Kai Bird

The first full-scale biography of the "father of the atomic bomb," the brilliant, charismatic physicist who led the effort to capture the fire of the sun for his country in time of war. After Hiroshima, he became the most famous scientist of his generation--an icon of modern man confronting the consequences of scientific progress. He created a radical proposal to place international controls over atomic materials, opposed the development of the hydrogen...

The 1983 attack on the American Embassy in Beirut killed 63 people, including America's most influential and effective intelligence officer in the Middle East -- CIA operative Robert Ames. Kai Bird, who as a child lived in the Beirut Embassy and knew Ames as a neighbor, draws on years of research and hours of interviews to produce a masterpiece-level narrative of the making of a CIA officer and a uniquely insightful history of the Middle East conflict....

"Four decades after Ronald Reagan's landslide win in 1980, Jimmy Carter's one-term presidency is often labeled a failure; indeed, many Americans view Carter as the only ex-president to have used the White House as a stepping-stone to greater achievements. But in retrospect the Carter political odyssey is a rich and human story, marked by both formidable accomplishments and painful political adversity. In this deeply researched, brilliantly written...