathematicians and chemists teamed up to develop the first nuclear weapons that were used against Japan. Oppenheimer was a reserved man who did not seek the limelight. He was brilliant but his biggest asset was his management and leadership capabilities along with very good judgement, something that Teller seemed to lack. It was just the qualities of leadership that led to the succcessful development of the atomic bomb in a few short years at Los Alamos. His liberal past and pre-war affiliation with communism caused him great difficulties and some in the military feared that he was a security risk. He was continually being checked out bt J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI. Hoover did not like the appointment of Oppenheimer to the key leadership position at Los Alamos.

After the war was over, strangely the man who was able to keep secrets during the crucial period of the Manhattan Projected was not trusted after the war. He lost security clearance and struggled due to the increased fear of communism from the post-war Sovuet Union including the wave of witchhunting during the Joseph McCarthy era. He was liberal and his pre-war past communist associations hurt him deeply. His philosophy on nuclear weapons and his clashes with his former colleague Joseph Teller made far a tormented post-war career. I believe Oppenheomer felt guilt over his involvement in the development of the bomb and was definitely against the arms race. This period of his life as well as his childhood was important to understand the complexities of this man. The authors do a good job of covering this and do not fall into the trap of just emphasizing the war years.

This book is engaging and very successful at portraying the life character and personality of J. Robert Oppenheimer. He was the right man for a difficult and challenging job and had what it took to get the most out of an odd group of geniuses.
March 16, 2008

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