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1.63k reviews for:
American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer
Martin J. Sherwin, Kai Bird
4.33 AVERAGE
1.63k reviews for:
American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer
Martin J. Sherwin, Kai Bird
4.33 AVERAGE
This book wasn't entirely what I expected. It's not about the literal bomb so much as its symbolic impact on the globe. I'm some ways it feels like two separate books. One might argue this text indicates the Cold War began in Hiroshima. (I'm not an authority in the subject). Though none of the narrative feels superfluous, the read feels a bit lengthy to me. Minor details (e.g., Oppenheimer's love of martinis) give the novel moments of warmth amidst a caustic history. A book about this scientist feels too detached from the science itself, but I doubt I could have comprehended it in-depth. The McCarthy era scrutiny echoes early from Conservative camps of the past into the modern American mindset; for that reason, I think much of this read is essential. I am looking forward to Christopher Nolan's forthcoming adaption of this solemn work.
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Need to just pick this back up when I get back into non-fiction! Great so far, just on a fiction kick right now
“You have to take the whole story." Rabi insisted. "That is what novels are about. There is a dramatic moment and the history of the man; what made him act, what he did and what sort of person he was. That is what you are really doing here- you are writing a man's life.”
“As their conversation turned philosophical, Oppenheimer stressed the word 'responsibility'. And when Morgan suggested he was using the word almost in a religious sense Oppenheimer agreed it was a "secular devise for using a religious notion without attaching it to a transcendent being. I like to use the word 'ethical' here. I am more explicit about ethical questions now than ever before although these were very strong with me when I was working on the bomb. Now I don't know how to describe my life without using some word like responsibility to characterize it. A word that has to do with choice and action and the tension in which choices can be resolved. I'm not talking about knowledge but about being limited by what you can do. There is no meaningful responsibility without power. It may be only power over what you do yourself but increased knowledge, increased wealth... leisure are all increasing the domain in which responsibility is conceivable." After this soliloquy Morgan wrote "Oppenheimer turned his palms up, the long slender fingers including his listener in his conclusion 'You and I' he said 'Neither of us is rich but as far as responsibility goes both of us are in a position right now to alleviate the most awful agony in people at the starvation level.' This was only a different way of saying what he had learned from reading Proust forty years earlier in Corsica... that indifference to the sufferings one causes is the terrible and permanent form of cruelty. Far from being indifferent, Robert was acutely aware of the suffering he had caused others in his life and yet he would not allow himself to succumb to guilt. He would accept responsibility. He had never tried to deny his responsibility but since the security hearing he nevertheless no longer seemed to have the capacity or motivation to fight against the cruelty of indifference. and in that sense, Rabi had been right- they achieved their goal, they killed him.”
“As their conversation turned philosophical, Oppenheimer stressed the word 'responsibility'. And when Morgan suggested he was using the word almost in a religious sense Oppenheimer agreed it was a "secular devise for using a religious notion without attaching it to a transcendent being. I like to use the word 'ethical' here. I am more explicit about ethical questions now than ever before although these were very strong with me when I was working on the bomb. Now I don't know how to describe my life without using some word like responsibility to characterize it. A word that has to do with choice and action and the tension in which choices can be resolved. I'm not talking about knowledge but about being limited by what you can do. There is no meaningful responsibility without power. It may be only power over what you do yourself but increased knowledge, increased wealth... leisure are all increasing the domain in which responsibility is conceivable." After this soliloquy Morgan wrote "Oppenheimer turned his palms up, the long slender fingers including his listener in his conclusion 'You and I' he said 'Neither of us is rich but as far as responsibility goes both of us are in a position right now to alleviate the most awful agony in people at the starvation level.' This was only a different way of saying what he had learned from reading Proust forty years earlier in Corsica... that indifference to the sufferings one causes is the terrible and permanent form of cruelty. Far from being indifferent, Robert was acutely aware of the suffering he had caused others in his life and yet he would not allow himself to succumb to guilt. He would accept responsibility. He had never tried to deny his responsibility but since the security hearing he nevertheless no longer seemed to have the capacity or motivation to fight against the cruelty of indifference. and in that sense, Rabi had been right- they achieved their goal, they killed him.”
challenging
informative
slow-paced
I don’t think I have the skills necessary to describe truly how well put together this book is. 25 years of research culminated in what is most definitely one of the best biographies ever released about one of the most human men I’ve ever read or known of. It took me nearly an entire month to finish the book and I was enthralled the whole way through even when it was relatively boring. The worst part about the whole thing is that after all that I still don’t understand the enigma that is J. Robert Oppenheimer more than when I saw the movie lmao. There’s truly something special about this experience though, simply the level at which you grow to understand this man’s life is honestly insane. This book has something for everyone in every field from physics to politics to history, and I truly think everyone should at least try to read it if you have any interest at all in his story.
adventurous
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
challenging
informative
slow-paced
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
slow-paced