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

 
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　　他是美國的普羅米修斯，「原子彈之父」，戰爭期間為他的國家帶頭努力從大自然攫取令人敬畏的太陽之火。之後，他明智道出其中的危險，也對潛在的助益懷抱希望。…但，奧本海默的警告無人理會，最後，他被消音了，成為麥卡錫主義和美國反共聖戰中最著名的受害者。
 
　　《奧本海默》（American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer）是一部全面描寫原子彈之父羅伯特．奧本海默的傳記。奧本海默是二十世紀的代表人物，一位傑出且富有魅力的物理學家，他在戰爭期間帶領團隊為國家建造原子彈，並直面科學進步帶來的道德後果。在這本具有權威地位、廣受好評、花了二十五年才成書的傳記裡，兩位普立茲獎傳記類得主凱．柏德和馬丁．薛文深刻描繪了奧本海默的一生和時代，包含他的早年生涯到他在冷戰中扮演的核心角色。這是一本登峰造極的傳記和史書，講述一個引人入勝的天才殞落故事。 
 
　　本書以史無前例的細節敘述了奧本海默的生活和所處時代，內容奠基於美國和海外檔案館中蒐集而來的數千份記錄、信件和大量的國家機密文件，並採訪了近百位奧本海默的朋友、親屬和同事。在書中，兩位作者從奧本海默的早期教育切入，追溯了他在哈佛大學、劍橋大學及德國的學術經歷。隨後，他在美國加州大學柏克萊分校建立了領先全美的理論物理學院，並深度參與社會正義事業。最後，奧本海默成為新墨西哥州洛斯阿拉莫斯的核武實驗室負責人，為美國的核武發展貢獻了重要力量。 
 
　　除了描寫奧本海默的生平和時代背景，本書也記錄他在當時的時空背景下，如何進行科學研究思想上的突破，為後人打開未經探索領域的大門。在二十世紀，奧本海默天馬行空的想法遭受輿論抨擊、受國家調查，甚至遭遇政治上的角力迫害。作為他這一代中最著名的科學家之一、二十世紀的偶像，奧本海默的一生充分體現了現代人面對科學進步的後果。 
 
(中文簡介來自時報出版《奧本海默》書籍介紹)

THE INSPIRATION FOR THE ACADEMY AWARD(R)-WINNING MAJOR MOTION PICTURE OPPENHEIMER - ＂A riveting account of one of history’s most essential and paradoxical figures.＂--Christopher Nolan

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - PULITZER PRIZE WINNER - The definitive biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer, one of the iconic figures of the twentieth century, a brilliant physicist who led the effort to build the atomic bomb for his country in a time of war, and who later found himself confronting the moral consequences of scientific progress.

In this magisterial, acclaimed biography twenty-five years in the making, Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin capture Oppenheimer’s life and times, from his early career to his central role in the Cold War. This is biography and history at its finest, riveting and deeply informative.

＂A masterful account of Oppenheimer’s rise and fall, set in the context of the turbulent decades of America’s own transformation. It is a tour de force.＂ --Los Angeles Times Book Review

＂A work of voluminous scholarship and lucid insight, unifying its multifaceted portrait with a keen grasp of Oppenheimer’s essential nature.... It succeeds in deeply fathoming his most damaging, self-contradictory behavior.＂ --The New York Times

Kai Bird is the author of The Chairman: John J. McCloy, The Making of the American Establishment andThe Color of Truth: McGeorge Bundy and William Bundy, Brothers in Arms. He coedited with Lawrence Lifschultz Hiroshima’s Shadow: Writings on the Denial of History and the Smithsonian Controversy. A contributing editor of The Nation, he lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife and son.

Martin J. Sherwin is the Walter S. Dickson Professor of English and American History at Tufts University and author of A World Destroyed: Hiroshima and Its Legacies, which won the Stuart L. Bernath Prize, as well as the American History Book Prize. He and his wife live in Boston and Washington, D.C.