Atoms in the Family: My Life with Enrico Fermi (History of Modern Physics, 1800-1950) [Hardcover]

Laura Fermi (Author)

Book Description

Series: History of Modern Physics, 1800-1950 | Publication Date: January 1987

In this absorbing account of life with the great atomic scientist Enrico Fermi, Laura Fermi tells the story of their emigration to the United States in the 1930s—part of the widespread movement of scientists from Europe to the New World that was so important to the development of the first atomic bomb. Combining intellectual biography and social history, Laura Fermi traces her husband's career from his childhood, when he taught himself physics, through his rise in the Italian university system concurrent with the rise of fascism, to his receipt of the Nobel Prize, which offered a perfect opportunity to flee the country without arousing official suspicion, and his odyssey to the United States.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Laura Fermi (1907-77) also wrote Atoms for the World, Mussolini, and Illustrious Immigrants: The Intellectual Migration from Europe, 1930-1941.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 267 pages
• Publisher: American Institute of Physics (January 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0883185245
• ISBN-13: 978-0883185247
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,773,398 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars 25 % biography of Enrico Fermi., November 10, 1998

By 

Angel Alvarez-Cedrón - See all my reviews

This review is from: Atoms in the Family: My Life with Enrico Fermi (Paperback)

Laura Fermi explains her husband life: the family, the adventures of the italian physicists, the Nobel prize, the American life, the Manhattan project. But Fermi life is full of physics, and in the book you don't find any explanation of the discoveries which took most of his time. It is a pity that Laura didn't get more information from her husband work to realize how great it was and how it influenced the future of quantum mechanic. Fermi was one of the top ones. I recommend this book as a preliminar biography but not as a deep one.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Life with a genius, in the strange world of Los Alamos, September 24, 1999

By 

N. A. Woodward "normfromga" (Warner Robins, GA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Atoms in the Family: My Life with Enrico Fermi (Paperback)

I rated this so high, partly because it is one of the few books I remember reading, 35+ years ago. Around the same time I had read another book about the Manhattan Project, "The Traitors," by Alan Moorehead (apparently out of print.) Between the two I found out that most of the scientists' wives were not told why their husbands were so excited on the night of July 16, 1945 until after the war was over; meanwhile Stalin was notified through his spy network within 48 hours, during the Potsdam Conference.

I also thought she told a great story about the difficulties for a family to not only move into a strange country with strange languages and customs, only to find themselves rushed into an isolated paramilitary environment.

No great lessons in nuclear fission, lots for nuclear families.

BTW, I was surprised that Amazon does not cross-list this among the other Manhattan Project books.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A charming account of Fermi's life by his wife, August 10, 1998

By 

henrique fleming - See all my reviews

This review is from: Atoms in the Family: My Life with Enrico Fermi (Paperback)

I first read this book more than 40 years ago. I still reread it, now and then. It is the source of most of the anecdotes that helped to explain, and disseminate, the Fermi style of doing physics. I am particularly fond of the memories of the youth of Laura Fermi, when Enrico was a young "dottore", and, together with a group of friends, used to hike the Italian Alps at holidays. Everything was used to teach science, or the way of thinking needed in science (for instance, the thermodynamics of the frying pan!). Later you'll find this "physics at the finger tips" approach used to estimate the power emitted at the first nuclear explosion. A great book.