14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
First rate account of the creation of the bomb, October 21, 2002
This review is from: Brotherhood of the Bomb: The Tangled Lives and Loyalties of Robert Oppenheimer, Ernest Lawrence and Edward Teller (Hardcover)
Gregg Herken's Brotherhood of the Bomb manages to overcome the most common obstacle with history books--it makes the subjects and the events come alive. Herken had access to The Smithsonian Archieves as well as interviews with the primary sources involved in the creation of the bomb. The book is a fair balanced account of the difficult personalities and politics that went into the creation of the first nuclear bomb and the later more powerful "super". Only two other books has been this impressive (both by Richard Rhodes)and exhaustive. Herken's book has the advantage of additional resources.
The personalities and egos of Oppenheimer, Teller and Lawrence contributed to the rise and downfall of each man. Oppenheimer's eventual ethical objections to the development of the super came as much from his personal beliefs as it did his distaste for Teller's ideas. Teller became a hawk regarding nuclear policy and, ultimately, his opinions on Oppenheimer contributed to his loss of his security clearence. Lawrence was as driven as both men and largely apolitical until politics and science intersected.
Herken's book is a fascinating portrait of the players and time that helped shape the modern world.
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13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"physicists have known power", December 19, 2002
This review is from: Brotherhood of the Bomb: The Tangled Lives and Loyalties of Robert Oppenheimer, Ernest Lawrence and Edward Teller (Hardcover)
Herken has written a wonderful account of the United States's programs to develop an atomic bomb during World War II and to build an H-bomb during the 1950s. But beyond chronicling scientific and technological developments, the book explores the world of American politics and government and how it was influencing the physics side of things. More importantly to the work's argument, however, Herken also delves into the scientists personal lives--their friendships, their hobbies, their activities. To that end, he focuses on three:
--Ernest Orlando Lawrence, the driven, imperious, South Dakotan who directed the Rad(iation) Lab at Berkeley and created--ruled, some would say--a "cyclotron republic" there
--Edward Teller, the temperamental Hungarian emigre who fled to the United States from Communists in his native land and from Nazis in Germany, and who, to the exclusion of almost everything else, pursued the H-bomb at Los Alamos and then at Livermore (an interesting anecdote describes how, at the Trinity test, he stunned his companions by putting on suntan lotion, gloves, and welder's glasses)
--J. Robert "Oppie" Oppenheimer (according to Herken, the "J" stands for nothing; other sources have it as "Julius"), the introspective director of the Manhattan Project with an affinity for Eastern religions and leftist, even Communist, causes
These three figure prominently in the tale which begins at Berkeley in the 1930s, where the great physicists of the day began to coalesce. World War II took most of them to Los Alamos in some way or another, although Lawrence's work was mostly at the Rad Lab developing ways of enriching uranium. By the end of the war, splits were beginning to appear as the scientists became more aware of the political and moral implications of their work. While Oppenheimer became something of a celebrity in the nation at large and served as an advisor to a handful of government commissions and committees, Lawrence fervently lobbied for government funding for bigger and faster cyclotrons, and Teller ever more energetically pursued his Super.
Oppenheimer, who had been loosely affiliated with the Communist Party in the late 1930s, had been under FBI scrutiny--including wiretaps of his phone--ever since he became director at Los Alamos and gained a security clearance then only at Leslie Groves' insistence. In the mid-1950s, as the penetration of the bomb project came to light, and in the wake of the McCarthy hearings, and after Oppenheimer had voiced his opposition to the Super, the physicist's political leanings began to concern government officials. Hearings were held, which included somewhat ambiguous though negative testimony from Teller, and Oppenheimer's security clearance was revoked.
Of course, this is just the briefest of summaries. Other books, notably and admirably Rhodes', have detailed both bomb programs, but Herken's adds depth to the stories by focusing on the personal relationships between the scientists and demonstrating how they impacted events. Loyalty was important. But loyalty to what? Friends? Family? Science? The government? Politics? Ideology? Humanity? More often that not, it was a combination--"tangled loyalties," as Herken calls it. And the end result was often ill will or resentment; disagreements over the ends of science often boiled over into broken friendships, or into political conflict.
These men loom large in modern history. They were giants of nuclear physics as well as of their time. But they were human, too--flawed giants. "Physicists have known sin," said Robert Oppenheimer. In response, some years later, Edward Teller wrote, "Physicists have known power." No two statements better capture the status of physics (and physicists) in the world--and the differences separating these two men.
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21 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
first rate history of science, told like a novel, September 27, 2002
This review is from: Brotherhood of the Bomb: The Tangled Lives and Loyalties of Robert Oppenheimer, Ernest Lawrence and Edward Teller (Hardcover)
This is a wonderful book about one of the most controversial developments of the last century: the development of the atomic and then hydrogen bombs. At the core of the book are the three scientists - Robert Oppenheimer, Ernest Lawrence, and Edward Teller - who had the greatest impact, both from the technical problems they confronted and from the political points of view they advocated. Though a bit rarified in terms of general interest as it focuses on science advisors, this for me was a fascinating recounting of the decisions that led to the arms race and eventually cost $5.5 trillion and produced 120,000 nuclear weapons. It also evokes with great eloquence the domestic repercussions of the cold war and paranoia of the 1950s.
Herken writes well, though at times his style was strange for me. For example, one person evaluated a speech with a "gimlet eye." (I had to look that up.) Nonetheless, Herken's writing is dramatic and fast paced, far far better than I would normally expect from an American academic.
Recommended with enthusiasm.
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