Man of the Hour

James B. Conant, Warrior Scientist

By: Jennet Conant

Narrated by: Fred Sanders

Length: 24 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's summary

The remarkable life of one of the most influential men of the greatest generation, James B. Conant - a savvy architect of the nuclear age and the Cold War - told by his granddaughter, New York Times best-selling author Jennet Conant.

James Bryant Conant was a towering figure. He was at the center of the mammoth threats and challenges of the 20th century. As a young eminent chemist, he supervised the production of poison gas in WWI. As a controversial president of Harvard University, he was a champion of meritocracy and open admissions. As an advisor to FDR, he led the interventionist cause for US entrance in WWII. During that war, Conant was the administrative director of the Manhattan Project, oversaw the development of the atomic bomb, and argued that it be used against the industrial city of Hiroshima in Japan. Later, he urged the Atomic Energy Commission to reject the hydrogen bomb and devoted the rest of his life to campaigning for international control of atomic weapons. As Eisenhower's high commissioner to Germany, he helped to plan German recovery and was an architect of the United States' Cold War policy.

Now New York Times best-selling author Jennet Conant recreates the cataclysmic events of the 20th century as her grandfather James experienced them. She describes the guilt, fears, and, sometimes, regret of those who invented and deployed the bombs and the personal toll it took. From the White House to Los Alamos to Harvard University, Man of the Hour is based on hundreds of documents and diaries and interviews with Manhattan Project scientists, Harvard colleagues, and Conant's friends and family, including her father, James B. Conant's son. This is a very intimate, up-close look at some of the most argued cases of modern times - among them the use of chemical weapons, the decision to drop the bomb, Oppenheimer's fate, the politics of postwar Germany, and the Cold War - the repercussions of which are still affecting our world today.

©2017 Jennet Conant (P)2017 Simon & Schuster, Inc.

One of the Top 10 Books of the Year

Man of the Hour is a brilliantly written biography of James Conant, who in addition to being President of Harvard for twenty years was instrumental in helping to guide the Manhattan Project , create the Educational Testing Service and spend decades trying to help Presidents Roosevelt, Truman & Eisenhower create policies to help bring about policies to lessen the likelihood of atomic warfare. Before I began listening to Man of the Hour, I had never heard of James Conant. However after listening to this very long but brilliantly written and narrated book, I have a profound appreciation of who James Conant was and how he devoted his life to helping “ even the playing field” in education.

Indeed, a Man of the Hour

An extraordinary period in American history forms the backdrop for this well paced chronicle of a man whose life is well worth remembering.

a volume off history's bookshelf

I listened with intense interest to this finely narrated biography. The 1940's through the 1980's contains voluminous information, events, legislation, opinions and personalities which are impacting the U.S. and the world today. Mr. Conant represents someone who was someone far larger than just the Man of the Hour. I appreciate his granddaughter's efforts to tell his story.

The male American Athena

When I first read the title then its overview it struck me as an uninteresting story to which I’m typically interested. But had liked Jennet Conant’s 109 Palace and thought well I’ll give it a 30 minute try - I ended up listing to every minute of the 28+ hour manuscript, with an iPhone handy so I could touch the rewind 30 second button hundreds of times and to google the dozens of words I didn’t know. It sounds so underwhelmingly vanilla to say it’s a fantastic story of an overall fantastic person, but it’s 100% true, it’s a fantastic story of so much of what is our American history. Thank you Jennet.

A biography by your granddaughter is still auto-

This is my third Jennet Conant. I like her subjects. But her writing is fairly meh. I started 109 East Palace while at the La Fonda in Sante Fe (across the street basically) and it is my favorite. This one is my least. You get the sense that the author struggles to get beyond the superficial. Very little insight. She starts with a frame for the narrative and then paints it in, almost by number. I know little more about JBC than I did before the book. It’s more family scrapbook than biography. Conant was in the room. But his contribution is unclear. Probably my 12th book related to the cast of the Manhattan Project. He does not stand out. An important player no doubt.