Overview

James B. Conant (1893-1978) was one of the giants of the American establishment in the twentieth century. President of Harvard University from 1933 to 1953, he was also a scientist who led the US government's effort to develop weapons of mass destruction, and his story mirrors the transition of the United States from isolationism to global superpower at the dawn of the nuclear age. 'This splendid portrait of Conant ...illuminates the life of a pivotal figure in the making of US nuclear, scientific, educational, and foreign policy for almost half a century. But the book is much more: it is not only an insightful narration of Conant's life, it is also a brilliant and important account of the making of the nuclear age, a chronicle that contains much that is new.' TheWashington Post 'The bomb would be as much Conant's as it was anyone's in government. His inner response to that burden of responsibility has long been obscured, but it is illumined here ...This is a model of historiography that is evocative reading.' The New York Times Book Review 'Vibrantly written and compelling, it breaches Conant's shield of public discretion in masterly fashion ...It is a huge, ambitious work - a history of the Cold War as Conant encountered it as well as a study of the man. ' The New Yorker 'Magnificent ...Any reader interested in nuclear weapons, Cold War history, or American politics from FDR to JFK will find this biography riveting.'

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'This splendid portrait of Conant ... illuminates the life of a pivotal figure in the making of US nuclear, scientific, educational, and foreign policy for almost half a century. But the book is much mo re: it is not only an insightful narration of Conant's life, it is also a brilliant and important account of the making of the nuclear age, a chronicle that contains much that is new.' TheWashington Post

This splendid portrait of Conant ... illuminates the life of a pivotal figure in the making of U.S. nuclear, scientific, educational, and foreign policy for almost half a century. But the book is much more: it is not only an insightful narration of Conant's life, it is also a brilliant and important account of the making of the nuclear age, a chronicle that contains much that is new. -Washington Post The bomb would be as much Conant's as it was anyone's in government. His inner response to that burden of responsibility has long been obscured, but it is illumined here... This is a model of historiography that is evocative reading. -New York Times Book Review Vibrantly written and compelling, it breaches Conant's shield of public discretion in masterly fashion... It is a huge, ambitious work--a history of the Cold War as Conant encountered it as well as a study of the man. -The New Yorker Magnificent... Any reader interested in nuclear weapons, Cold War history, or American politics from FDR to JFK will find this biography riveting. -Chicago Tribune This fine biography of one of the most important and complicated of America's twentieth-century leaders immediately establishes Hershberg as one of America's outstanding young historians. -Foreign Affairs Masterful... The prose is clear, the narrative forceful, and the author's judgments balanced and judicious. This is simply splendid biography... It should be read by the public at large as one of the definitive texts on the Cold War and the nuclear age. -The Nation

In 1970, organic chemist, Harvard president, and nuclear-weapons mandarin Conant published a ponderous and unrevealing autobiography, My Several Lives. Now, in an even more massive but engrossing look at Conant's public life, Hershberg (a historian at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, D.C.) illuminates the importance of this enigmatic and undeservedly obscure figure. Because of the magnitude of his undertaking, as well as the secrecy maintained by both Harvard and the US government over many relevant files, Hershberg has concentrated on Conant's careers as atomic bomb administrator, nuclear and scientific adviser to the government, Harvard president during the 'Red Scare,' Cold War public figure, and envoy to Germany. Nonetheless, Hershberg relates the story of child prodigy Conant's upbringing in a Boston suburb, his rise to academic excellence at Harvard, and his profitable work in the chemist's war of WW I - where he threw himself into the task of producing poison gases, confronting for the first time the moral quandaries involved in a scientist's participation in constructing deadly weapons rather than advancing knowledge. After the war, Conant became equally absorbed in his groundbreaking chemical research at Harvard, until, in 1933, he was appointed the university's president - a posting that prompted him to pursue a liberal policy, reforming tenure procedures and making the school more democratic and less hidebound. In 1941, Conant joined a group of scholars studying the question of whether to develop a nuclear weapon, and he played a key role in the Manhattan Project. Until the early 1950's, he constantly advised the feds on nuclear policy - especially on attempts to control the proliferation of nuclear weapons - and he campaigned against the development of the hydrogen bomb. Later, Conant presided over Germany's rearmament and became America's first ambassador to West Germany. Finally, in 1957, at age 65, he commenced a new career as author, commentator, and critic on American public education. Conant died in 1978. A magisterial study of an awesome and intriguing public career. (Kirkus Reviews)

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