Master Mind: The Rise and Fall of Fritz Haber, the Nobel Laureate Who Launched the Age of Chemical Warfare [Hardcover]

Daniel Charles (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 2, 2005

FRITZ HABER -- a Nobel laureate in chemistry, a friend of Albert Einstein, a German Jew and World War I hero -- may be the most important scientist you have never heard of. The Haber-Bosch process, which he invented at the turn of the twentieth century, revolutionized agriculture by converting nitrogen to fertilizer in quantities massive enough to feed the world. The invention has become an essential pillar for life on earth; some two billion people on our planet could not survive without it. Yet this same process supplied the German military with explosives during World War I, and Haber orchestrated Germany's use of an entirely new weapon -- poison gas. Eventually, Haber's efforts led to Zyklon B, the gas later used to kill millions -- including Haber's own relatives -- in Nazi concentration camps.

Haber is the patron saint of guns and butter, a scientist whose discoveries transformed the way we produce food and fight wars. His legacy is filled with contradictions, as was his personality. For some, he was a benefactor of humanity and devoted friend. For others, he was a war criminal, possessed by raw ambition. An intellectual gunslinger, enamored of technical progress and driven by patriotic devotion to Germany, he was instrumental in the scientific work that inadvertently supported the Nazi cause; a Jew and a German patriot, he was at once an enabler of the Nazi regime and its victim.

Master Mind is a thought-provoking biography of this controversial scientist, a modern Faust who personifies the paradox of science, its ability to create and to destroy. It offers a complete chronicle of his tumultuous and ultimately tragic life, from his childhood and rise to prominence in the heady days of the German Empire to his disgrace and exile at the hands of the Nazis; from early decades as the hero who eliminated the threat of starvation to his lingering legacy as a villain whose work led to the demise of millions.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Fritz Haber (1868–1934), winner of the 1918 Nobel Prize for chemistry, was, in Charles's eyes, a "modern Faust": "willing to serve any master who could further his passion for knowledge and progress." Having discovered how to manufacture nitrogen-based fertilizer, which allowed the increase of crop production needed to feed an exploding human population, he also developed the first poison gas, used infamously in WWI at Ypres on April 22, 1915. It's this harrowing moral thicket that most fascinates Charles (Lords of the Harvest) in this overly sympathetic biography of the first "scientist-warrior." Haber was passionately committed to German nationalism (Jewish by birth, he converted to Christianity in order to assimilate), and he devoted his skills to Germany's cause in WWI. Approximately a week after Ypres Haber's wife, a scientist believed to have opposed the use of poison gas, committed suicide. Charles, a former NPR correspondent, strays from objectivity, frequently offering his own judgments and opinions, and he sees Haber's life as a cautionary tale: "[S]ometimes," he concludes, "it is the duty of an honest scientist" to refuse to put science in the service of national military goals."B&w photos.
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From Booklist

Charles delivers an eminently readable account of German chemist Fritz Haber's life (1868-1934) and precepts. Despite Haber's scientific and financial success--he became wealthy from, and received a Nobel Prize for, his co-invention of the process underlying the chemical fertilizer industry--he ended up disgraced, doubting his own lifelong values. A Jew in imperial Germany, the young Haber enthusiastically embraced the country's high-velocity industrialization and its intense nationalism. Charles' descriptions of Haber's education and positions are enhanced by an astute estimation of his motivations and character: extroverted and not reflective, Haber was optimistic about technology, gregarious, a poor husband, and quite the superpatriot. Seizing the last trait as a tragic flaw, Charles is sympathetic to Haber's fate, if not to the simplicity of his maxims of duty and loyalty, which, despite Haber's vital contributions to Germany's armaments production in World War I, did not protect him from the early stages of Nazi persecution. A perceptively intelligent writer, Charles, one senses, is the biographer Haber would have wanted. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Ecco (August 2, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060562722
• ISBN-13: 978-0060562724
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #300,700 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #36 in Books > History > Military > Weapons & Warfare > Biological & Chemical

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10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Look at the Scientific Mind, November 14, 2005

By 

Timothy Haugh (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Master Mind: The Rise and Fall of Fritz Haber, the Nobel Laureate Who Launched the Age of Chemical Warfare (Hardcover)

The mind of a scientist is a curious thing. A scientist is obviously driven by curiosity but what sparks that curiosity and what puts some scientific minds above others is a problem. The lives of Newton and Einstein have picked over for clues but, often, more clarity can be seen in the lives of the brilliant, if lesser, scientific minds. Fritz Haber is such an example.

Haber was the inventor of the process by which nitrogen can be produced on an industrial scale. This may not seem important but it is the process by which nitrogen fertilizers were invented, allowing food production on a scale never before seen. It is estimated that nearly a third of the current population of the earth could not be supported without the food production allowed by these fertilizers, for which Haber was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1918.

Newton & Einstein have a genius that stands alone but what similarities do we see with Haber, who happened to be a good friend of Einstein's? From what this book describes, it seems to be mainly the intense focus, concentration and hard work that these men brought to bear on problems. A touch of genius doesn't hurt, but without hard work, it amounts to nothing and, as Haber's life demonstrates, hard work and dedication can take you a long way.

So, with the great importance of his work, why is Haber basically unknown? Well, Haber's focus and hard work led him to ignore the morality of some of the implications of his work. In particular, his work with nitrogen contributed greatly to Germany's military might during World War I and World War II, nitrogen being the basic ingredient of explosives. The irony of this is that, despite his work for Germany's greatness in the early twentieth century, his Jewish heritage (even though he practiced Christianity for most of his adult life) made him anathema in Germany upon the rise of the Nazis. At his death in 1934, he was rejected--by the world because of his support of Germany and by Germany because of his Jewishness.

If the prose here is a little bland and somewhat less than penetrating in spots, Mr. Charles does offer us a portrait of the scientist as a blind seeker. For knowledge, yes, but also for recognition of his accomplishments in the public sphere. Perhaps this is where the life of Haber and Einstein most significantly diverge and makes us think Haber the lesser man. In any case, it is a life worth investigating for both its triumphs and its warnings.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Superb Biography, October 24, 2005

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G. Poirier (Orleans, ON, Canada) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Master Mind: The Rise and Fall of Fritz Haber, the Nobel Laureate Who Launched the Age of Chemical Warfare (Hardcover)

I didn't know that Fritz Haber had done so much in his life - especially his invention of an efficient way to manufacture ammonia and fertilizer using nitrogen from the atmosphere; this won him a Nobel Prize. Nor did I know the details of his involvement with poison gas warfare. All of this and much more is fully discussed in this excellent, well-written biography. The author also provides the reader with a good glimpse of the evolving political, religious and cultural climate in which Fritz Haber lived. I found the book difficult to put down due to the engaging style in which it is written. Anyone interested in early twentieth century European history, chemistry and the life of a tragic figure who was central to both will find a great deal in this excellent book.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A book of historic value, September 30, 2005

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Jack Ragsdale (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Master Mind: The Rise and Fall of Fritz Haber, the Nobel Laureate Who Launched the Age of Chemical Warfare (Hardcover)

Haber and Einstein. If for no other reason than the personal direction these two men took in their lives, this book is of historic value. Haber pursued an illusion Einstein realized did not exist. I found Master Mind exciting and of lasting value. Daniel Charles' writing is beautiful as well as lucid. (...)