Debbie Jacob
OCCASIONALLY, a book comes along that speaks to everyone. This is the case with American Prometheus, a biography about J Robert Oppenheimer, the physicist who led the US's Manhattan Project, which produced the first nuclear weapons during World War II.
The implications of that scientific discovery impact all of our lives, but even if we aren't interested in physics or don't think about the ever-looming threat of a nuclear war, Oppenheimer's story about a brilliant scientist on a deadline to produce a nuclear bomb explores the need to feel creative, successful and appreciated; the fear of becoming irrelevant or unappreciated for our work and the moral dilemma of whether to put our own values and needs above those of our workplace or our country.
Newsweek magazine called the biography 'definitive' and said, 'Oppenheimer's life…haunts us.' It raises questions about what we would do in Oppenheimer's position. If we were in the scientist's place would we produce a weapon of mass destruction because we believed it would save millions of lives in the present - even knowing of its potential to destroy the world in the future?
Ultimately, American Prometheus and the movie Oppenheimer is about power - who wields it and who is the victim of it. In this case, the US government had power over Oppenheimer, a Jewish American who initially thought he was finding a way to save some Jews from the genocide. He personally knew some of the German scientists racing to invent a nuclear weapon because he studied in Germany with them. He knew the Germans were on the wrong track.
The authors, columnist Kai Bird and the late historian Martin J Sherwin, say the Japanese were ready to surrender, and the atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima to prevent Russia from invading Japan and taking control of Asia.
Oppenheimer grapples with his conscience. He faces the pitfalls of fame and speaks out against atomic weapons after the war. He stands up for freedom of speech and is stripped of his national security clearance because of his past affiliations with the Communist Party, a known fact when he was hired for the project.
The book and movie are scathing commentaries on anti-communism in the pre-McCarthy and McCarthy era. Many liberals, intellectuals and idealists in the US thought communism would eliminate poverty and promote social equality. By the time they changed their minds, they had been blacklisted.
Oppenheimer's story shows how no one is indispensable, how fame is ephemeral and how work can never offer the security or acceptance we need.
American Prometheus is the kind of book all writers dream of writing because of its all-encompassing scope. It's a complex story with a perfect title. Prometheus stole fire from the Greek gods with the noble intention of sharing it with humanity. For that, Zeus punished him by tying him to a rock. It's easy to apply this symbolism to Oppenheimer.
Somehow it feels surprising to see the human side of scientists - especially the symbiotic vs antag
