Synopses & Reviews
"Exhaustively detailed yet eminently readable, this is an important book."Publishers Weekly, starred review
"Cassidy does not so much exculpate Heisenberg as explain him, with a transparency that makes this biography a pleasure to read."Los Angeles Times
"Well crafted and readable . . . [Cassidy] provides a nuanced and compelling account of Heisenberg's life."The Harvard Book Review
In 1992, David C. Cassidy’s groundbreaking biography of Werner Heisenberg, Uncertainty, was published to resounding acclaim from scholars and critics. Michael Frayn, in the Playbill of the Broadway production of Copenhagen, referred to it as one of his main sources and “the standard work in English.” Richard Rhodes (The Making of the Atom Bomb) called it “the definitive biography of a great and tragic physicist,” and the Los Angeles Times praised it as “an important book. Cassidy has sifted the record and brilliantly detailed Heisenberg’s actions.” No book that has appeared since has rivaled Uncertainty, now out of print, for its depth and rich detail of the life, times, and science of this brilliant and controversial figure of twentieth-century physics.
Since the fall of the Soviet Union, long-suppressed information has emerged on Heisenberg’s role in the Nazi atomic bomb project. In Beyond Uncertainty, Cassidy interprets this and other previously unknown material within the context of his vast research and tackles the vexing questions of a scientist’s personal responsibility and guilt when serving an abhorrent military regime.
David C. Cassidy is the author of J. Robert Oppenheimer and the American Century, Einstein and Our World, and Uncertainty.
Synopsis
"A fascinating, well-documented biography." --New York Times Book Review
"A monumental effort." --New York Review of Books
"An excellent piece of science writing. . . . Cassidy does not so much exculpate Heisenberg as explain him, with a transparency that makes this biography a pleasure to read." --Los Angeles Times
"Cassidy has written the definitive biography of a great and tragic physicist." --Richard Rhodes, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Making of the Atomic Bomb
Since the fall of the Soviet Union, long-suppressed information has emerged on Werner Heisenberg's role in the Nazi atomic bomb project. In Beyond Uncertainty, Cassidy interprets this and other previously unknown material within the context of his vast research and tackles the vexing questions of a scientist's personal responsibility and guilt when serving an abhorrent military regime.
David C. Cassidy is the author of Beyond Uncertainty: Heisenberg, Quantum Physics, and the Bomb; A Short History of Physics in the American Century; J. Robert Oppenheimer and the American Century; and Einstein and Our World. He is the recipient of the Abraham Pais Prize for History of Physics from the American Physical Society, the Science Writing Award from the American Institute of Physics, the Pfizer Award from the History of Science Society, and an honorary doctorate from Purdue University. Dr. Cassidy is Professor of Natural Sciences at Hofstra University and resides in Bay Shore, New York.
Synopsis
A physicist and a historian, Cassidy writes about science and political history with equal authority. Since the publication of David Cassidy's definitive biography of Werner Heisenberg, Uncertainty: The Life and Science of Werner Heisenberg in 1992, new information has emerged on this controversial physicist's role in Nazi Germany. Two subsequent biographies have appeared, both of them arguing different positions on whether or not Heisenberg was a collaborator in the Third Reich's project to build an atomic bomb. While Cassidy does not silence those who seek to exculpate Heisenberg, his new work will go a long way toward setting the historical record straight. In 2000 Michael Frayn's Broadway drama Copenhagen, about a fateful encounter between Heisenberg and Niels Bohr in 1941, played to sold-out audiences. Frayn refers to Uncertainty in Copenhagen's playbill as one of his main sources and the standard work in English. All significant takes on the life of Heisenberg have relied heavily on Cassidy's original groundbreaking biography (Uncertainty), which is now out of print. Rather than merely reprint the highly technical 650 page tome the author has decided to recast it as a more accessible updated work. Cassidy examines not only the case of Heisenberg but as an expert on Oppenheimer and Einstein he is able to assess the larger issue of the culpability of scientists in their relationship to political and military power.
Synopsis
Now in paperback: Heisenberg's life reconsidered for the twenty-first century by the world's leading English-language authority.
About the Author
David C. Cassidy is the author of J. Robert Oppenheimer and the American Century, Einstein and Our World, and Uncertainty. Professor of Natural Sciences at Hofstra University, he has served as Associate Editor of The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein.