The Meanings of J. Robert Oppenheimer

The Meanings of J. Robert Oppenheimer
Author :
Publisher : University of Iowa Press
Total Pages : 280
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781609384203
ISBN-13 : 1609384202
Rating : 4/5 (03 Downloads)

Book Synopsis The Meanings of J. Robert Oppenheimer by : Lindsey Michael Banco

Download or read book The Meanings of J. Robert Oppenheimer written by Lindsey Michael Banco and published by University of Iowa Press. This book was released on 2016-05-15 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: He called the first atomic bomb “technically sweet,” yet as he watched its brilliant light explode over the New Mexico desert in 1945 in advance of the black horrors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, he also thought of the line from the Hindu epic The Bhagavad Gita: “I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.” Physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, the scientific director of the Manhattan Project, the single most recognizable face of the atomic bomb, and a man whose name has become almost synonymous with Cold War American nuclear science, was and still is a conflicted, controversial figure who has come to represent an equally ambivalent technology. The Meanings of J. Robert Oppenheimer examines how he has been represented over the past seven decades in biographies, histories, fiction, comics, photographs, film, television, documentaries, theater, and museums. Lindsey Michael Banco gathers an unprecedented group of cultural texts and seeks to understand the multiple meanings Oppenheimer has held in American popular culture since 1945. He traces the ways these representations of Oppenheimer have influenced public understanding of the atomic bomb, technology, physics, the figure of the scientist, the role of science in war, and even what it means to pursue knowledge of the world around us. Questioning and unpacking both how and why Oppenheimer is depicted as he is across time and genre, this book is broad in scope, profound in detail, and offers unique insights into the rise of nuclear culture and how we think about the relationship between history, imagination, science, and nuclear weapons today.


The Meanings of J. Robert Oppenheimer Related Books

The Meanings of J. Robert Oppenheimer
Language: en
Pages: 280
Authors: Lindsey Michael Banco
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 2016-05-15 - Publisher: University of Iowa Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

He called the first atomic bomb “technically sweet,” yet as he watched its brilliant light explode over the New Mexico desert in 1945 in advance of the blac
J. Robert Oppenheimer
Language: en
Pages: 316
Authors: Peter Goodchild
Categories: Biography & Autobiography
Type: BOOK - Published: 1985 - Publisher: Fromm International

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

J. Robert Oppenheimer, The Cold War, and The Atomic West
Language: en
Pages: 266
Authors: Jon Hunner
Categories: Biography & Autobiography
Type: BOOK - Published: 2012-11-12 - Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In 1922, the teenage son of a Jewish immigrant ventured from Manhattan to New Mexico for his health. It was the first of many trips to the Sangre de Cristo Moun
In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer
Language: en
Pages: 454
Authors: Richard Polenberg
Categories: Biography & Autobiography
Type: BOOK - Published: 2002 - Publisher: Cornell University Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

At the end of World War II, J. Robert Oppenheimer was one of America's preeminent physicists. For his work as director of the Manhattan Project, he was awarded
J. Robert Oppenheimer and the American Century
Language: en
Pages: 398
Authors: David C. Cassidy
Categories: Biography & Autobiography
Type: BOOK - Published: 2019-07-31 - Publisher: Plunkett Lake Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Born into a wealthy, secular New York Jewish family, a student of the Ethical Culture School in New York, later educated in theoretical physics at Harvard, Camb