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

Very nice book

In every 4-5 pages, one page comes out, not even glued to binding. I thought it is a temporary fault which will be ok further but no, the whole book is flawed.

Bellissimo libro, molto dettagliato, ripercorre la vita di un grande personaggio fornendo un background chiaro della sia formazione sin da bambino, permettendo di capirne la personalità e i conflitti interni

# American Prometheus by Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin. # Triumph and Tragedy of Robert Oppenheimer. It's a kind of backward integration for me. I first watched the film Oppenheimer last year and that led me to the book. The movie is an adaptation of this book. The book gives granular details of what was shown in the film but the focus was more on the Manhattan Project. Obviously it's difficult to scope in all that is there in the book in about 3 hours. Considered as the Father of Atom bomb, Oppenheimer fell in the wrong books of President Truman as he opposed deploying atom bomb on Japan. The purpose of the bomb was to destroy Germany. But by the time it was ready, Germany surrendered and Hitler had committed suicide. Oppenheimer was against using it against Japan which was already defeated and ready to surrender. But Truman was determined to show America's might and strength. And there began the problems for Oppenheimer. Subsequently he also opposed the development of the Hydrogen bomb. And the witch hunt begins. Oppenheimer once was a member of the Communist Party but now had completely severed his links but that was enough for the Republican governments to indict and crucify Oppenheimer. He was stripped of all Government positions and security clearances withdrawn. He was holding a key position at Princeton University. US wanted to strip that as well but the scientific community led by Einstein protested strongly and the Government was unsuccessful. Oppenheimer's image was resurrected after the Democrat John F Kennedy was elected US President. Sadly even after Oppenheimer's death, his children continued to suffer. His son didn't use his second name to eke out living doing menial jobs and his daughter committed suicide as she could not secure jobs as security clearances were denied to her. It made for sad reading towards the end. An excellent book provided one has patience to read a 700 page tome in small size print. 5/5.

Ich habe mir die original englische Version (American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer) bestellt und empfehle sie auch, weil sie sehr viele Original Zitate aus Briefen und Berichten beinhaltet. Die tatsächliche Biographie umfasst etwa 600 Seiten und weitere 120 Seiten sind Quellenangaben. Das Buch ist sehr gut recherchiert. Es ist ein sehr detaillierter und persönlicher Einblick in das private und berufliche Leben von Oppenheimer: eine komplexe Persönlichkeit, die immer spannend zu verfolgen ist. Man erlebt auch eine historisch bewegende Zeit mit bahnbrechenden Entdeckungen in der Physik (Atomtheorie, Relativitätstheorie, Quantenmechanik), die Zeit des Zweiten Weltkriegs und die folgende McCarthy-Ära mit der Verfolgung von Kommunisten und vermeintlichen Kommunisten. Ich habe selten ein Buch mit 600 Seiten so spannend und interessant empfunden.

Bien documentado. El autor hace un esfuerzo por no perder la objetividad. La narrativa es a veces un poco reiterativa, pero aún así consigue mantener el interés del lector hasta el final. Se queda uno con ganas de volverlo a leer.