« Le portrait captivant de l'une des figures les plus essentielles et paradoxales de notre histoire contemporaine. » Christopher Nolan
Le génie est parfois une malédiction. Robert Oppenheimer fut l'un des plus grands physiciens de son temps, doté d'une intelligence et d'une intuition scientifique exceptionnelles. Un talent qui l'a mené vers une invention dévastatrice : la bombe atomique. Que penser d'un don qui conduit à la destruction universelle ? Dans cette biographie, sacrée par le prix Pulitzer, Kai Bird et Martin J. Sherwin explorent les facettes de ce destin unique qui, à lui seul, résume l'histoire du XXe siècle : la folie de la guerre, la paranoïa du maccarthysme, la soif de progrès, la course vers l'abîme... Une enquête fine et documentée portée par le souffle d'un grand roman.
J. Robert Oppenheimer is one of the iconic figures of the twentieth century, a brilliant physicist who led the effort to build the atomic bomb for his country in a time of war, and who later found himself confronting the moral consequences of scientific progress. In this magisterial, acclaimed biography twenty-five years in the making, Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin capture Oppenheimer's life and times, from his early career to his central role in the Cold War. This is biography and history at its finest, riveting and deeply informative.
Physicist and polymath, as familiar with Hindu scriptures as he was with quantum mechanics, J Robert Oppenheimer, director of the Manhattan Project that developed the atomic bomb, was the most famous scientist of his generation. This biography reveals a brilliant man, profoundly involved with some of the momentous events of the twentieth century.
The Good Spy is Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Kai Birds compelling portrait of the remarkable life and death of one of the most important operatives in CIA history a man who, had he lived, might have helped heal the rift between Arabs and the West.
On April 18, 1983, a bomb exploded outside the American Embassy in Beirut, killing 63 people. The attack was a geopolitical turning point. It marked the beginning of Hezbollah as a political force, but even more important, it eliminated Americas most influential and effective intelligence officer in the Middle East CIA operative Robert Ames. What set Ames apart from his peers was his extraordinary ability to form deep, meaningful connections with key Arab intelligence figures. Some operatives relied on threats and subterfuge, but Ames worked by building friendships and emphasizing shared values never more notably than with Yasir Arafats charismatic intelligence chief and heir apparent Ali Hassan Salameh (aka The Red Prince). Ames deepening relationship with Salameh held the potential for a lasting peace. Within a few years, though, both men were killed by assassins, and Americas relations with the Arab world began heading down a path that culminated in 9/11, the War on Terror, and the current fog of mistrust.
Bird, who as a child lived in the Beirut Embassy and knew Ames as a neighbor when he was twelve years old, spent years researching The Good Spy. Not only does the book draw on hours of interviews with Ames widow, and quotes from hundreds of Ames private letters, its woven from interviews with scores of current and former American, Israeli, and Palestinian intelligence officers as well as other players in the Middle East Great Game.
What emerges is a masterpiece-level narrative of the making of a CIA officer, a uniquely insightful history of twentieth-century conflict in the Middle East, and an absorbing hour-by-hour account of the Beirut Embassy bombing. Even more impressive, Bird draws on his reporters skills to deliver a full dossier on the bombers and expose the shocking truth of where the attacks mastermind resides today.
