Banco, Lindsey Michael (Author)
In 2005, sixty years after the scientific director of the Manhattan Project looked out over the New Mexico desert and witnessed the result of eighteen months of work on what was then the world's largest and most expensive scientific endeavor, there appeared no fewer than four biographies of J. Robert Oppenheimer. That moment marked, among other things, an important reassessment of the histories, legacies, and meanings of both Oppenheimer himself and the nuclear culture that emerged following that world's first atomic explosion on July 16, 1945. That such a reassessment could manifest itself in a spate of biographies speaks to the importance of the genre for understanding postwar nuclear culture and other changing aspects of American science during that time. This persistent retelling of the life of a scientist also raises a number of questions: How are we to make our way through the different narratives? What do the biographies tell us about the role of Oppenheimer's life story in understanding the atomic age? How do we manage the "irresistibly cultural" (203) similarities Robert M. Young has identified between the literary form of the biography and the scientific content of a scientist's biography? What recurring tropes might shed light on the relationships between the construction of Oppenheimer biographies and the biographers' governing assumptions? This article will address one of those tropes---the desert---in an attempt to answer some of the other questions.
...More
Book
McMillan, Priscilla J.;
(2005)
The Ruin of J. Robert Oppenheimer and the Birth of the Arms Race
(/isis/citation/CBB000641976/)
Article
Oppenheimer, Frank;
(2013)
A Physicist for All Seasons: Part II
(/isis/citation/CBB001320407/)
Book
Cassidy, David C.;
(2004)
J. Robert Oppenheimer and the American Century
(/isis/citation/CBB000750857/)
Essay Review
Pasachoff, Naomi;
(2006)
The Many Facets of J. Robert Oppenheimer
(/isis/citation/CBB001566331/)
Book
Kelly, Cynthia C.;
(2006)
Oppenheimer and the Manhattan Project: Insights into J. Robert Oppenheimer, “Father of the Atomic Bomb”
(/isis/citation/CBB000610397/)
Article
Joye-Cagnard, Frédéric;
Strasser, Bruno J.;
(2009)
Energie atomique, guerre froide et neutralité: La Suisse et le plan “Atomes pour la Paix”, 1945--1957
(/isis/citation/CBB001022687/)
Book
Monk, Ray;
(2013)
Robert Oppenheimer: A Life inside the Center
(/isis/citation/CBB001213233/)
Book
Lemmerich, Jost;
(2007)
Aufrecht im Sturm der Zeit: Der Physiker James Franck, 1882--1964
(/isis/citation/CBB000780057/)
Article
Bernstein, Jeremy;
(2010)
John von Neumann and Klaus Fuchs: An Unlikely Collaboration
(/isis/citation/CBB000932748/)
Book
Bernstein, Jeremy;
(2007)
Plutonium: A History of the World's Most Dangerous Element
(/isis/citation/CBB001230726/)
Article
Sopka, Katherine R.;
Sopka, Elisabeth M.;
(2010)
The Bonebrake Theological Seminary: Top-Secret Manhattan Project Site
(/isis/citation/CBB001036148/)
Book
Hargittai, Istvan;
(2010)
Judging Edward Teller
(/isis/citation/CBB001023155/)
Book
Alex Wellerstein;
(2021)
Restricted Data: The History of Nuclear Secrecy in the United States
(/isis/citation/CBB433725241/)
Book
Herken, Gregg;
(2002)
Brotherhood of the Bomb: The Tangled Lives and Loyalties of Robert Oppenheimer, Ernest Lawrence, and Edward Teller
(/isis/citation/CBB000301578/)
Article
Oppenheimer, Frank;
(2013)
A Physicist for All Seasons: Part I
(/isis/citation/CBB001320402/)
Thesis
Zhu, Yuelin;
(2001)
Chien-Shiung Wu: An intellectual biography
(/isis/citation/CBB001562628/)
Article
Gorelik, G. I.;
(2002)
Paralleli mezhdu perpendikuliarami: Andrei Sakharov, Edvard Teller, i Robert Oppengeimer
(/isis/citation/CBB000202997/)
Book
Bird, Kai;
Sherwin, Martin J.;
(2005)
American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer
(/isis/citation/CBB000520109/)
Article
Hecht, David K.;
(2010)
A Nuclear Narrative: Robert Oppenheimer, Autobiography, and Public Authority
(/isis/citation/CBB001032309/)
Book
Michael A. Day;
(2015)
The Hope and Vision of J Robert Oppenheimer
(/isis/citation/CBB252710220/)
Be the first to comment!