American Prometheus

American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer

First edition cover, photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt[1]
Author	Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin
Publisher	Alfred A. Knopf
Publication date	April 5, 2005
Pages	721
ISBN	978-0-375-72626-2
OCLC	249029647
Dewey Decimal	530.092
LC Class	QC16.O62 B57 2005

American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer is a 2005 biography of theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, the leader of the Manhattan Project which produced the first nuclear weapons, written by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin over a period of 25 years. It won numerous awards, including the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography.

The book chronicles Oppenheimer's rise to fame as "the father of the atomic bomb" and director of the Manhattan Project, as well as his tragic downfall due to his security hearing in the McCarthy era. The book shows efforts by Lewis Strauss and the FBI to undermine Oppenheimer. The bomb is regarded as a crucial turning point and a significant meeting between science and wartime weapons. This pivots Oppenheimer as an important historical figure and a symbol for atomic bomb ethics and political discourse about nuclear power. The book delves into various components of Oppenheimer's life inside and outside the Manhattan Project. His early life, ambitions, ideas, political activities, marriage, relationships with other women and physicists, misgivings about the bomb, complexities, and shortcomings are also discussed in the book.

The book served as inspiration for Christopher Nolan's 2023 biographical film Oppenheimer, starring Cillian Murphy as Oppenheimer.