James B. Conant; Harvard to Hiroshima and the Making of the Nuclear Age

New York: Knopf, 1993. First Edition [stated]. First Printing. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. 25 cm. ix, [1], 948, [2] pages. Illustrations. Principal Sources. Notes. Index. Pencil erasure residue on front endpaper. James Hershberg is a professor of History and International Affairs at George Washington University, Elliott School of International Affairs. He is a graduate of Harvard College, Columbia University and Tufts University. Hershberg is a leading scholar on Cold War history and a former Director of the Cold War International History Project at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, DC. His first book was on the life of former Harvard President James Bryant Conant. Derived from a Kirkus review: In this massive and engrossing look at Conant's public life, Hershberg 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, Cold War public figure, and envoy to Germany.'' Hershberg relates his rise to academic excellence at Harvard, and his work in the ``chemist's war'' of WW I. 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 and he campaigned against the development of the hydrogen bomb. A magisterial study of an awesome and intriguing public career.