HE IS known as the father of the atomic bomb, but J. Robert Oppenheimer was much more than that. As scientific director of the Los Alamos atomic weapons laboratory during the second world war, Oppenheimer was a social symbol, a 鈥渘odal point鈥� where scientific, political and military interests clashed. It is this sociological aspect of his life that Thorpe focuses on here. On his fall from grace as a suspected communist fellow traveller, he is sympathetic without making excuses. One chapter is headed, using Oppenheimer鈥檚 own words, 鈥淚 am an idiot鈥�. Disappointingly for a sociological study, Thorpe never lifts his eyes from his subject long enough to draw parallels between the corruption of science by politics in the 1950s and today.
Oppenheimer: The tragic intellect
University of Chicago Press
