The gripping biography of a notorious Cold War villain--the German-born British scientist who handed the Soviets top-secret American plans for the plutonium bomb--showing a man torn between conventional loyalties and a sense of obligation to a greater good.
Nancy Thorndike Greenspan is the author of The End of the Certain World and the co-author of four books with her late husband, child psychiatrist Stanley Greenspan. She lives in Bethesda, Maryland.
Praise for Atomic Spy
One of USA Today's "Books Not to Miss"
"Enthralling and riveting . . . [Greenspan] has brought
together new material that rounds out Fuchs’s life"—The New York
Times Book Review
"Greenspan gives us fresh and fascinating insights into Fuchs’s
formative years."—The Wall Street Journal
"Spies make for enticing biographies. Well told, their stories
combine the drama of a police procedural (how did they do it?) with
the ambiguities of a psychological thriller (why did they do it?).
Nancy Thorndike Greenspan seeks to answer both those questions in
the very well told Atomic Spy. … a deeply nuanced and
sympathetic portrait of a scientist-spy with the best of intentions
— an original addition to the shelf of Fuchs
biographies."—Nature
"Nancy Thorndike Greenspan’s biography offers a new look at Fuchs’s
story, all the more fascinating for its deviations from typical
spy-movie script."—The New Criterion
"A detailed and authoritative yet equally interesting and readable
study . . . From student to scientist to spy, Fuchs is
portrayed as a careful and quiet yet passionate man who
nevertheless persisted." —Library Journal
"This richly detailed work . . . blurs the lines between
courage and treachery in thought-provoking ways."—Publishers
Weekly
“Nancy Greenspan dives into the mysteries of the Klaus Fuchs
espionage case and emerges with a classic Cold War biography of
intrigue and torn loyalties. Atomic Spy is a mesmerizing morality
tale, told with fresh sources and empathy.” —Kai Bird, author of
The Good Spy: The Life and Death of Robert Ames and coauthor of
American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert
Oppenheimer
“Greenspan sheds new light on the character, family, and motives of
the notorious spy who gave the Soviet Union a blueprint for the
atomic bomb. Klaus Fuchs’s espionage and its consequences raise
timely questions about blind devotion to an ideology.”—Cynthia C.
Kelly, President, Atomic Heritage Foundation
“A riveting read. Greenspan skillfully and with nuance describes
how one of the Manhattan Project’s prominent physicists, led to
Communism by early struggles against Nazism, eventually became a
important spy for the Russians. A tale of intrigue, competing
moralities and human fallibility.” —Gino Segrè, author of The Pope
of Physics and Ordinary Geniuses
“The Soviets had more than a half-dozen spies inside the Manhattan
Project, but none was more important than Fuchs, a senior physicist
in the theoretical division of the plutonium bomb
project. Greenspan takes us through the evidence with
assurance. Most impressive is her detailed exposition
of the strengths and weaknesses of MI5’s investigations of
Fuchs in the 1930s and 1940s as well as Fuchs’ evolution from
German Social Democrat to devoted Communist under the impact of
Hitler’s rise to power.”—John Earl Haynes, coauthor of Spies: the
Rise and Fall of the KGB in America
 |
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
