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, & 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 & Martin Sherwin capture Oppenheimer’s life & times, from his early career to his central role in the Cold War. This is biography & history at its finest, riveting & deeply informative. 

“A masterful account of Oppenheimer’s rise & 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 & 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

Kai Bird is the author of The Chairman: John J. McCloy, The Making of the American Establishment & The Color of Truth: McGeorge Bundy & William Bundy, Brothers in Arms. He coedited with Lawrence Lifschultz Hiroshima’s Shadow: Writings on the Denial of History & the Smithsonian Controversy. Bird is a contributing editor of The Nation. 

MARTIN J. SHERWIN, was University Professor of History @ George Mason University & the author of A World Destroyed: Hiroshima & Its Legacies, winner of the Stuart L. Bernath and the American History Book prizes, & the coauthor of American Prometheus: The Triumph & Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, which won the Pulit