J. Robert Oppenheimer: A LifeThe late Abraham Pais, author of the award winning biography of Albert Einstein, Subtle is the Lord, here offers an illuminating portrait of another of his eminent colleagues, J. Robert Oppenheimer, one of the most charismatic and enigmatic figures of modern physics. Pais introduces us to a precocious youth who sped through Harvard in three years, made signal contributions to quantum mechanics while in his twenties, and was instrumental in the growth of American physics in the decade before the Second World War, almost single-handedly bringing it to a state of prominence. He paints a revealing portrait of Oppenheimer's life in Los Alamos, where in twenty remarkable, feverish months, and under his inspired guidance, the first atomic bomb was designed and built, a success that made Oppenheimer America's most famous scientist. Pais describes Oppenheimer's long tenure as Director of the Institute of Advanced Study at Princeton, where the two men worked together closely. He shows not only Oppenheimer's brilliance and leadership, but also how his displays of intensity and arrogance won him powerful enemies, ones who would ultimately make him one of the principal victims of the Red Scare of the 1950s. J. Robert Oppenheimer is Abraham Pais's final work, completed after his death by Robert P. Crease, an acclaimed historian of science in his own right. Told with compassion and deep insight, it is the most comprehensive biography of the great physicist available. Anyone seeking an insider's portrait of this enigmatic man will find it indispensable. |
Contents
1 | |
4 | |
8 | |
14 | |
20 | |
24 | |
CHAPTER 7 Oppenheimers Opinion of His Own Teaching and Research in California | 33 |
CHEPTER 8 Personal Life in the 1930s | 34 |
CHAPTER 17 Atomic Politics in the Early Postwar Years | 144 |
CHAPTER 18 Of the First Serious Enemies and of the First Russian ABomb | 163 |
CHAPTER 19 Of the Superbomb and of Spy Stories | 168 |
CHAPTER 20 The New Super | 183 |
CHAPTER 21 Atomic Politics in the Early 1950s | 193 |
CHAPTER 22 In Which the Excrement Hits the Ventilator | 202 |
CHAPTER 23 In Which the News of the Hearings Is Made Public | 214 |
Supplemental Material | 225 |
CHAPTER 9 The Shatterer of Worlds | 39 |
CHAPTER 10 In Which Oppenheimer Enters the World Stage | 45 |
CHAPTER 11 An Atomic Scientists Credo | 49 |
CHAPTER 12 The Institute Prior to Oppenheimers Arrival | 59 |
CHAPTER 13 In Which Oppenheimer Is Elected Director of the Institute and Chairman of the General Advisory Committee | 77 |
CHAPTER 14 Oppenheimers Early Years as Institute Director | 86 |
19461954 | 96 |
CHAPTER 16 Further on Oppenheimer the Man | 123 |
The Hearing in the Matter of J Robert Oppenheimer | 227 |
CHAPTER 25 No Final Judgment | 259 |
CHAPTER 26 Insider in Exile | 272 |
CHAPTER 27 Cloaked Mountain Peak | 300 |
Notes | 311 |
Principal Sources Used | 335 |
Index | 337 |
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Abraham Pais Alamos American American Physical Society AP notes appointed April asked atomic bomb atomic weapons Aydelotte Berkeley Bethe Bohr C. N. Yang called chairman Chevalier clearance Committee Communist contributions December defense director discussion Dyson Einstein Eisenhower electrons Emilio Segrč faculty field fission Flexner friends Fuld Garrison Groves H-bomb hearing heimer hydrogen bomb Ibid Institute for Advanced Interviews January June Kitty knew laboratory later letter Lewis Strauss Lilienthal matter meeting meson military neutron never Niels Bohr nuclear October Oppen Oppenheimer's Oppie Pais papers particles Pauli Phys physicists physics political President Princeton problems quantum Rabi radiation Robb Robert Oppenheimer Robert Serber scientific scientists Serber Soviet story Strauss Super T. D. Lee talk Teller theoretical theory thermonuclear things tion told Truman Trustees United Veblen wrote York