Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.33 AVERAGE
4.33 AVERAGE
Surprised at how little artistic license Nolan took!
This is beautiful tribute to a very complex man. Robert Oppenheimer was a theoretical physicist who taught at Caltech and UC Berkeley, and was recruited to direct the Los Alamos Laboratory in the 1940s. He had a great love of Northern New Mexico and had some property with a cabin where he spent his summers horseback riding. He was also Jewish and politically very leftist which caused him to be harassed by the FBI and eventually have his security clearance revoked. There were spies at Los Alamos but he was not one of them. There was a great deal of political propaganda at that time concerning nuclear bombs and many US citizens were exposed to radiation poisoning during the testing. The scientists at Los Alamos, many of which were Jews, that the bomb would be used against the Nazis but it was Japan that was bombed. The book is very long at 1100 plus pages, but describes the history of a period of time that there is much misconception. I live about 50 miles from Los Alamos now, and I share Oppenheimer’s love of Northern New Mexico so I enjoyed learning about the history.
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
informative
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
challenging
informative
slow-paced
informative
slow-paced
challenging
dark
informative
tense
slow-paced
My interest in reading American Prometheus was born after watching Oppenheimer last summer. I came out of that movie wondering, "How could such an intelligent person be part of something so reprehensible, and not predict the consequences?" After reading this biography, I think Max Born, a mentor of young Oppenheimer, sums it up best: "It is satisfying to have had such clever and efficient pupils, but I wish they had shown less cleverness and more wisdom."
My copy of American Prometheus is flush with little orange flags that denote what I feel are clues revealing Oppenheimer's psyche around the atomic bomb. I came away with an impression of a brilliant (if not diligent) scientist and humanitarian who generally had the right idea, but like many, was ailed with the American diseases of Ego, Over Deference to Authority, and Tunnel Vision.
This is a phenomenal biography. It is meticulous, detailed, and excellently written. The cast of "characters" is huge, and Sherwin and Bird do a very good job at keeping the details straight, and telling an extremely complicated story in a way that is easily understood. My one criticism is that certain events and people are relayed sometimes out of chronology, which can be confusing. I certainly recommend making liberal use of the index to remind yourself of where you heard that name 200 pages back.
This took me longer to get through than my normal pace, but that's par for the course with me and non-fiction. I tend to chew on it a bit more. But overall an incredible bit of history writing, which masterfully documents the duality of Robert Oppenheimer's brilliance and naïveté.
My copy of American Prometheus is flush with little orange flags that denote what I feel are clues revealing Oppenheimer's psyche around the atomic bomb. I came away with an impression of a brilliant (if not diligent) scientist and humanitarian who generally had the right idea, but like many, was ailed with the American diseases of Ego, Over Deference to Authority, and Tunnel Vision.
This is a phenomenal biography. It is meticulous, detailed, and excellently written. The cast of "characters" is huge, and Sherwin and Bird do a very good job at keeping the details straight, and telling an extremely complicated story in a way that is easily understood. My one criticism is that certain events and people are relayed sometimes out of chronology, which can be confusing. I certainly recommend making liberal use of the index to remind yourself of where you heard that name 200 pages back.
This took me longer to get through than my normal pace, but that's par for the course with me and non-fiction. I tend to chew on it a bit more. But overall an incredible bit of history writing, which masterfully documents the duality of Robert Oppenheimer's brilliance and naïveté.
Incredibly in depth regarding one of the most polarizing figures of history. I do think at times the lengths the author goes to explain everything is unneeded but I suppose with biographies its better to be too much than too little.
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
tense
medium-paced