Robert Oppenheimer: A Life Inside the Center

It's difficult to find a more complicated figure in 20th century physics than J. Robert Oppenheimer. While previous biographies have examined Oppenheimer's philosophy and politics, Monk's work stands apart for its attention to his work in physics. Born in 1904 to a well-off German Jewish family, Oppenheimer had a sheltered childhood and grew into an unrepentant "intellectual snob", putting mas-tery above sociability. Monk (Ludwig Wittgenstein: The Duty of Genius) captures Oppenheimer's zeal; a Harvard undergraduate dividing his time between chemistry and literature%E2%80%94until he discovered physics. Clumsiness in the lab and fascination with quantum mechanics led him to theoretical physics where he excelled. Monk connects Oppenheimer's drive to succeed with his skill at building power-house teams of physicists: at Berkeley, where he created the first American school of theoretical phys-ics; at Los Alamos, where he guided the Manhattan Project; and after WWII at the Institute for Ad-vanced Study in Princeton, NJ. Monk explores the tangled politics that surrounded Oppenheimer as well as his weapons work, while celebrating the physicist's work on cosmic rays and stellar collapse. This grand biography illuminates the genius of a fascinating scientist as driven by his own research as he was driven to lead and inspire others. (May)