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The late Abraham Pais wrote the definitive biography of Albert Einstein, "Subtle is the Lord," which won an American Book Award. As a distinguished physicist and Einstein's colleague, Pais combined a sophisticated understanding of physics with first-hand knowledge of this notoriously private individual, offering rare insights into both. It is his unique double perspective that makes his work so valuable.
Now Abraham Pais offers an illuminating portrait of another eminent colleague, 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 putting American physics on the map. Pais paints a revealing portrait of Oppenheimer's life in Los Alamos, where in twenty remarkable, feverish months, under his inspired leadership, the first atomic bomb was designed and built, a success that made Oppenheimer America's most famous scientist. Pais, who was his next-door neighbor for many years, describes Oppenheimer's long tenure as Director of the Institute of Advanced Study at Princeton, but also shows how Oppenheimer's intensity and arrogance won him powerful enemies, who would ultimately make him one of the principal victims of the Red Scare of the 1950s.
Told with compassion and deep insight, J. Robert Oppenheimer is the most comprehensive biography of the great physicist available. It is Abraham Pais's final work, completed after his death by Robert P. Crease, an acclaimed historian of science in his own right.
- Sales Rank: #1429420 in Books
- Published on: 2006-04-01
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 6.30" h x 1.50" w x 9.30" l, 1.53 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 400 pages
From Publishers Weekly
Back in the 1990s, when Pais ("Subtle Is the Lord...") began to seriously consider writing about Oppenheimer, there was no full-scale biography of the scientist who led America's effort to create the atom bomb. But with a surfeit of books about Oppenheimer in the last year, this one comes too late—and suffers greatly in comparison to Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin's more comprehensive and cogent American Prometheus. Though Pais, a physicist as well as a science writer, was a close colleague of Oppenheimer's at Princeton's Institute for Advanced Studies, he is largely incurious about the parts of his subject's life that he didn't observe personally. He does little more than acknowledge the Manhattan Project, for example, noting that it has been covered elsewhere, and dismisses Oppenheimer's wife as despicable with barely any supporting evidence. Some chapters are assembled by lengthy quotes from secondary sources, others by anecdote, some barely developed past outline form; none are particularly engrossing. Pais died before he could write about the political hearings that cost Oppenheimer his security clearance and public reputation. The final chapters covering this period, written by Crease, a historian at Brookhaven National Laboratory and author of The Prism and the Pendulum, are such a marked improvement that one wishes he'd produced a biography on his own. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Scientific American
Before you mutter "Not another book about Oppenheimer," recall that the author of this one--the late Abraham Pais--wrote what is arguably the most comprehensive biography of Albert Einstein, Subtle Is the Lord, which won a National Book Award. In the present book, Pais (who was a distinguished theoretical physicist) once again combines his sophisticated understanding of the science and his insider's knowledge of the man (he was Oppenheimer's next-door neighbor for many years) to produce a stunning portrait. Historian of science Crease completed the book after Pais's death.
EDITORS OF SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN
From Booklist
*Starred Review* "We pursue him, and he eludes us." So John Leonard remarked about the maddeningly elusive physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer. And now the controversial scientist has slipped beyond the grasp of Pais, the much-acclaimed biographer of Einstein and Bohr. Pais, a longtime colleague of Oppenheimer, long postponed the writing of this life study because of deep personal ambivalence toward the man who presided over the making of America's first atomic bomb only to fall victim to McCarthy-era hysteria. As a consequence of that delay, Pais died before finishing his book. Surprisingly, readers may find that an unintentionally truncated book actually highlights the troubling incompleteness that Pais perceives in Oppenheimer's character. For although Pais details Oppenheimer's rare achievements as a researcher, teacher, and administrator, the portrait he finally delivers is that of a brilliant but arrogant mind falling short of lofty expectations. To the end of his life, Oppenheimer harbored a bitter consciousness of having himself failed to achieve any epoch-making discovery in the science he tirelessly promulgated. Pais' account of the personal contradictions within the man makes an excellent counterpoint to Bird and Sherwin's American Prometheus (2005), the award-winning, full-dress biography of Oppenheimer in which the emphasis falls on the more public side of his life, the Manhattan Project and its aftermath. In context with Bird and Sherwin, Pais offers an indispensable new look at the ever-enigmatic private Oppenheimer. Bryce Christensen
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Most helpful customer reviews
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Five Stars
By Izzycat
J. Robert Oppenheimer is my third cousin on my maternal side and I collect books written about him.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
HURRIED JOB?
By PRAKASH TRIVEDI
I have read Prof. Pais' Subtle is the Lord. Biography of Einstein. I expected the same treatment but find it rather loosely written, giving somewhat more importance to himself too! The atom bomb years are not well covered, as he says he wasn't there. But then Biographer doesn't have to be present where his subject is.
Still, overall, interesting due to Oppie's own personality and charm. Worth reading for those who have not read any other biography and all students of science.
Prakash.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful.
Shows Oppenheimer in a positive light
By Adam Smith
On the positive side this well-written biography presents a lot of detail about J. Robert Oppenheimer's work on the development of the first atomic weapon. It described his struggles as the leader of the scientific team at the Los Alamos laboratory and then later of the Director of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton University. The biography also covers in great detail the hearing to decide whether or not to renew his security clearance to work on nuclear science as a consultant for the U.S. Government.
I think what this biography lacked was a more personal psychological evaluation of Oppenheimer. Why did Oppenheimer form so few friendships? Why did he treat his employees with such contempt at times? Why did he at times brandish a superior attitude towards colleagues? What from his childhood molded his view of life? This book touches briefly on these questions, but it does not really go deep enough to determine the root causes of these attitudes.
I think the book did a good job highlighting the angst felt by Oppenheimer and the other scientists over the destructive potential of nuclear weapons. While they were patriotic and served their country well, they also saw that nuclear weapons had the potential to destroy the human race. Oppenheimer's famous quote shows how he felt about the bomb: "We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried. Most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita; Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and, to impress him, takes on his multi-armed form and says, 'Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.' I suppose we all thought that, one way or another."
I found this biography an interesting read. It did have a tendency in places to get mired down in details that slowed the pace of the story, but I think the interesting parts of the book made up for the less interesting parts. I would agree with another reviewer who wrote: "If you want to know more about Oppenheimer's life before and during the war, look to other books. If you want some insight into his later life and into the depth of his character, this is the best book I have found." I would agree with that assessment. This book will help the reader appreciate Oppenheimer's work ethic, patriotism and his leadership. Oppenheimer in the end was a team player and believed it was not about him, but about "us". I think that's what drove him in his work life.
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