American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer (PDF/ePUB) By Kai Bird Read Online for free.
American Prometheus Book PDF/ePub Information
| Book Name: | American Prometheus |
| Author: | Kai Bird |
| Pages | 158 |
| Language: | English |
| File Type: | PDF/ePub (Downloadable) |
| PDF Size: | 10.60 MB |
| ePub Size | 6.25 MB |
| Also Read | This is How You Lose the Time War (PDF/ePub) by Amal El-Mohtar |
J. Robert Oppenheimer, often referred to as the “father of the atomic bomb,” was a brilliant and charismatic scientist who led the effort to harness the sun’s immense light for his nation during wartime. Oppenheimer’s first exhaustive biography, American Prometheus, is the subject of the book American Prometheus. After the atomic bombardment of Hiroshima, he rose to prominence, becoming one of the century’s most recognisable icons and the embodiment of the modern man confronting the consequences of technological progress.
He proposed a daring plan to regulate atomic elements on a global scale, which is still relevant today. He was against creating hydrogen bombs and was critical of the Air Force’s plans to engage in a nuclear war. The now-forgotten frenzy of the early 1950s resulted from a conspiracy by Atomic Energy Commission chairman Lewis Strauss, Super bomb supporter Edward Teller, and FBI director J. Edgar Hoover’s tenacious defence of America’s nuclear secrets. A hearing board was constituted to investigate Oppenheimer’s credibility. The high-stakes national security conflict that occurred before our eyes will captivate you.
In American Prometheus, Oppenheimer’s life is laid forth in illuminating and previously untold detail. Extensive interviews with close to a hundred of Oppenheimer’s acquaintances, family members, and coworkers, as well as enormous FBI data, round out the research for this book.
We follow him from his early years at the Ethical Culture School in New York City at the turn of the twentieth century to his time of introspection at Harvard and Cambridge. Then he went to Germany to study quantum physics with some of the world’s leading theorists, and finally he settled in Berkeley, California in the 1930s, where he founded the foremost American school of theoretical physics and became deeply involved with social justice causes and their advocates, many of whom were communists. Then he went to Los Alamos, New Mexico, where he turned a barren mesa into the most powerful nuclear weapons laboratory in the world—and where he himself was changed. The last stop was Princeton, where he was director of the Institute for Advanced Study from 1947 until 1966.
American Prometheus is a captivating new depiction of a brilliant, ambitious, complex, and flawed man who was inextricably linked to three of the century’s most significant events: the Great Depression, World War II, and the Cold War. It’s a vital piece of information for comprehending our recent past and our potential futures because it combines biography and history.
About The Author Kai Bird
American journalist and author Kai Bird won the Pulitzer Prize for his biographies of prominent politicians. In addition to the Guggenheim and Woodrow Wilson Centre fellowships, he has also been honoured with the National Book Critics Circle Award for biography, the Duff Cooper Prize, and the Woodrow Wilson Centre Fellowship. He currently serves as a Contributing Editor at The Nation.
Bird’s birthday is 1951. His father was an American diplomat, so he moved about a lot as a kid, living in Jerusalem, Beirut, Dhahran, Cairo, and Bombay. He graduated from Kodaikanal International School in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu in 1969. In 1973, he graduated with a BA from Carleton College, and in 1975, he earned a Master of Science in Journalism from Northwestern. Together with his family, Bird has relocated to Miami Beach, Florida.
American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer Book Summary
This biography of the American theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer is very well written and covers a lot of ground. He oversaw the atomic bomb’s development at the Los Alamos Laboratory. In many circles, he is regarded as the “father of the atomic bomb.” Beginning with his birth in 1904 and continuing through his time at Harvard and Cambridge, his theoretical physics studies, his support for the leftist forces in the Spanish Civil War, his interactions with other scientists of the time, his participation in the Manhattan Project, his appearance before the House Un-American Activities Committee, his retirement, and his death from throat cancer in 1967, this biography covers it all. The anti-communist frenzy of the McCarthy era and the circumstances leading up to the revocation of his security clearance take up a significant portion of the content.
There’s a tonne of information in there that sheds light on his character and explains his political stances. This portrait shows him in all his complexity, including his flaws as well as his successes. The parts that depict the discussion of whether or not to use the atomic bomb to end WWII, issue a formal warning to the Japanese, and inform the other Allied powers were my favourites. Oppenheimer had a change of heart after the bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and tried to persuade the US government to prevent a nuclear weapons race. He was totally against making atomic bombs.
Personally, I would have liked to learn more about his scientific endeavours and less about the intimate details of his friendships and romantic relationships. This book paints a readable and interesting image of one of the 20th century’s most influential scientists, J. Robert Oppenheimer.