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

Kai  Bird's and Martin Sherwin's Pulitzer Prize-winning biography tells the  fascinating story of "the father of the atomic bomb"- J. Robert  Oppenheimer.  The biography is rich evocation of America at mid-Century,  a compelling portrait of a brilliant, ambitious, complex and flawed man  profoundly connected to its major events - the Depression, World War II  and the Cold War.  Author Kai Bird will tell the story of this  brilliant, charismatic physicist who led the Manhattan Project to build  the bomb.  he became, after Hiroshima, the most famous scientist of his  generation and one of the iconic figures of the twentieth century, the  embodiment of modern man confronting the consequences of scientific  progress.  Critics call the biography a "blockbuster," "masterful," an  "essential" book", "the best study of Oppenheimer, not only a great  biography but also a cautionary tale about the excesses of government in  a time of fear."  The book is the basis of a major motion picture by  famed Director/Producer Christopher Nolan to be released in 2020.

Kai  Bird's book, American Prometheus:  The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert  Oppenheimer, will be available for purchase and signing by the author  at the lecture.

​

Location:  CLE Lecture Hall

​

Presenter:   Kai Bird is a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and journalist.  He  serves as Executive Director and Distinguished Lecturer of CUNY Graduate  Center's Leon Levy Center of Biography.  He presides over an annual  conference of biographers on the art and craft of biography each May at  CUNY Graduate Center.