Genius in the Shadows: A Biography of Leo Szilard, the Man Behind the Bomb Hardcover

(A 1993 New York Times Book Review Notable Book of the Year) Virtually forgotten outside of the world of atomic physics, Leo Szilard has long been overshadowed by figures like Albert Einstein, Enrico Fermi, and Robert Oppenheimer, yet he is perhaps more truly, if reluctantly, the "father of the atom bomb." It was Szilard who first theorized the energy from nuclear chain reactions; he co-designed, with Fermi, the first nuclear reactor, and with Einstein drafted a warning to the U.S. government about the potential for Germany to develop an atom bomb. Yet the eccentric Szilárd often confounded his most supportive colleagues, and in 1962 he founded the first political action committee for arms control, the Council for a Livable World. With a new introduction by the author, an expert in atomic energy and arms control, this revised and updated edition is a captivating portrait of a singular scientific prophet.