Robert Oppenheimer

This huge biography emphasizes Oppenheimer’s contributions as a theoretical physicist, but these are still overshadowed by the compelling story of his tenure as the director of the atomic-bomb project at Los Alamos and his emergence as one of his era’s most prominent public intellectuals. Monk highlights Oppenheimer’s diverse interests, which included French poetry and Hinduism, but writes that “his greatest love” was for his country. The love was unrequited: his security clearance was revoked, as much because of personal feuds as because of earlier ties to the Communist Party. Oppenheimer’s eventual exile was indelibly presaged in a tense postwar meeting with President Truman, who, after hearing of the scientist’s deep ambivalence about nuclear weapons, is said to have remarked, “I don’t want to see that son-of-a-bitch in this office ever again.” ♦