Genius in the Shadows

“Leaves no doubt that this bizarre Hungarian was one of the great minds of our time, or any time . . . A wonderful book about this endlessly fascinating man” (The New York Times Book Review). When we think about the creation of the atom bomb, we may think of Albert Einstein, Enrico Fermi, J. Robert Oppenheimer, or Edward Teller. Yet one name that is rarely mentioned is Leo Szilard, though he is known in scientific circles as “father of the atom bomb.” The man who first developed the idea of harnessing energy from nuclear chain reactions, he is curiously buried with barely a trace in the history of this controversial topic. Born in Hungary and educated in Berlin, he escaped Hitler’s Germany in 1933. In order to prevent Nazi scientists from stealing his ideas about nuclear chain reactions, he kept his theories secret, until he and Albert Einstein pressed the US government to research atomic reactions and designed the first nuclear reactor. Though he started his career lobbying for civilian control of atomic energy, he concluded it with founding, in 1962, the first political action committee for arms control, the Council for a Livable World. This is the story of the remarkable life of a unique and colorful character. “Cast[s] welcome light on the physicist’s career and character . . . Szilard was at the epicenter of the Manhattan Project—indeed, he patented the first reactor design with Enrico Fermi—but his concern over the destructive uses of atomic power (and a degree of personal eccentricity) isolated him from the celebrity (and Nobel prizes) that came to other founding fathers of quantum physics.” —Publishers Weekly “Mind-blowing Szilardian anecdotes fill almost every page, making this one of the most entertaining stories in recent years.” —The New York Times Book Review

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