American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Bird, Kai

THE INSPIRATION FOR THE ACADEMY AWARD(R)-WINNING MAJOR MOTION PICTURE OPPENHEIMER - "A riveting account of one of history's most essential and paradoxical figures."--Christopher Nolan

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - 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, and who later found himself confronting the moral consequences of scientific progress.

In this magisterial, acclaimed biography twenty-five years in the making, Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin capture Oppenheimer's life and times, from his early career to his central role in the Cold War. This is biography and history at its finest, riveting and deeply informative.

"A masterful account of Oppenheimer's rise and 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 and 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

Author: Kai Bird, Martin J. Sherwin
Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group
Published: 05/01/2005
Pages: 736
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 2.45lbs
Size: 9.36h x 6.60w x 1.65d
ISBN: 9780375412028
Award: National Book Critics Circle Award - Winner
Award: Ambassador Book Awards - Winner
Award: Lukas Prize Project - Finalist

Review Citation(s):
Ingram Advance 05/01/2005 pg. 43
Library Journal 04/15/2005 pg. 115
Time 05/09/2005 pg. 67
New York Times 05/15/2005 pg. 7
New Yorker (The) 07/25/2005 pg. 97
Science Books & Films 07/01/2005 pg. 151
New York Review of Books 09/22/2005 pg. 73
Kirkus Reviews 02/15/2005 pg. 205
Vanity Fair 04/01/2005 pg. 112
Publishers Weekly 03/07/2005 pg. 63
Booklist 03/01/2005 pg. 1100
Science Books & Films 11/01/2005 pg. 240
Discover 01/01/2006 pg. 73
Time 12/26/2005 pg. 177
Booklist Editors Choice/Adult 01/01/2006 pg. 6
LJ Best Sci-Tech Books 03/01/2006 pg. 44

About the Author
Kai Bird is the author of The Chairman: John J. McCloy, The Making of the American Establishment and The Color of Truth: McGeorge Bundy and William Bundy, Brothers in Arms. He coedited with Lawrence Lifschultz Hiroshima's Shadow: Writings on the Denial of History and the Smithsonian Controversy. A contributing editor of The Nation, he lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife and son.

Martin J. Sherwin is the Walter S. Dickson Professor of English and American History at Tufts University and author of A World Destroyed: Hiroshima and Its Legacies, which won the Stuart L. Bernath Prize, as well as the American History Book Prize. He and his wife live in Boston and Washington, D.C.