American Prometheus

The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer

by , , ,

736 pages

English language

Published April 5, 2005 by Knopf.

ISBN:
978-0-375-41202-8
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5 stars (1 review)

American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer is a biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin published by Alfred A. Knopf in 2005. Twenty-five years in the making, the book was awarded the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography. It also won the 2008 Duff Cooper Prize, Chicago Tribune Best Book of the Year, and Discover Magazine Best Science Book of the Year. The book was compiled and researched for two decades by Martin J. Sherwin before Kai Bird was brought on to put it together in a cohesive and readable format. The book's title refers to the legend of Prometheus, as mentioned in Scientific Monthly in September 1945:

"Modern Prometheans have raided Mount Olympus again and have brought back for man the very thunderbolts of Zeus." It is 721 pages from start to finish in the May 2006 paperback edition, …

4 editions

reviewed American Prometheus by Kai Bird

Meticulously detailed and readable.

5 stars

This book took the author 26 years, two advances from the publisher, and the need for a co-author, to be published. The original commissioning editor at Knopff died, requiring a replacement. The author's own family were certain he was going to die before it was published. The amount of detailed research is unsurpassed, and really shows in the text. I loved it, more than the movie, which reduced a number of the people involved to caricatures.

Subjects

  • Oppenheimer, J. Robert, -- 1904-1967
  • Physicists -- United States -- Biography
  • Atomic bomb -- United States -- History
  • Science -- Political aspects -- United States -- History -- 20th cnetury
  • United States -- History -- 20th century