Robert Oppenheimer

J. Robert Oppenheimer was the man who won the war and lost his soul.This fifteenth installment tells the story of the physicist who led the creation of the atomic bomb, from his privileged childhood in Manhattan to his transformation into the 'father of the nuclear age.' The book follows his education during the revolution of quantum physics in Europe, the construction of Los Alamos, the success of the first nuclear test at Trinity, and the horror of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.Becoming the most influential scientist in America, Oppenheimer opposed the hydrogen bomb, earning him powerful enemies. In 1954, a trial orchestrated by Lewis Strauss and Edward Teller stripped him of his security clearance for 'lack of loyalty,' destroying both his career and his spirit.Based on declassified documents, this book reveals the truth about his communist ties, the conspiracy that brought him down, and the paradox of a man who, like Prometheus, stole fire from the gods and was chained for it. Hero, villain, or martyr: Oppenheimer was the first man to bear the weight of the atomic age.