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Oppenheimer: Portrait of an Enigma

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This book has supplied insights and information which none of my readings on the topic of Oppenheimer or the Manhattan Project or Los Alamos (where I spent part of my childhood, hence the interest) has provided.

This is not a massive tome with large quantities of detail related to any one specific area of Oppenheimer's life, but provides information that tends to hold the massive amounts of data which has been written about him at a more personal level.

All in all, a readable, cogent, human book about a man whose life seems filled with contradictions and disparate interests.

Jeremy Bernstein obviously admires J. Robert Oppenheimer. This is not surprising. Almost everyone who came in contact with his sparkling intellect idolised him. In the 1930s, as a Professor at Berkeley, his students were so awestruck by him, that they could frequently be seen imitating his mannerisms. There were a few who loathed him for his high brow attitude and sharp tongue. In fact, people who met him could roughly be divided into the above two categories. However, the latter formed an exception. The result is that he is generally considered by everyone who had known him, whether it was the janitor at Los Alamos, or Nobel Laureates, as an exceptionally brilliant intellect, and one who also had acute insight into human nature and the consequences of the atomic age.

Now in this new biography, Bernstein brings his well known skills at chronicling famous scientists to bear upon this remarkable man. There have been a few biographies of him so far. Probably the one by Peter Michelmore is most compelling. (The Swift Years: The Robert Oppenheimer Story)The closest that one can get to knowing him well is through his touching and insightful collection of letters, chronicled by Alice Kimball Smith and Charles Weiner.(Robert Oppenheimer: Letters and Recollections) But almost forty years after his death in 1967, what made him tick still seems a mystery. Was it his innate charisma and the blue, innocent, harrowing glare of his eyes, or his lightning fast mind? Was it his incredible knowledge about all things intellectual, from physics to Dante to the Bhagavad Gita? Was it his mesmerising command over the English language, a mixture of spell binding and obscure words, that drew hundreds to his lectures? Or was it his role as the Hamlet and conscience of the atomic age? Certainly all these factors contributed, but Robert Oppenheimer is still not completely unraveled.

However, Bernstein makes a sincere and moving attempt to do this. He is very well qualified for the task. Over the years, he has written extremely informative and entertaining biographies of physicists. He is also a well trained physicist himself and has worked at some of the better known centres of physics in the world-Harvard, Los Alamos and the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton. Most importantly, he worked at this famous institute at a time when Oppenheimer was its director and some of the most acclaimed scientists were flocking there to work at the frontiers of knowledge. Emphatically, Bernstein does not intend this book to be a biography of Oppenheimer and it should not be treated as such (for that purpose readers should consult biographies by Bird & Sherwin and Cassidy). Instead, he says that this is 'The biographical column for the New Yorker which he never wrote.' Bernstein focuses on the main events in Oppenheimer's life which gives the reader much insight into his human nature. He begins every chapter with a curious and affectionate anecdote about his life. Like the time when the absent minded professor went on a car ride on a moonlit night with one of his female students, and then got out for a stroll and walked all the way back to his home, completely forgetting about her. Or warm recollections about the great man from some of the people who knew him the best- fellow Nobel Prize winning physicist and friend Isidor Rabi for example.

The most interesting part of the book probably is the one that sheds light on Oppenheimer's tenure as director of the Institute for Advanced Study, one of the most acclaimed intellectual ivory towers in the world, where Bernstein had an opportunity to observe Oppenheimer almost daily. The stories of the odd men and women who worked there during the 1950's make entertaining reading. For example, here's a hilarious exchange between an aggressive young American mathematician (AM) and an elderly French mathematician (FM) which Bernstein overhears:

AM: Prof. Leray, do you watch any movies?
FM: Silence
AM: What about gangster movies, Prof. Leray? BANG BANG?
FM: Silence
AM: Do you have gangsters in France, Prof. Leray?
FM: Yes, but they constitute the Government.

There were many similar small anectodes in this book which I did not know. The main focus in all of this is the towering intellect at the head of the institute. Bernstein discusses the warmth behind many of the small favours that Oppenheimer did for others, and the formal notes which he sometimes used to post on the notice board ('Members are kindly requested to play touch football out of earshot of the library'). Bernstein also discusses Oppenheimer's security clearance hearing, a painful event for him and his family, and a shameful act on the part of certain members of the Government. All through the book, the author brings an honest, personal perspective to the life of this great man, one who did commit follies in his life, but which I think should be excused in light of the great positive influence he had on people around him and on science in America. In that era of distrust and bitterness, Robert Oppenheimer was a guiding light to everyone and a champion of freedom, full of insight, compassion and understanding. It is important that he be remembered in the same spirit that Einstein and Russell are remembered. Bernstein's book helps tells us why.

Not knowing anything about Oppenheimer, I thought I'd dive in with Jeremy Bernstein's short bio. With Bernstein's credentials as a long time writer for the New Yorker, and as a physicist who knew Oppenheimer, this looked like a great intro.

I couldn't be more wrong. Sadly, this is a poorly written, poorly edited book. Bernstein's credentials intrude embarassingly often as he frequently inserts inconsequential and irrelevant asides with anecdotes about when he perchance met someone in the narrative. He comes across as self-aggrandizing (and without merit - ouch!).

That aside, he also writes poorly, not knowing how to organize his story, when to provide details, etc. I can't imagine I've ever read a book (especially a short 200 page essay) with so many awkward forward references: "I will come back to the matter ..." occurs far too many times for readibility. On the other hand, he will detour into a technical explanation of Plutonium-239 v Plutonium-240, then not use the information for any apparent purpose.

All that said, I can imagine that real students of Oppenheimer might find this interesting precisely for the odd tidbits he may offer that aren't in any other bios or narratives of the time. Such students also will find it easier to navigate through his disorganized narrative of the hearing and so forth. More general readers should look elsewhere. I myself will be trying Brotherhood of the Bomb next.

What I found as an "enigma" after reading this book is how
other people thought that this was a good book! There is nothing
here that has not been discussed elsewhere. I would recommend "Brotherhood of the Bomb" to learn about Oppenheimer and his contemporaries.

From Oppenheimer's childhood days at the Ethical Culture School and the professors that influenced him to his time spent at the Institute towards the end of his life, Bernstein gives an enjoyable and easily readable overview of the physicist's life. Not only focusing on the trial and keeping a good balance between the darker and lighter sides of Oppenheimer personality, Bernstein never truly explores Oppenheimer's psychological problems or attempts to render an explanation for his unusual behavior. Although this might have brought the reader closer to the subject of the book it could be the effect that Bernstein intended as throughout the book Oppenheimer appears to be more than just a man and more of an enigma. The book is also clearly a work of passion from Bernstein who was an acquaintance and intellectual admirer of Oppenheimer's, thus his reason for wanting to write the biography, which makes the book seem biased, although the author does do a good job of distinguishing the biases of his sources. Overall the book was very enjoyable and I actually looked forward to reading it. Considering my limited knowledge of the physics behind the atomic bomb project I could understand and learn what happened relatively easy. This book is perfect for anyone wanting to know more about the contributions to the Los Alamos project and Oppenheimer's life with some understanding of physics and chemistry.

The title of this book is an apt one. J. Robert Oppenheimer was indeed a complex personality that was difficult to understand. His accomplishments in physics are extraordinary and he is generally considered the inventor of the atomic bomb. Like so many intellectuals of the thirties, he had some ties to international Communist parties. In those days, there appeared to be only two viable political movements, communism and fascism. Many intellectuals who could not stomach fascism did some investigation into what communism had to offer. At the very least, Oppenheimer can be placed in this category, and it may be that it went even further than that. However, there is no evidence that he was ever actively involved in the communist party and this affiliation was ultimately used to strip him of his security clearance.
This tale is also a sad one and says so much about how wayward political movements can destroy people. Even with all of his problems with accusations of his flirtation with communism, the jealousy of some of his colleagues and his very inappropriate comments, there is no crack in the consensus that Oppenheimer was the father of the atomic bomb. His leadership was extraordinary, so much so that General Leslie Groves, the military man in charge of the project had no compunctions about choosing Oppenheimer to be the leader, even though Groves knew all about his ties to international communism. And yet, almost as soon as Oppenheimer was no longer needed, the questions about his past came forward. However, and that is where this book is excellent, it was as much his opposition to the much more powerful hydrogen bomb that led to the loss of his security clearance.
Oppenheimer is often put forward as an example of wretched anti-communist excesses destroying innocents. As Bernstein so correctly points out, Oppenheimer firmly believed that the sole purpose of the hydrogen bomb was to exterminate cities, and so had no real value as a tactical weapon. That opposition counted almost as much as the communist links when he was being grilled over his security clearance. It is very possible, although this is just informed speculation, that had Oppenheimer came out in favor of the building of the hydrogen bomb, he would have retained his security clearance.
While Bernstein relies on historical data to justify many of his points, he was in fact personally acquainted with the principal physicists involved in the development of nuclear weapons. This gives him a unique perspective on Oppenheimer and the circumstances of his triumph and tragedy. He explains the events very well, including those times when Oppenheimer made statements that were incredibly naïve and personally destructive.

Robert Oppenheimer's life ties into three enormous dramas of the 20th century: the ascendancy of particle physics as a huge, thrilling new area of human knowledge . . . the creation of the atomic bomb . . . and the McCarthy-era struggles over Communist threats both real and imagined. As a result, Oppenheimer's life story appears most often in the midst of hugely detailed, panoramic books that go on for 600 pages or more. The best of these are great reading, but sometimes they're overwhelming.

Jeremy Bernstein has inadvertently (see below) created something very different. His book is a slim 240 pages that takes us through Oppenheimer's life and times very briskly. Oppenheimer's status as a child prodigy? Noted for a paragraph or two, and then WHOOSH!, we're off to something new. Oppenheimer's doomed romance with Communist-minded Jean Tatlock? Discussed directly for a few pages and alluded to periodically, but hardly dissected hour by hour.

Sometimes that brevity is very welcome. Bernstein writes lucidly about the culture of Berkeley and Los Alamos, making a few words count for a lot. He provides deft primers on the necessary physics, aiming at the lay reader who had at least a smattering of physics in high school or college but who doesn't subscribe to (or get published in!) Physics Today. In those sections, he shows the sure hand of a long-time New Yorker staff writer known for his science profiles.

But in other areas, Bernstein either says too little or isn't sure what he's saying. He presents Oppenheimer as a "leftwandering" intellectual in the 1930s, accidentally dabbling in Communist circles -- without really saying anything persuasive about why Oppenheimer would do this, or how much/how little it affected him. He also writes about the controversies over early H-bomb development in a way that is so stridently anti-Teller that it made me wonder: "What's the other half of this story?"

Bernstein also doesn't show a sure hand in writing about the McCarthy-era hearings that led to the loss of Oppenheimer's security clearance. He quotes at length from hearing transcripts. But he has a hard time explaining persuasively why each character chose the path he or she did. At times, Bernstein reduces Oppenheimer's opponents to ridiculous caricatures, making fun of their clothes, their educations and their diction. We learn too much about the author's prejudices, and not enough about what America was like in 1954.

Jeremy Bernstein was just coming of age as a scientist in the 1950s, and the book includes at least a dozen fleeting anecdotes of his encounters with key players in the story. Sadly, almost all of them are inconsequential. They distract rather than illuminate.

In some introductory remarks, Bernstein explains that he had wanted to write something substantial about Oppenheimer for many years, but felt stymied again and again. As the book's subtitle itself suggests, the author's greatest problems lay in figuring out Oppenheimer's motivations, fears and dreams.

Those challenges remain largely unsolved in this biography. Yet for anyone wanting the essentials of Oppenheimer's life in a very readable, slim book -- this passes the test.

Everytime I think I've read all there is on the life of JR Oppenheimer, I discover another book to read. This one is a more intimate,insider's view of the man who directed Los Alamos Labs during the creation of the atmoic bomb, ushewring in the world-wide atomic age. Bernstein is a physicist and knows the subject matter first hand- the physics and the players. He's a good writer too. I'm gald to have it on my shelf along with "Lawrence and Oppenheimer" and "109 East Palace Street."

Oppenheimer: Portrait Of An Enigma is the biography of the preeminent American nuclear scientist has been a long-awaited book: Biographer Jeremy Berstein spent two years at the institute where Robert Oppenheimer was director, observed him nearly daily, and is in the perfect position to blend history with personal observation. The nuclear physicist Oppenheimer was key in creating the atomic bomb, and was a genius both scientifically and otherwise: Oppenheimer's science, background, and most of all the personal talks between biographer and scientist spice up a revealing, involving, highly recommended biographical survey.

It has seemed to me for a long time that Oppenheimer's life story, what little we know of it, would be an excellent resource - a lumberyard of plots and characters -- for a spy novelist of great talent and deep knowledge of real espionage, like John LeCarré.

It is easy to guess what LeCarré would do with this material: He would write a novel about a double agent.

This spare, succinct biographical essay about Oppenheimer is not as compelling as Bernstein's wonderful book about Albert Einstein. But then, Oppenheimer seems to have been much less interesting than Einstein -- as a physicist.

The fascination with Oppenheimer arises, not from his physics, but from his technological and administrative accomplishment in creating the atomic bomb; from his leftist politics; from his love affair; and from his apparent victimization by communist hunters and by Edward Teller. It is a story with a lot of conflict, betrayal of and by old friends, a lot of sneaking around, and a lot of pomping around, too.

Oppenheimer worked in great secrecy during the war, so there is a huge hole in his life from the standpoint of writing biography. You get glimpses, and a before-and-after picture of who he was. A man seen through prisms. In general he seems to have been a curious sort of fellow - a golden boy all his life.

I do think that biography is simply the wrong form for a book about Oppenheimer. He led a substantially secret life, and he led it a long time ago. Only a novelist would have the freedom to fill in the many and enormous blanks.

This book is a good read and it pares down a lot of the story to details that might indeed be useful - even crucial -- to a novelist who might be penning the story of a double agent. Given the sudden tide of new books about Oppenheimer, perhaps one of these days we'll get just such a novel.

On page 1 you would find the strange scene of the lover's suicide but in the novel, of course, it would not be a suicide but an assassination accomplished, in wartime, by an agent or agents of a nation at war -- but which nation?

And so forth.

Highly recommended. Just understand that story doesn't cohere. This is just because it is perforce restricted to the knowable facts.