American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer
✍️ Kai Bird
This was an amazing book about J. Robert Oppenheimer, the father of atomic bomb. It is a very well researched biography elapsing every aspect of his life. I did not now a lot about Oppenheimer before reading this book. From his childhood and upbringing to his life in college and as a graduate student we get to know the some details of his personality and friendships. Oppenheimer had some left-wing friends (some of them hard core communists) during his early adulthood which was the reason of his demise during the 50s. I’ll get to this again later in this review.
Oppenheimer was the stereotypical intellectual who loved hosting friends at home with drinks and smoking his pipe. They spent long evenings discussing every subject. Despite his social life, Oppenheimer kept a relatively low profile.
He was selected to work in the Manhattan project and the book is very rich in details of the time spent in Los Alamos. Oppenheimer had to deal with the military and other scientists with very different backgrounds. Some ability was needed to keep the team in sync and not bruising any ego. It was during his work at Los Alamos, when the atomic bomb was testes for the first time that Oppenheimer began questioning atomic weapons and after the bombing in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, he really became very concerned about how the world should deal with nuclear weapons. Oppenheimer was not in favor of each country being very secretive about their nuclear knowledge since all the secrets will lead to an increased arms race. He was even favorable to have the Soviet Union not as an ally but also not as a foe in this sense.
After the end of WWII and in the beginning of the 50s, Oppenheimer and some hawks inside the American nuclear agencies started bickering about what strategy to pursue. In the same time, the anti-communist wave was starting in the US. That was the perfect time for the hawks to ostracize Oppenheimer using his early friendships with communists as a certificate of “unreliability”. Oppenheimer became persona non-grata in the community and was disgraced. He was rehabilitated only more than one decade later, but this period in the wilderness has already taken its toll on Oppenheimer’s health.
What a great story. The book has a large reference section showing the depth of the research conducted by the authors. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in the development of the atomic bomb.