| Tuxedo Park: A Wall Street Tycoon and the Secret Palace of Science That Changed the Course of World War II Contributor(s): Conant, Jennet (Author) |
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ISBN: 0684872889 ISBN-13: 9780684872889 Publisher: Simon & Schuster OUR PRICE: $17.09 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: May 2003 Annotation: The fascinating, little-known story of Alfred Loomis, a wealthy eccentric who bankrolled pioneering research into the radar detection system and the atomic bomb "reads like fiction . . . remarkable and remarkably told, as if F. Scott Fitzgerald had penned Batman" ("Kirkus Reviews"). of photos. 2 maps. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Biography & Autobiography | Science & Technology - Biography & Autobiography | Rich & Famous - Science | History |
| Dewey: B |
| LCCN: 2002021001 |
| Physical Information: 0.96" H x 5.5" W x 8.4" (0.74 lbs) 352 pages |
| Themes: - Chronological Period - 1940's - Chronological Period - 20th Century - Geographic Orientation - New York - Locality - New York, N.Y. |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: The untold story of an eccentric Wall Street tycoon and the circle of scientific geniuses he assembled before World War II to develop the science for radar and the atomic bomb. Together they changed the course of history. Legendary financier, philanthropist, and society figure Alfred Lee Loomis gathered the most visionary scientific minds of the twentieth century--Albert Einstein, Werner Heisenberg, Niels Bohr, Enrico Fermi, and others--at his state-of-the-art laboratory in Tuxedo Park, New York, in the late 1930s. He established a top-secret defense laboratory at MIT and personally bankrolled pioneering research into new, high-powered radar detection systems that helped defeat the German Air Force and U-boats. With Ernest Lawrence, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist, he pushed Franklin Delano Roosevelt to fund research in nuclear fission, which led to the development of the atomic bomb. Jennet Conant, the granddaughter of James Bryant Conant, one of the leading scientific advisers of World War II, enjoyed unprecedented access to Loomis' papers, as well as to people intimately involved in his life and work. She pierces through Loomis' obsessive secrecy and illuminates his role in assuring the Allied victory. |
Contributor Bio(s): Conant, Jennet: - Jennet Conant is the author of Man of the Hour: James B. Conant, Warrior Scientist and the New York Times bestsellers The Irregulars: Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington and Tuxedo Park: A Wall Street Tycoon and the Secret Palace of Science That Changed the Course of World War II. She has written for Vanity Fair, Esquire, GQ, Newsweek, and The New York Times. She lives in New York City and Sag Harbor, New York. |