American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer - Tapa dura

"The definitive biography. . . . Oppenheimer's life doesn't influence us. It haunts us." -"Newsweek" "A masterful account of Oppenheimer's rise and fall, set in the context of the turbulent decades of America's own transformation. It is a tour de force." -"Los Angeles Times Book Review" "A work of voluminous scholarship and lucid insight, unifying its multifaceted portrait with a keen grasp of Oppenheimer's essential nature. . . . It succeeds in deeply fathoming his most damaging, self-contradictory behavior." -"The New York Times" "There have been numerous books about Oppenheimer but they can't touch this extraordinary book's impressive breadth and scope." -"The Miami Herald" "The first biography to give full due to Oppenheimer's extraordinary complexity . . . Stands as an Everest among the mountains of books on the bomb project and Oppenheimer, and is an achievement not likely to be surpassed or equaled."-"The Boston Globe"

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.