American Prometheus: The Inspiration for the Major Motion Picture Oppenheimer
Kai Bird
(Author)
Martin J. Sherwin
(Author)
Description
THE INSPIRATION FOR THE ACADEMY AWARD(R)-WINNING MAJOR MOTION PICTURE OPPENHEIMER - "A riveting account of one of history's most essential and paradoxical figures."--Christopher Nolan #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - 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. 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
Product Details
Price
$25.00
$23.25
Publisher
Vintage
Publish Date
April 11, 2006
Pages
784
Dimensions
5.2 X 8.0 X 1.6 inches | 1.35 pounds
Language
English
Type
Paperback
EAN/UPC
9780375726262
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About the Author
KAI BIRD is an award-winning historian and journalist. Executive director of the Leon Levy Center for Biography, he is the acclaimed author of biographies of John J. McCloy, of McGeorge and William Bundy, Robert Ames, and President Jimmy Carter. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography for American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer (co-authored with Martin J. Sherwin), which was adapted into the Academy Award-winning film Oppenheimer. His work has been honored with the BIO Award for his significant contributions to the art and craft of biography. He has also written about the Vietnam War, Hiroshima, nuclear weapons, the Cold War, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and the CIA. He lives in New York City and Washington, D.C., with his wife, Susan Goldmark. 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.
Reviews
"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
