J. Robert Oppenheimer : a life

Author(s)

• Pais, Abraham
• Crease, Robert P.

Bibliographic Information

J. Robert Oppenheimer : a life

Abraham Pais ; with supplemental material by Robert P. Crease

（Oxford paperbacks）

Oxford University Press, 2007, c2006

• : pbk

Note

Includes bibliographical references and index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

The 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.

Table of Contents

Ida Nicolaisen: Forward Robert P. Crease: Preface 1: First Encounters 2: Background: Early Years 3: University Studies 4: Postdoctural Studies: Harvard-Caltech-Leiden, Zurich 5: the California Professor as Teacher 6: The California Professor as Researcher: More on QED, Cosmic Rays, Electron-Positron Theory, Nuclear Physics, Shower Theory, Mesons, Astrophysics and Cosmology 7: Oppenheimer's Opinion on His own Teaching and Research in California 8: Personal Life in the 1930s 9: The Shatter of Worlds 10: In Which Oppenheimer Enters the World Stage 11: An Atomic Scientist's Credo 12: The Institute Prior to Oppenheimer's Arrival: the Flexnor Years-The Aydellotte Years 13: In Which Oppenheimer is Elected Director of the Institute and Chairman of the General Advisory Committee 14: Oppenheimer's Early Years as Institute Director 15: Oppenheimer and the World of Physics: 1946-1954 "The Great Charismatic Figure" 16: Further on Oppenheimer the Man 17: Atomic Politics in the Early Postwar Years 18: Of the First Serious Enemies and of the First Russian A-Bomb 19: Of the Superbomb and of Spy Stories 20: The New Super 21: Atomic Politics in the Early 1950s 22: In Which the Excrement Hits the Ventilator 23: In Which the News of Hearings Is Made Public Robert Crease: Supplemental Material 24: "Open Book": The Hearing in the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer 25: No Final Judgement 26: Insider Exile 27: Cloaked Mountain Peak Notes Principal Sources Used Index

by "Nielsen BookData"

• NCID: BA8455541X
• ISBN:
  • 9780195327120
• Country Code: uk
• Title Language Code: eng
• Text Language Code: eng
• Place of Publication: Oxford ; New York, N.Y.
• Pages/Volumes: xxii, 353 p., [16] p. of plates
• Size: 24 cm
• Classification:
  • LCC : QC16.O62
  • DC22 : 530/.092
  • DC22 : B
• Subject Headings:
  • LCSH : Oppenheimer, J. Robert, 1904-1967
  • LCSH : Atomic bomb -- United States -- History
  • LCSH : Physicists -- United States -- Biography
• Parent Bibliography ID:
  • BA00075182