In the Shadow of the Bomb

[Dave Monroe]

Schweber, Silvan S.  In the Shadow of the Bomb:
   Oppenheimer, Bethe, and the Moral Responsibility
   of the Scientist.  Princeton, NJ: PUP, 2000.

In the Shadow of the Bomb narrates how two
charismatic, exceptionally talented physicists--J.
Robert Oppenheimer and Hans A. Bethe--came to terms
with the nuclear weapons they helped to create. In
1945, the United States dropped the bomb, and
physicists were forced to contemplate disquieting
questions about their roles and responsibilities. When
the Cold War followed, they were confronted with
political demands for their loyalty and McCarthyism's
threats to academic freedom. By examining how
Oppenheimer and Bethe--two men with similar
backgrounds but divergent aspirations and
characters--struggled with these moral dilemmas, one
of our foremost historians of physics tells the story
of modern physics, the development of atomic weapons,
and the Cold War.

Oppenheimer and Bethe led parallel lives. Both
received liberal educations that emphasized moral as
well as intellectual growth. Both were outstanding
theoreticians who worked on the atom bomb at Los
Alamos. Both advised the government on nuclear issues,
and both resisted the development of the hydrogen
bomb. Both were, in their youth, sympathetic to
liberal causes, and both were later called to defend
the United States against Soviet communism and
colleagues against anti-Communist crusaders. Finally,
both prized scientific community as a salve to the
apparent failure of Enlightenment values.

Yet, their responses to the use of the atom bomb, the
testing of the hydrogen bomb, and the treachery of
domestic politics differed markedly. Bethe, who drew
confidence from scientific achievement and integration
into the physics community, preserved a deep
integrity. By accepting a modest role, he continued to
influence policy and contributed to the nuclear test
ban treaty of 1963. In contrast, Oppenheimer first
embodied a new scientific persona--the scientist who
creates knowledge and technology affecting all
humanity and boldly addresses their impact--and then
could not carry its burden. His desire to retain
insider status, combined with his isolation from
creative work and collegial scientific community, led
him to compromise principles and, ironically, to lose
prestige and fall victim to other insiders.

Schweber draws on his vast knowledge of science and
its history--in addition to his unique access to the
personalities involved--to tell a tale of two men that
will enthrall readers interested in science, history,
and the lives and minds of great thinkers.

http://press.princeton.edu/titles/6787.html


 
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