Reddit mentions of American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer

This biography of Paul Dirac is excellent.

This autobiography (in the form of a sequence of anecdotes) of Richard Feynman is a classic.

This biography of Robert Oppenheimer is extremely good as well.

This book contains short biographies all the most significant figures involved with every Hilbert Problem.

This is a work of science fiction where the main character belongs to a monastic order devoted to mathematics and theoretical science. It's among my favorite books.

edit: Who downvotes this? Really? Even if you think you've got better options... just leave a comment with them for OP.

>He was thought to be a traitor by his own government as this was being built.

American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer

That book goes into a lot of detail on why that happened. McCarthyism and his own guilt at having been a prime figure in the Manhattan project might be the two biggest factors that led to his downfall. Not that that diminishes of how outstandingly brilliant that guy was and how his achievements are going to be remembered in the future.

You know, it's complicated - and no matter what decision Truman had made, people would be second-guessing him on it forever.

So many contributing factors. The casualty estimates from the Operation Downfall planning were a big one. The Soviets were ready to declare war on Japan, and Truman definitely didn't want Japan surrendering to the Russians, meaning (at best) a shared occupation of the Japanese mainland. Consider what happened in occupied Germany and that position makes a lot more sense.

But personally, I think the single factor that is most often overlooked is simply the mental state of the US high command at the time. In the year prior to the bombing of Hiroshima, they'd seen atrocities from the Japanese military in the Philippines, they'd seen Japanese soldiers fight to the death on numerous Pacific islands, they'd seen mass suicides among the civilian population on captured islands, and they'd seen the advent of the kamikaze.

All of these things were basically unthinkable from an American point of view, and they were genuinely shocked and appalled by them. They had intelligence that led them to believe the Japanese were preparing their entire remaining air force for kamikaze missions in defense of the mainland, and that the Japanese civilian population was being trained to fight to the death.

Knowing what we know now, it's easy to question their mindset, but if you put yourself in their shoes, you can understand why they sincerely believed that invading mainland Japan would be a bloodbath from one end of the island to the other.

The Manhattan project was given its initial urgency because every physicist in America was convinced that the Nazis were developing an atomic bomb, and that they were probably well ahead of us. By the time the bomb was ready, Nazi Germany was collapsing, and the focus shifted to Japan. Using the bomb against Japan seemed like a good option for the reasons I listed above, and the timing was largely dictated by the looming threat of the Soviets entering the war.

The best book I've ever read on this topic is a biography of Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin called American Prometheus. Oppenheimer led the Manhattan Project, and was involved in every decision regarding the development of the bomb and its use. I highly recommend it.

Thanks! Was it this one?

American Prometheus, which is my favorite too.

http://www.amazon.com/American-Prometheus-Triumph-Tragedy-Oppenheimer/dp/0375726268

Though it is not Pre-1800 I have read two really great biographies of Oppenheimer that are for sure worth checking out. The first one is called American Prometheus and the second one is by an author Ray Monk who also wrote a great biography of Wittgenstein that is also worth reading but his Oppenheimer book is so good. I have a friend who is a research physics teacher and he listens to the audio book of this over and over again.

Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman

American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer

• These two biographies of famous physicists of the last century are well-written (in a way like fiction).
  
  
• These are extremely good books and are a joy to read.
  
  
• They will teach you about Science (read: physics) and may inspire you to become a Scientist.
  
  
• Some of the explanations involve very interesting physics (general relativity, quantum mechanics, development of the atom bomb, particle physics, etc.) and are written for laymen, so you don't need any background in Physics to be able to understand most of the explanations.
  
  
  
• Read some of the reviews in the amazon links so you can see what other people enjoyed about the books.