Man of the Hour

James B. Conant, Warrior Scientist

De: Jennet Conant

Narrado por: Fred Sanders

“Gripping…an outstanding portrait” (The Wall Street Journal) 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 bestselling author Jennet Conant.

James Bryant Conant was a towering figure. He was at the center of the mammoth threats and challenges of the twentieth century. As a young eminent chemist, he supervised the production of poison gas in World War I. 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 World War II. During that war, Conant 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 bestselling author Jennet Conant recreates the cataclysmic events of the twentieth 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. “A masterly account…a perceptive portrayal of a major player in world events throughout the mid-twentieth century” (Publishers Weekly), Man of the Hour is based on hundreds of documents and diaries, interviews with Manhattan Projects scientists, Harvard colleagues, and Conant’s friends and family, including her father, James B. Conant’s son. This is “a most serious work, well written and evocative of an era when the American foreign establishment exuded gravitas…[a] new, relentless, and personally invested account” (The New York Times Book Review).

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.

Truly in the details!

What’s normally not my norm is blitzing through a first-read. A great account clearly laid out; penetrating in its clarity!

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.