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

Physicist and polymath, 'father of the atom bomb' J.

Robert Oppenheimer was the most famous scientist of his generation.

Already a notable young physicist before WWII, during the race to split the atom, 'Oppie' galvanized an extraordinary team of international scientists while keeping the FBI at bay.

As the man who more than any other inaugurated the atomic age, he became one of the iconic figures of the last century, the embodiment of his own observation that 'physicists have known sin'.

Years later, haunted by Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Oppenheimer became a staunch opponent of plans to develop the hydrogen bomb.

It was a battle he was to lose, faced by powerful advocates for massive nuclear profusion.

In response, the US Atomic Energy Commission and the FBI worked behind the scenes to have a hearing find that Oppenheimer could not be trusted with America's nuclear secrets.

American Prometheus is a compelling portrait of a brilliant, ambitious and flawed man and his involevement in some of the major events of the twentieth century.

It is at once biography and history, essential to our understanding of our recent past - and our atomic future.