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

PULITZER PRIZE WINNER - The definitive biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer, one of the iconic figures of the twentieth century, a brilliant physicist who led the effort to build the atomic bomb for his country in a time of war, and who later found himself confronting the moral consequences of scientific progress.

THE INSPIRATION FOR THE MAJOR MOTION PICTURE OPPENHEIMER

In this magisterial, acclaimed biography twenty-five years in the making, Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin capture Oppenheimer's life and times, from his early career to his central role in the Cold War. This is biography and history at its finest, riveting and deeply informative.

"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

Author: Kai Bird, Martin J. Sherwin
Publisher: Vintage
Published: 04/11/2006
Pages: 784
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.62lbs
Size: 8.00h x 5.20w x 1.60d
ISBN: 9780375726262


Award: Pulitzer Prize - Winner


Review Citation(s):
Time 04/10/2006 pg. 81
Entertainment Weekly 06/16/2006 pg. 80
New York Times 06/18/2006 pg. 24
Kliatt 07/01/2006 pg. 31
Newsweek 07/13/2009 pg. 47

About the Author

Kai Bird is the author of The Chairman: John J. McCloy, The Making of the American Establishment and The Color of Truth: McGeorge Bundy and William Bundy, Brothers in Arms. He coedited with Lawrence Lifschultz Hiroshima's Shadow: Writings on the Denial of History and the Smithsonian Controversy. A contributing editor of The Nation, he lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife and son.

Martin J. Sherwin is the Walter S. Dickson Professor of English and American History at Tufts University and author of A World Destroyed: Hiroshima and Its Legacies, which won the Stuart L. Bernath Prize, as well as the American History Book Prize. He and his wife live in Boston and Washington, D.C.