4.6
Biografier
The inspiration for the major motion picture Oppenheimer, this is the definitive biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer, 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.
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, J. Robert Oppenheimer 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.
The book follows 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.
The book follows him to Los Alamos, New Mexico, he transformed a bleak mesa into the world’s most potent nuclear weapons laboratory—and where he himself was transformed—and finally, to the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, which he directed from 1947 to 1966.
American Prometheus is a rich evocation of America at midcentury, a 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 is essential to our understanding of our recent past—and of our choices for the future.
© 2006 Blackstone Publishing (Ljudbok): 9781483077345
Utgivningsdatum
Ljudbok: 2 april 2006
4.6
Biografier
The inspiration for the major motion picture Oppenheimer, this is the definitive biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer, 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.
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, J. Robert Oppenheimer 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.
The book follows 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.
The book follows him to Los Alamos, New Mexico, he transformed a bleak mesa into the world’s most potent nuclear weapons laboratory—and where he himself was transformed—and finally, to the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, which he directed from 1947 to 1966.
American Prometheus is a rich evocation of America at midcentury, a 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 is essential to our understanding of our recent past—and of our choices for the future.
© 2006 Blackstone Publishing (Ljudbok): 9781483077345
Utgivningsdatum
Ljudbok: 2 april 2006
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Sören
8 sep. 2023
A masterpiece! An excellently detailed yet lively account of the life and accomplishments of an excellent and remarkable scientist and lab director. Heartbreaking how FBI in the McCarthy era prayed on innocent people for being communists. A disastrous groupthink and a bottom record of the republican movement. Excellently written and read.
Marcus
13 aug. 2023
Following how this man battled with the demons / mental issues he encountered of youth growing up, and how he changed many of his attitudes as he matured. Such a tragic ending. The reader follows the life of a man so vibrant with intelligence, curiosity for life and this seemingly great empathy for others less fortunate - and a will to improve things. (with large doses of arrogance and vanity also). And how that drive and soul is broken. I am gripped by how the life events impacts his children -his spouse and relationships. <spoilers> I think the stress of the work at Los Alamos, and the fact that he was under constant surveillance, distrust and could never get full relief and acceptance started to break down him and his family much earlier. They tried to escape the stress when coming to princeton but as long as he stood up for what he believed in, they never left him alone and at last broke him - and his family. So sad to read about how both his children suffered.
Linus
16 dec. 2023
Extensive but never boring
Sverre
17 aug. 2023
An exemplary work of biography - captures so much of the man and the phenomenon
Per
14 aug. 2023
A masterpiece - no more, no less. Much, much better than the movie.
Pavel
21 nov. 2023
It is largely a documentary book so sometimes too much details and facts. The story of life is fantastic and thought provoking
Slavica
23 sep. 2023
Vilket liv!
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