Ray Monk’s biography of Oppenheimer reveals a complex character, says Gino Segre
HE WAS was one of the 20th century’s most interesting figures. A mercurial man, by turns charming, arrogant and self-destructive, nobody doubted J. Robert Oppenheimer’s quickness of mind or his ability to grasp a problem and solve it. However, he was an unlikely choice as leader of the team assembled to build the first nuclear weapons since he was not an experimental physicist, nor had he led any kind of project before.
What Oppenheimer did have was the backing of powerful people – in particular, his military overseer…
