Rating:: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
Recommendation: Read if you have an interest in the Manhattan Project
This is a biography of James B. Conant, a chemist, president of Harvard, and member of the National Defense Research Committee, which conducted research on military technology during World War II, including radar and the atomic bomb. After the war, he became High Commissioner to Germany. The book covers his life, focusing on his involvement in the Manhattan Project and his work in Germany following the war.
I find the Manhattan Project project fascinating and have read several biographies of scientists involved in the effort, but this is the first biography I’ve read about someone involved at the administrative level of the project. It turns out this is equally fascinating. Conant’s diary entries and correspondence show the tough decisions that were made during the project to build something that they didn’t really know if they could build.
Things I’ve been thinking a lot about recently is start-ups, agile methodology and how business and IT interact. In that vein, here is one of my favorite quotes from the book (emphasis mine):
“It was Conant’s ‘open mind’ that had made his … [work] such a success, … ‘his habit of adventuring to find out, his operating belief that old answers do not solve new problems’ … his scientific colleagues recognized him as a ‘calculated gambler,’ someone who was ‘always willing to give a possibly good idea a quick try.”
Overall a good read and I’d recommend it, especially to those interested in leadership or the Manhattan Project project.