In the Shadow of the Bomb: Bethe, Oppenheimer, and the Moral Responsibility of the Scientist

Preface ix Acknowledgments xvii INTRODUCTION 3 1. WHAT IS ENLIGHTENMENT? 28 2. J. ROBERT OPPENHEIMER 42 Oppenheimer and the Ethical Culture Movement 42 The Agenda of the Ethical Culture Society 46 The Teaching of Ethics at the School 50 The Maturation of Oppenheimer 53 Becoming a Physicist: Oppenheimer and His School 61 3. HANS BETHE 76 Becoming a Bildungstrager 76 Becoming a Physicist: Arnold Sommerfeld 87 Wholeness and Stability 91 Los Alamos 104 Bethe and Oppenheimer: Their Entanglement 107 4.THE CHALLENGE OF McCARTHYISM 115 The Bernard Peters Case 115 The Philip Morrison Case 130 Some Concluding Comments 146 5.NUCLEAR WEAPONS 149 Atomic Bombs 149 Hydrogen Bombs 156 PSAC and the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty 168 6.ON SCIENCE AND SOCIETY 178 EPILOGUE 183 Notes to the Chapters 187 Bibliography 239 Index 257