A Book Post

I liked devoting a post to a book that spoke to me last Monday, and I've got another one this week. 

American Prometheus by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin

At the end of July I wrote a post about Justin's part in the Oppenheimer film and decided that while I will most likely see the film someday, I wanted to read the book that inspired the film first. 

American Prometheus is a big book about a complex and contradictory man. All I knew about Joseph Robert Oppenheimer before I read it was his name and involvement with the Manhattan Project, but there was much more to him and his career. Born into a well-off New York family in 1904, he majored in chemistry at Harvard but became interested in physics at Cambridge. He had his share of difficulties during these years but then returned to the US to teach at Berkeley and Caltech, and eventually became an inspiring leader at Los Alamos after being chosen by General Leslie Groves to head the scientific team that was building the atomic bomb.

This book is not all physics and bomb-building but includes plenty of personal details about Oppenheimer's habits and life. A few times, the book becomes a little dry and perhaps the authors shared a few too many details, but the depth does help the reader to understand Oppenheimer's complexity and complications. The subtitle "The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer" is an apt one because "Oppie's" later years were full of struggles. Walking home with Oppenheimer, Einstein said, "You know, when it’s once been given to a man to do something sensible, afterward life is a little strange." And it was. Oppenheimer became the longest-serving Director of The Institute for Advanced Study and scientific advisor for the Atomic Energy Commission but opposed building the even more powerful hydrogen bomb. Harry Truman called him "that crybaby scientist" and Lewis Strauss (chair of the AEC) had Oppenheimer's security clearance revoked. He died of throat cancer in 1967.

"He was, in fact, an immensely human figure, as talented as he was complex, at once brilliant and naïve, a passionate advocate for social justice and a tireless government adviser whose commitment to harnessing a runaway nuclear arms race earned him powerful bureaucratic enemies."

At over 1100 pages and some dense subject matter, the book was a bit of an undertaking. I listened to the audio version (available on hoopla) and it was 26.5 hours, but it was one of the better scientific biographies I've read. Oppenheimer was a complex and human character and I think it took a book of this length and depth to begin to accurately capture him. I almost always think that the book is better than the movie, and since I haven't seen the movie yet, I'm not sure that is the case here. But this book intrigued me enough to read more about him in the future. My BiL has recommended 109 East Palace, which covers Oppenheimer's time at Los Alamos, so that book is on my TBR list.