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Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, published to exceptional reviews in both the US and the UK, American Prometheus is as compelling a work of biography as it is a significant work of history.
Physicist and polymath, as familiar with Hindu scriptures as he was with quantum mechanics, J. Robert Oppenheimer - director of the Manhattan Project that developed the atomic bomb - was the most famous scientist of his generation.
In their meticulous and riveting biography, Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin reveal a brilliant, ambitious, complex and flawed man, profoundly involved with some of the momentous events of the twentieth century.
"American Prometheus is the first full-scale biography of J. Robert
Oppenheimer, "father of the atomic bomb," the brilliant,
charismatic physicist who led the effort to capture the awesome
fire of the sun for his country in time of war. Immediately after
Hiroshima, he became the most famous scientist of his
generation-one of the iconic figures of the twentieth century, the
embodiment of modern man confronting the consequences of scientific
progress.
He was the author of a radical proposal to place international
controls over atomic materials-an idea that is still relevant
today. He opposed the development of the hydrogen bomb and
criticized the Air Force's plans to fight an infinitely dangerous
nuclear war. In the now almost-forgotten hysteria of the early
1950s, his ideas were anathema to powerful advocates of a massive
nuclear buildup, and, in response, Atomic Energy Commission
chairman Lewis Strauss, Superbomb advocate Edward Teller and FBI
director J. Edgar Hoover worked behind the scenes to have a hearing
board find that Oppenheimer could not be trusted with America's
nuclear secrets.
"American Prometheus sets forth Oppenheimer's life and times in
revealing and unprecedented detail. Exhaustively researched, it is
based on thousands of records and letters gathered from archives in
America and abroad, on massive FBI files and on close to a hundred
interviews with Oppenheimer's friends, relatives and colleagues.
We follow him from his earliest education at the turn of the
twentieth century at New York City's Ethical Culture School,
through personal crises at Harvard and Cambridge universities. Then
to Germany, where he studied quantum physics with the world's
mostaccomplished theorists; and to Berkeley, California, where he
established, during the 1930s, the leading American school of
theoretical physics, and where he became deeply involved with
social justice causes and their advocates, many of whom were
communists. Then to Los Alamos, New Mexico, where he transformed a
bleak mesa into the world's most potent nuclear weapons
laboratory-and where he himself was transformed. And finally, to
the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, which he directed
from 1947 to 1966.
"American Prometheus is a rich evocation of America at midcentury,
a new and compelling portrait of a brilliant, ambitious, complex
and flawed man profoundly connected to its major events-the
Depression, World War II and the Cold War. It is at once biography
and history, and essential to our understanding of our recent
past-and of our choices for the future.
"American Prometheus is the first full-scale biography of J. Robert
Oppenheimer, "father of the atomic bomb," the brilliant,
charismatic physicist who led the effort to capture the awesome
fire of the sun for his country in time of war. Immediately after
Hiroshima, he became the most famous scientist of his
generation-one of the iconic figures of the twentieth century, the
embodiment of modern man confronting the consequences of scientific
progress.
He was the author of a radical proposal to place international
controls over atomic materials-an idea that is still relevant
today. He opposed the development of the hydrogen bomb and
criticized the Air Force's plans to fight an infinitely dangerous
nuclear war. In the now almost-forgotten hysteria of the early
1950s, his ideas were anathema to powerful advocates of a massive
nuclear buildup, and, in response, Atomic Energy Commission
chairman Lewis Strauss, Superbomb advocate Edward Teller and FBI
director J. Edgar Hoover worked behind the scenes to have a hearing
board find that Oppenheimer could not be trusted with America's
nuclear secrets.
"American Prometheus sets forth Oppenheimer's life and times in
revealing and unprecedented detail. Exhaustively researched, it is
based on thousands of records and letters gathered from archives in
America and abroad, on massive FBI files and on close to a hundred
interviews with Oppenheimer's friends, relatives and colleagues.
We follow him from his earliest education at the turn of the
twentieth century at New York City's Ethical Culture School,
through personal crises at Harvard and Cambridge universities. Then
to Germany, where he studied quantum physics with the world's
mostaccomplished theorists; and to Berkeley, California, where he
established, during the 1930s, the leading American school of
theoretical physics, and where he became deeply involved with
social justice causes and their advocates, many of whom were
communists. Then to Los Alamos, New Mexico, where he transformed a
bleak mesa into the world's most potent nuclear weapons
laboratory-and where he himself was transformed. And finally, to
the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, which he directed
from 1947 to 1966.
"American Prometheus is a rich evocation of America at midcentury,
a new and compelling portrait of a brilliant, ambitious, complex
and flawed man profoundly connected to its major events-the
Depression, World War II and the Cold War. It is at once biography
and history, and essential to our understanding of our recent
past-and of our choices for the future.
The Good Spy is Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Kai Bird’s compelling portrait of the remarkable life and death of one of the most important operatives in CIA history – a man who, had he lived, might have helped heal the rift between Arabs and the West. On April 18, 1983, a bomb exploded outside the American Embassy in Beirut, killing 63 people. The attack was a geopolitical turning point. It marked the beginning of Hezbollah as a political force, but even more important, it eliminated America’s most influential and effective intelligence officer in the Middle East – CIA operative Robert Ames. What set Ames apart from his peers was his extraordinary ability to form deep, meaningful connections with key Arab intelligence figures. Some operatives relied on threats and subterfuge, but Ames worked by building friendships and emphasizing shared values – never more notably than with Yasir Arafat’s charismatic intelligence chief and heir apparent Ali Hassan Salameh (aka “The Red Prince”). Ames’ deepening relationship with Salameh held the potential for a lasting peace. Within a few years, though, both men were killed by assassins, and America’s relations with the Arab world began heading down a path that culminated in 9/11, the War on Terror, and the current fog of mistrust. Bird, who as a child lived in the Beirut Embassy and knew Ames as a neighbor when he was twelve years old, spent years researching The Good Spy. Not only does the book draw on hours of interviews with Ames’ widow, and quotes from hundreds of Ames’ private letters, it’s woven from interviews with scores of current and former American, Israeli, and Palestinian intelligence officers as well as other players in the Middle East “Great Game.” What emerges is a masterpiece-level narrative of the making of a CIA officer, a uniquely insightful history of twentieth-century conflict in the Middle East, and an absorbing hour-by-hour account of the Beirut Embassy bombing. Even more impressive, Bird draws on his reporter’s skills to deliver a full dossier on the bombers and expose the shocking truth of where the attack’s mastermind resides today.
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