Edward Teller: The Real Dr. Strangelove (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Edward Teller, the "Father of the H-bomb," emerges in this readable biography as a brilliant, insecure, sometimes paranoid figure with a significant—and decidedly ambiguous—historical legacy. Born in Hungary, Teller (1908–2003) absorbed a lifelong hatred of tyranny and a deep distrust of Soviet communism—one factor motivating his obsessive and successful advocacy of the hydrogen bomb during the early years of the Cold War. Other powerful forces in Teller's life were limitless scientific curiosity and intense personal ambition: he resented being passed up for the job of theoretical director of the Manhattan Project, and much of his later hunger for political power may have been a reaction to that disappointment. Teller used his influence to block efforts at negotiating a test ban treaty by presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy and fed the Red Scare atmosphere of the '50s; he was the only colleague of J. Robert Oppenheimer's to denounce him as a security threat, a move that endeared Teller to right-wingers in Congress while dividing the scientific community. Teller's final political triumph was winning the support of the Reagan administration for "Star Wars." Goodchild, a BBC television producer and author of a biography of Oppenheimer, offers a detailed, studiously balanced portrait drawn from archives and interviews with Teller himself and many who knew (and loved or loathed) him. Photos not seen by PW.
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From Booklist

*Starred Review* The destroyer god Shiva needed a human name and face: for many, Edward Teller--the father of the H-bomb--provided both. That face comes into sharp focus in this revealing but decidedly unauthorized biography exposing both Teller's maniacal enthusiasm for weapons of global destructiveness and his acute vulnerability to personal slights and professional indignities. Though he resists the temptation to fit all the contradictory details of a long and controversial life within one tidy psychological formula, Goodchild does trace suggestive links between the childhood insecurities of a friendless student prodigy and the adult aggressiveness of a politically influential mature scientist. In some of Teller's extremely bellicose behavior--such as his relentless campaign against the nuclear test bans proposed by Eisenhower and Kennedy--Goodchild discerns a chilling correspondence between the real Teller and the grimly comic caricature created by Stanley Kubrick in Dr. Strangelove. But alongside this damning comparison, Goodchild lays out a more sympathetic parallel, tracing the tragic similarities between Teller and Shakespeare's heroic but arrogant general Coriolanus. And it is tones of pathos, if not tragedy, that the reader repeatedly hears in Teller's responses to probing interview questions and in his recently discovered intimate correspondence with Maria Mayer as a brilliant mind struggles to shield--and to galvanize--an anxious psyche. A compelling reminder of the epoch-shaping power of one dominant personality. Bryce Christensen
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 512 pages
• Publisher: Harvard University Press (October 29, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0674016696
• ISBN-13: 978-0674016699
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #587,866 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful contirbution, November 17, 2004

By	Seth J. Frantzman (Jerusalem, Israel) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

A wonderful readable account, an essential addition to reading on the development of the Atomic bomb and American nuclear strategy. Teller went from being a `madman on the Mesa' to working on theories surrounding star wars, called by many to be the `real Dr. Strangelove' from the wonderful Peter Sellers film. This very readable account details Tellers life, from being a refugee to working alongside Oppenheimer and the rest of the Nuclear Bomb people at Los Alamos. Teller went on to be the main architect and driver behind nuclear bomb technology and strategic warfare aims, all the way to the early 80s. This is a fast paced biography with diagrams of the bombs and good explanations of the science involved as well as covering Tellers private life and social life.

The only missing point which would have been nice is more explanation of the Tellers theories regarding nuclear power and the utilization of nuclear weapons. Perhaps alongside the science it would have been nice to have more text devoted to the nuclear experimentation and this is the main part that makes the book seem to skip. One minute the reader is listening to lecture the next he is learning about Tellers family and then suddenly we are back in Alaska on a new test, with very little background from one scene to the next. Nevertheless the book remains the only and best book on Tellers life and detailing the American nuclear community as it matured in the 60s and 70s. A great contribution to the paucity of literature on this subject.

Seth J. Frantzman

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Real Deal, June 23, 2005

By	Bruce Crocker "agnostictrickster" (Whittier, California United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Whether or not Edward Teller was the model for Dr. Strangelove in the movie of the same name [my pick for #1 movie ever], he was still one of the most controversial and enigmatic scientists of the 20th Century. Peter Goodchild does an excellent job laying out Dr. Teller's life in the book Edward Teller, The Real Dr. Strangelove. Having read Goodchild's J. Robert Oppenheimer: Shatterer Of Worlds while still in college [and having watched the BBC show by Goodchild on PBS with my Dad - a favorite memory], I trusted that Goodchild would write a book that was neither hagiography nor hatchet job, and Edward Teller did not disappoint. Goodchild gives us Teller's life as a witty and brilliant scientist [which I have personal experience with - I had the good fortune of hearing Dr. Teller speak] and as a troubled and extremely political human being. Being a fan of Oppenheimer and a partisan against the Star Wars nuclear defense, I expected that the book would support, and perhaps intensify, my negative feelings towards Teller, but reading the book has made me more sympathetic towards Teller the human being [while still vehemently disagreeing with his treatment of Oppenheimer and his support of the scientifically ridiculous Star Wars plan]. Their may be some people that are purely heroic or villainous, but most people are like J. Robert Oppenheimer or Edward Teller, flawed human beings. I highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in science and scientists, the ethical conflicts of certain kinds of scientific research, biography, the bomb, and the history of the 20th Century. An endnote: when I was in the 1st and 2nd grades in Berkeley, California, I lived on Scenic Avenue and went to Hillside Elementary School. One of my routes to or from school took me along Hawthorne Terrace past Dr. Teller's house. I was a precocious kid and knew the "Father of the H-Bomb" lived in my neighborhood. He drove a beat-up old car, which confirms Teller's frugality as reported by Goodchild.

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars not a serious biography, June 21, 2006

By	lector avidus (USA) - See all my reviews

Peter Goodchild, otherwise a documentary maker for the BBC, has written a biography of Edward Teller that I found to be disappointing.

As someone very interested by the era and its scientists, I was surprised that he omits John von Neuman from his "suspects list" of possible inspirations for Dr. Strangelove. There is a strong case for this: like Dr. Strangelove, von Neuman was wheelchair-bound, consulted for the Rand Corporation, spoke German as a native speaker, was very knowledgeable about game theory (he co-invented it), and at times advocated a preemptive war against the Soviet Union.

In reading this book, I did not feel that I came to know Edward Teller, who was a very interesting, if controversial, man. I learned a little about his origins, his studies, his projects, and the controversies that he was embroiled in. But only in a few events did I feel that Goodchild got to the bottom of what happened. This book reads more like a Life magazine article, or a description of a new wondersoap than like a work of history.

I disliked that Goodchild makes interesting points, but then doesn't provide sources to support them. An example: Goodchild quotes an American soldier to the effect that the US military knew and tolerated that top secret information about the work at Los Alamos was being flown to the Soviet Union by the planeload, and names the air field where this is said to have happened. This is a spectacular allegation, if true. Unfortunately the sources he offers to substantiate this claim were a Soviet code clerk who worked at the Soviet embassy in Ottawa, and an American soldier who sold his story at the height of the Red Scare. Both wrote books that needed spectacular stories to sell well. Neither the Venona decrypts nor the Mitrokhin archive, both of which have provided us with a good understanding of how the Soviets exported technology from Los Alamos allude even remotely to these clandestine flights. This is not to claim with certainty that these flights never happened, but rather to say that by not credibly substantiating his claims, Goodchild makes it clear that his work is not serious. Was there no FOIA or other source to substantiate this spectacular claim?

Teller was involved in Operation Chariot, a project to use H-bombs to dig a harbor that nobody wanted on Alaska's ice-bound northern coast. In the end the opposition of the indigenous population led to the operation being cancelled. This entire episode, which I think should have led to a lot of soul-searching, and led an insightful biographer to ask and answer many probing questions, is more or less described in the sterile prose otherwise used to describe a fender-bender. I was also quite disappointed by his treatment of J. Robert Oppenheimer. Goodchild makes so many subtle and sometimes unfair digs that his book seems to be more a political tract than a serious and factual biography.

A further annoyance is that Goodchild doesn't include footnotes, but rather has quotes for some sources at the back of the book. This is infuriating, as some of his ideas are interesting, and it is only when you flip to the back of the book that you learn whether this is or isn't one of the ideas for which he provides corroboration. This is one of the few books I have ever read that doesn't have a single positive review of itself on its back cover. To end this review on a positive note, it is one of the few biographies of Dr. Teller, so you may have to read it for what information it offers, and perhaps to use it as a doorstop. I anxiously await a book that does justice to Edward Teller's genius, life, and times.