The Ruin of J. Robert Oppenheimer: And the Birth of the Modern Arms Race

by Priscilla J. McMillan, Martin J. Sherwin (Foreword by)

Overview

This groundbreaking Cold War history reveals the government conspiracy to bring down America’s most famous scientist.

On April 12, 1954, the nation was astonished to learn that J. Robert Oppenheimer was facing charges of violating national security. Could the man who led the effort to build the atom bomb really be a traitor? In this riveting book, Priscilla J. McMillan draws on newly declassified U.S. government documents and materials from Russia, as well as in-depth interviews, to expose the conspiracy that destroyed the director of the Manhattan Project.

This meticulous narrative recreates the fraught years from 1949 to 1955 when Oppenheimer and a group of liberal scientists tried to head off the cabal of air force officials, anti-Communist politicians, and rival scientists, who were trying to seize control of U.S. policy and build ever more deadly nuclear weapons. Retelling the story of Oppenheimer’s trial, which took place in utmost secrecy, she describes how the government made up its own rules and violated many protections of the rule of law.

McMilliam also argues that the effort to discredit Oppenheimer, occurring at the height of the McCarthy era and sanctioned by a misinformed President Eisenhower, was a watershed in the Cold War, poisoning American politics for decades and creating dangers that haunt us today.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781421425689
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	02/16/2022
Series:	Johns Hopkins Nuclear History and Contemporary Affairs
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	434
Sales rank:	31,279
File size:	23 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Priscilla J. McMillan, a fellow of the Russian Research Center at Harvard, is the author of the bestselling Marina and Lee. She has also written for the New York Times, Harper’s, Scientific American, and other publications.

Table of Contents

Foreward, by Martin J. Sherwin
Preface
Introduction
Part One
1. David Lilienthal's Vacation
2. The Maneuvering Begins
3. The Halloween Meeting
4. The Secret Debate
5. Lost Opportunities
Part Two
6. Fuchs's Betrayal
7. Fission versus Fusion
8. Teller
9. Ulam
Part Three
10. Teller's Choice
11. The Second Lab
12. A New Era
Part Four
13. Sailing Close to the Wind
14. Strauss Returns
15. Two Wild Horses
16. The Blank Wall
17. Hoover
18 . The Hearing Begins
19 . Smyth
20. Borden
21. Ceasar's Wife
22. Do We Really Need Scientists?
23. Oppenheimer
24. We Made It-and We Gave It Away
Postlude
Acknowledgments
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index

What People are Saying About This

The Christian Science Monitor

A must-read . . . No details are spared in exploring whether the hydrogen bomb's development could have been averted and history possibly changed, nor in examining the jealousy and deception that ultimately destroyed Oppenheimer.

The New York Review of Books

Stunning . . . [an] extraordinary book.

New York Times Book Review

This brief but penetrating account of [Oppenheimer's] downfall may come closest to explaining his contemporary relevance.

Michael Beschloss

A superb and fascinating book that illuminates unseen dimensions of one of the most controversial American stories of the twentieth century.

From the Publisher

Stunning . . . [an] extraordinary book.
—The New York Review of Books

This brief but penetrating account of [Oppenheimer's] downfall may come closest to explaining his contemporary relevance.
—New York Times Book Review

A must-read . . . No details are spared in exploring whether the hydrogen bomb's development could have been averted and history possibly changed, nor in examining the jealousy and deception that ultimately destroyed Oppenheimer.
—The Christian Science Monitor

A superb and fascinating book that illuminates unseen dimensions of one of the most controversial American stories of the twentieth century.
—Michael Beschloss

Editorial Reviews

A must-read . . . No details are spared in exploring whether the hydrogen bomb's development could have been averted and history possibly changed, nor in examining the jealousy and deception that ultimately destroyed Oppenheimer.
--The Christian Science Monitor

McMillan offers a meticulously detailed account of the trial and the McCarthy-era shenanigans that surrounded it.
--Booklist

Pricilla J. McMillan understands that reality and, without patronizing the reader, writes an engrossing narrative that anyone with any level of background--or lack thereof--on this most important of subjects can follow
--New York Journal of Books

Stunning . . . [an] extraordinary book.
--The New York Review of Books

This brief but penetrating account of [Oppenheimer's] downfall may come closest to explaining his contemporary relevance.
--New York Times Book Review

From the Publisher

McMillan offers a meticulously detailed account of the trial and the McCarthy-era shenanigans that surrounded it.

Booklist

Pricilla J. McMillan understands that reality and, without patronizing the reader, writes an engrossing narrative that anyone with any level of background—or lack thereof—on this most important of subjects can follow

New York Journal of Books

"McMillan offers a meticulously detailed account of the trial and the McCarthy-era shenanigans that surrounded it."

Booklist