Robert Oppenheimer

A Life Inside the Center

By: Ray Monk

Narrated by: Michael Goldstrom

Length: 35 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's summary

Robert Oppenheimer was among the most brilliant and divisive of men. As head of the Los Alamos Laboratory, he oversaw the successful effort to beat the Nazis in the race to develop the first atomic bomb – a breakthrough that was to have eternal ramifications for mankind and that made Oppenheimer the “Father of the Atomic Bomb.” But with his actions leading up to that great achievement, he also set himself on a dangerous collision course with Senator Joseph McCarthy and his witch-hunters. In Robert Oppenheimer: A Life Inside the Center, Ray Monk, author of peerless biographies of Ludwig Wittgenstein and Bertrand Russell, goes deeper than any previous biographer in the quest to solve the enigma of Oppenheimer’s motivations and his complex personality.

The son of German-Jewish immigrants, Oppenheimer was a man of phenomenal intellectual attributes, driven by an ambition to overcome his status as an outsider and penetrate the heart of political and social life. As a young scientist, his talent and drive allowed him to enter a community peopled by the great names of twentieth-century physics – men such as Niels Bohr, Max Born, Paul Dirac, and Albert Einstein – and to play a role in the laboratories and classrooms where the world was being changed forever, where the secrets of the universe, whether within atomic nuclei or collapsing stars, revealed themselves.

But Oppenheimer’s path went beyond one of assimilation, scientific success, and world fame. The implications of the discoveries at Los Alamos weighed heavily upon this fragile and complicated man. In the 1930s, in a climate already thick with paranoia and espionage, he made suspicious connections, and in the wake of the Allied victory, his attempts to resist the escalation of the Cold War arms race led many to question his loyalties.

Through compassionate investigation and with towering scholarship, Ray Monk’s Robert Oppenheimer tells an unforgettable story of discovery, secrecy, impossible choices, and unimaginable destruction.

©2013 Ray Monk (P)2013 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"A highly detailed examination of the life and times of Robert Oppenheimer ... Monk does full justice to Oppenheimer's irreplaceable contribution to the development of nuclear energy during and after World War II ... A top-notch biography." ( Kirkus Reviews, starred review)

"In this deeply humanizing biography, Monk invites readers to contemplate the unexpected evil—and good—in the man known as the "father of the A-bomb." ... Monk delves deeper than any predecessor into Oppenheimer's inner life ... perceptive and detailed, this portrait illuminates a potent but complex mind." ( Booklist, starred review)

“A tour de force … [it] will establish itself as the definitive biography.” ( Financial Times)

Detailed and capturing autobiography

Also a geat insight into many aspects of the entire era of the A-bomb. Requires some familiarity with concepts in physics.

Informative, interesting, historical

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It’s well written, well researched and starts with a very important foundation, one that at first seems meaningless. Until you get to know Oppenheimer. Fascinating till the end.

Captivating and informative. A worthwhile book.

Physicist, philosopher, flawed human and man of great intellect, J. Robert Oppenheimer helped shape our world. For good or for bad, he certainly impacted those in his personal world. The reader can decide which way that scale tips. This is a story worth being told.

Great content

A sad story on one of history's greatest scientists. Michael Goldstein was a brilliant narrator.

Deep dive

Great in depth coverage of a true genius of the 20th century. Complex and multifaceted, Dr Oppenheimer was a great American and humanitarian. The book is well written and very thorough. I truly enjoyed every minute of it.

Standard

This biography establishes a new standard for the scientific genre. Thorough, uncompromising, erudite and well organized. More, please!

"This isn't even that good" or is it ?

Any additional comments?

9/10 on this book. It is a fantastically good read/listen.

I started off not knowing anything about Dr. Oppenheimer besides that he was involved in the development of the first ever nuclear bomb. The first hour of the book I was quite not amused, mainly because of finely detailed his childhood was being talked about. Once It got to the stage where the book started talking about Dr. Oppenheimer in his teens, that is where this book became the most interesting thing I have ever listened to.

Really really interesting. I would recommend it to everyone, especially people of the scientific background who want to learn about one of the greatest theoretical physicist of the last century.

Fascinating Man, Science, History, and Book

This book gets deeply into the brilliant Oppenheimer's complex personality, the history of physics, and the development of the atomic bomb. This book is not the one the recent movie was based on, From what I understand--I haven't read American Prometheus--A Life Inside the Center includes detailed explanations of the physics that led up to the development of the atomic bomb as well as a detailed telling of Oppenheimer's story and the world in which he lived, Oppenheimer's brilliance, charisma, weaknesses, and mistakes are covered thoroughly. He really was "the most interesting man in the world." I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in the interweaving of people, world events, and science.

Read this Monk, not *American Prometheus*

Monk has no peers in biography. His Wittgenstein is a masterpiece people remember like the birth of a child. Tragically, Hollywood used the wrong biography. I’ve read a dozen or more books on 20th century physics. The full Oppenheimer is here with several outstanding mysteries solved; his breakdowns in Europe and what he did; his passive inherited millions and where they went, the origins and devolution of his marriage, his radically secular Judaism, his attempts at a writing career, his unusual methods of doing science (verbal, mathmatically limited, not musical, nothing like Dirac, nothing like Faraday).
He is an accessible genius: a polyglot, man of letters, want-to-be WASP, worldly yet intensely patriotic (rich immigrant child), native trilingual, deeply curious, and excellent at finding problems befitting his intelligence and autodidactic pieced-together education.
I could not take the movie Oppenheimer—it was shallow, without science and inaccurate about Kitty (his wife).

One of the BEST biographies on Audible!!

Oppenheimer was one of the most important people in the history of mankind, when you consider how he contributed to science, and the development/harnessing of atomic energy. Talk about a world creator/destroyer; this was that guy! A genius like him comes around but once every century or so. Monk does a superb job in researching the complex life of a complex man.

It easily could've gotten bogged down in meaningless details, but never did. It held my interest throughout. If you care at all about physics, science, or the history of nuclear weapons, this is the book for you.

As far as biographies go, this is top 5 of the ones I've read. I've read over 50.

Narrator is outstanding!