Robert Oppenheimer: His Life and Mind (A Life Inside the Center)

1904-1926. "Amerika, du hast es besser" : Oppenheimer's German Jewish background ; Childhood ; First love : New Mexico ; Harvard ; Cambridge -- 1926-1941. Göttingen ; Postdoctoral fellow ; An American school of theoretical physics ; Unstable cores ; Fission -- 1941-1945. In on the secret ; Los Alamos 1 : security ; Los Alamos 2 : implosion ; Los Alamos 3 : heavy with misgiving -- 1945-1967. The insider scientist ; The booming years ; Massive retaliation ; Falsus in uno ; An open book?;An exploration of the enigma of Robert Oppenheimer's life and personality and his contributions to the revolution in twentieth-century physics.

Robert Oppenheimer was among the most brilliant and divisive of men. As head of the Los Alamos Laboratory, he oversaw the successful effort to beat the Nazis in the race to develop the first atomic bomb—a breakthrough that was to have eternal ramifications for mankind and that made Oppenheimer the “Father of the Atomic Bomb.” But with his actions leading up to that great achievement, he also set himself on a dangerous collision course with Senator Joseph McCarthy and his witch-hunters. In Robert Oppenheimer: A Life Inside the Center, Ray Monk, author of peerless biographies of Ludwig Wittgenstein and Bertrand Russell, goes deeper than any previous biographer in the quest to solve the enigma of Oppenheimer’s motivations and his complex personality.
     The son of German-Jewish immigrants, Oppenheimer was a man of phenomenal intellectual attributes, driven by an ambition to overcome his status as an outsider and penetrate the heart of political and social life. As a young scientist, his talent and drive allowed him to enter a community peopled by the great names of twentieth-century physics—men such as Niels Bohr, Max Born, Paul Dirac, and Albert Einstein—and to play a role in the laboratories and classrooms where the world was being changed forever, where the secrets of the universe, whether within atomic nuclei or collapsing stars, revealed themselves.
     But Oppenheimer’s path went beyond one of assimilation, scientific success, and world fame. The implications of the discoveries at Los Alamos weighed heavily upon this fragile and complicated man. In the 1930s, in a climate already thick with paranoia and espionage, he made suspicious connections, and in the wake of the Allied victory, his attempts to resist the escalation of the Cold War arms race led many to question his loyalties.
     Through compassionate investigation and with towering scholarship, Ray Monk’s Robert Oppenheimer tells an unforgettable story of discovery, secrecy, impossible choices, and unimaginable destruction.

"Revered biographer Ray Monk solves the enigma of Robert Oppenheimer's life and personality and brilliantly illuminates his contribution to the revolution in twentieth-century physics. In Robert Oppenheimer, Ray Monk delves into the rich and complex intellectual life of America's most fascinating and elusive scientist, the father of the atomic bomb. As a young professor at Berkeley, the wealthy, cultured Oppenheimer finally came into his own as a physicist and also began a period of support for Communist activities. At the high point of his life, he was chosen to lead the Manhattan Project and develop the deadliest weapon on earth: the atomic bomb. Upon its creation, Oppenheimer feared he had brought mankind to the precipice of self-annihilation and refused to help create the far more powerful hydrogen bomb, bringing the wrath of McCarthyite suspicion upon him. In the course of famously dramatic public hearings, he was stripped of his security clearance. Drawing on original research and interviews, Monk traces the wide range of influences on Oppenheimer's development--his Jewishness, his social isolation at Harvard, his love of Sanskrit, his radical politics. This definitive portrait finally solves the enigma of the extraordinary, charming, tortured man whose beautiful mind fundamentally reshaped the world."-- Provided by publisher An unforgettable story of discovery and unimaginable destruction and a major biography of one of America’s most brilliant—and most divisive—scientists, Robert Oppenheimer: A Life Inside the Center vividly illuminates the man who would go down in history as “the father of the atomic bomb.” “Impressive. . . . An extraordinary story.”— The New York Times Book Review “Judicious, comprehensive and reliable. . . . By far the most thorough survey yet written of Oppenheimer’s physics."— Washington Post Oppenheimer’s talent and drive secured him a place in the pantheon of great physicists and carried him to the laboratories where the secrets of the universe revealed themselves. But they also led him to contribute to the development of the deadliest weapon on earth, a discovery he soon came to fear. His attempts to resist the escalation of the Cold War arms race—coupled with political leanings at odds with post-war America—led many to question his loyalties, and brought down upon him the full force of McCarthyite anti-communism. Digging deeply into Oppenheimer’s past to solve the enigma of his motivations and his complex personality, Ray Monk uncovers the extraordinary, charming, tortured man—and the remarkable mind—who fundamentally reshaped the world. Robert J. Oppenheimer is among the most contentious and important figures of the twentieth century. As head of the Los Alamos Laboratory, he oversaw the successful effort to beat the Nazis to develop the first atomic bomb - a breakthrough which was to have eternal ramifications for mankind, and made Oppenheimer the 'father of the Bomb' Revered biographer Monk solves the enigma of Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb. He details his life and personality, and brilliantly illuminates his contribution to the revolution in 20th-century physics.