• American Prometheus

  • The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer
  • By: Kai Bird, Martin J. Sherwin
  • Narrated by: Jeff Cummings
  • Length: 26 hrs and 30 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (4,221 ratings)

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American Prometheus  By  cover art

American Prometheus

By: Kai Bird, Martin J. Sherwin
Narrated by: Jeff Cummings
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Publisher's summary

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.

THE INSPIRATION FOR THE MAJOR MOTION PICTURE
OPPENHEIMER

J. Robert Oppenheimer is 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.

When he proposed international controls over atomic materials, opposed the development of the hydrogen bomb, and criticized plans for a nuclear war, his ideas were anathema to powerful advocates of a massive nuclear buildup during the anti-Communist hysteria of the early 1950s. They declared that Oppenheimer could not be trusted with America’s nuclear secrets.

In this magisterial biography twenty-five years in the making, which won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for biography, the authors capture Oppenheimer’s life and times, from his early career to his central role in the Cold War.

©2005 Kai Bird; 2007 Blackstone Audio Inc.

Critic reviews

"The definitive biography...Oppenheimer's life doesn't influence us. It haunts us." ( Newsweek)
"[A] profoundly fascinating, richly complex, and ineffably sad American life.... Bird and Sherwin are without peer...in capturing the humanity of the man." ( Booklist)
"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." ( New York Times)

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What listeners say about American Prometheus

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

An Era and a Person - you get both!

I am in the middle of moving from one country to another, so I just do not have the time to write a decent review of this excellent, marvelous book! Please, if you are at all interested in either history or amazing people grab this book soon. On closing this book the reader truly understand the atmosphere that swallowed up America during the era of McCarthyism and the Cold War. The reader comes to understand Oppenheimer - his creativity, his imagination and his failings too. The list of the latter is long, but boy do I admire the guy! There is so much I could tell you about this man who I knew nothing about before I read this book, except his label as the the "Father of the Atomic Bomb".

I don't regret reading "Bomb: The Race to Build—and Steal—the World's Most Dangerous Weapon", but the two don't compare! You in no way need to read one to read the other. The first is about the bomb, the Manhattan project and spying, but this about Oppenheimer is about the person and his era.

I listened to the audiobook read by Jeff Cummings. I have no complaints with the narration. Read the book or listen to the book. You choose, which ever suits you best. Just don't add it to one of those never-ending lists of books that you don't get around to actually reading!

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great Story - Awful Sound Engineering

Any additional comments?

Volume of narrator went up and down constantly. There was no volume leveling at all.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

excellent in the end

This is a most interesting book, you just have to get through the beginning. I found the first part of opie's life either so boring or this part so poorly written that i almost stopped, which would have been a BIG mistake. From the onset of the atomic bomb project to the end, this is great reading. I knew little about Oppenheimer, so this was very fresh and new. The author clearly has a view that Oppenheimer was treated most unjustly.

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    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Terrible, shameful production

The reader is just bad. And the production makes him worse, splicing in segments when he is endeavoring to pronounce at name or foreign phrase at a different mic. The book is so well researched it is a shame it has the shoddiest production of any book I have listened to.

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3 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Fantastic. One that I will listen more than once.

Would you listen to American Prometheus again? Why?

Absolutely. Its such an interesting story w/ so many unique intricacies.

What other book might you compare American Prometheus to and why?

This is the first biography I have read so I have nothing to compare it to. But something tells me I have spoiled myself by using this as an intro to the genre.

What does Jeff Cummings bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

The narrator has a "pep" in his speaking that makes the story sound lively and entertaining. He's not overly emotive or unnatural in his kadence. I honestly didn't think about the narration while listening because he was that good! He is what audiobooks should strive for.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

"Come in & join the madness."

Any additional comments?

Great story, great narration, it should be in every bio-lover's library.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Well worth the listen

26+ hours that went by like *that*. I loved this audiobook.

The narration was very good, but as pointed out by others there are many edits where it's clear they've inserted a patched portion of audio. In some points there is a near constant stream of these patched sections and I found it distracting. There is also a fairly boring stretch (for me, at least) that lasts for perhaps 3 hours just prior to Los Alamos, but overall this is well worth the read.

The focus of the book is the anti-communist witch-hunt (and personal vendetta) carried out against Oppenheimer. There is very little technical information about the building of the atomic bomb, but this did not detract from the fascinating story of his life. By the end of the book, when they get to his security hearing for the Automatic Energy Commission (his "trial" for communist connections), I was transfixed and could not shut this thing off. The testimony given in support of Oppenheimer during the trial was in some cases very moving.

It is a balanced and fair portrait, I feel. I knew nothing about Oppenheimer before reading this account, and I now I feel I know him very well indeed both the good and the bad. First rate biography.

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    1 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Had to return the book

I managed to get through almost half the book when I realized it was not keeping my interest at all. The story is clearly padded for content with tons of extraneous and irrelevant information that does nothing to contribute to the overall purpose of the book, which I assume was to give us a profile of the man, his work, and the period he was living in.
But what was the most irritating was the bad production quality of the recording. I am very disappointed that Audible allowed this to be a marketable product and I hope they take a second listen to this book. There are so many overdubs that were clearly added and inserted at random, and itʻs SO obvious and distracting that I found myself being annoyed every time I listened. Really, shame of you Audible--please select your books more professionally!

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Interesting but a bit long and lacking direction

The book was thrilling and heartbreaking but in places it dragged on. I feel like it could have been several hours shorter. It seems like it spent more time belaboring JRO's communist affiliation than it did on his actual life and achievements. I'm still not sure I got a good sense of who JRO is, but maybe that is the point.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent biography

I picked this up to read the book that the new Chris Nolan movie was based on. Thoroughly enjoyed the story of a brilliant man and leader of the los alamos project but was also surprised to learn about what happened after ww2. Very insightful about how the world works and what happens when you speak out against the powerful.

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

A Rich Slive of Modern American History

Where does American Prometheus rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

This was among the best non-fiction books I’ve read in quite awhile. I saw modern American historyfrom a unique perspective. , the subject matter was rich, the writing strong, and the long read was well worth the time.

I selected American Prometheus with the expectation that I would learn about the anti-communism scares of the 1950s and how a famous scientist was harmed in a notorious hearing. In other words, I was prepared for a largely political story – a “tisk-tisk, they should not have done that” courtroom drama of a crucified saint.

This book delivered far more than I expected. In the meticulously researched account of Oppenheimer’s 62 years, it portrays a man who was fascinating for his awesome mental horsepower as well as for his numerous oddities and personal flaws. Certainly, this book tells about a man who ultimately was crucified, but there is no saint here. In some important ways, his personal life was tragic, and the book pulls no punches. Several times, I wanted to reach through the ether and tell him to straighten up his life.

My passion for science helped hold my interest. Oppenheimer began his career at the dawn of quantum physics in the 1920s and dealt with a who’s who of famous scientists: Einstein, Bohr, Heisenberg, Lawrence, and Teller among others. I was fascinated by some behind-the-scenes accounts of these men. Heisenberg’s assignments in Nazi Germany were interpreted by Oppenheimer and others as part of the clues that the Nazis were trying to create an atomic bomb. Einstein had a friendly rivalry with Oppenheimer: they each thought the other was pursuing faulty science. Teller despised Oppenheimer—and a lot of scientists did not like Teller.

What did you like best about this story?

I was amazed by how much detail is revealed about the process of designing and building the atomic bomb without revealing top-secret information. The authors focus on the many personalities, the strain of racing against the Germans, and the sometimes humorous stories about academic scientists learning to deal with Army secrecy.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

First, as other reviewers have said, the editing of the audio recording was very poor. I would say it was amateurish. Second, the narrator does not seem to listen to himself. I was distracted by his switching from a dispassionate narrator voice to conversational, emotional voices.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

One tidbit will stick with me always: the name “Trinity” given to the site of the first test bomb is not a Biblical reference as I had thought. Oppenheimer chose the name from an ancient Sanskrit account of three gods, one of whom says “now I am Death, the destroyer of worlds.”

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