American Prometheus by Kai Bird

American Prometheus by Kai Bird

Physicist and polymath, 'father of the atom bomb' J. Robert Oppenheimer was the most famous scientist of his generation. Already a notable young physicist before WWII, during the race to split the atom, 'Oppie' galvanized an extraordinary team of international scientists while keeping the FBI at bay. As the man who more than any other inaugurated the atomic age, he became one of the iconic figures of the last century, the embodiment of his own observation that 'physicists have known sin'. Years later, haunted by Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Oppenheimer became a staunch opponent of plans to develop the hydrogen bomb. It was a battle he was to lose, faced by powerful advocates for massive nuclear profusion. In response, the US Atomic Energy Commission and the FBI worked behind the scenes to have a hearing find that Oppenheimer could not be trusted with America's nuclear secrets. American Prometheus is a compelling portrait of a brilliant, ambitious and flawed man and his involevement in some of the major events of the twentieth century. It is at once biography and history, essential to our understanding of our recent past - and our atomic future.

Kai Bird is a contributing edityor at the Nation and the author of several biographies. He lives in Washington, DC and in Nepal, with his wife and son. Martin J. Sherwin is Professor of English and American History at Tufts University and author of A World Destroyed: Hiroshima and Its Legacies. He and his wife life in Boston and Washington, DC.

SKU	Non disponible
ISBN 13	9781843547044
ISBN 10	184354704X
Titre	American Prometheus
Auteur	Kai Bird
État	Non disponible
Type de reliure	Hardback
Éditeur	Atlantic Books
Année de publication	2008-01-01
Nombre de pages	736
Note de couverture	La photo du livre est présentée à titre d'illustration uniquement. La reliure, la couverture ou l'édition réelle peuvent varier.
Note	Non disponible