This Pulitzer Prize winning biography covers the life and work of the brilliant physicist who led the work to create the atomic bomb during World War II only to be unjustly turned against by the very government he served. Oppenheimer was a fascinating, highly intelligent, albeit somewhat dysfunctional man. He suffered through anti-Semitism in his career as a university professor before settling into his job at the radiation lab of U.C.-Berkeley. It was there, during the Great Depression, that he became acquainted with many members of the Communist Party. Although he never joined the party himself, these friendships and acquaintances would come back to haunt him during his work on the Manhattan Project through to the era of McCarthyism. One man, Lewis Strauss with the help of infamous FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, fueled the unreasonable accusations against Oppenheimer and, after a travesty of a hearing, had him removed from his position on the Atomic Energy Commission. This is a long and detailed account of a fascinating, if troubled man.
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