Atomic secrets and the red scare

Abstract

Almost everyone has heard of the “Oppenheimer affair”. It took place between 1953–54 when the father of the atomic bomb, Robert Oppenheimer, was subjected to a humiliating show trial by the Atomic Energy Commission and subsequently permanently stripped of his security clearance. But most people, including most historians of science, know little else about the fate of the scientific community in the “red scare” period that stretched from the end of the Second World War to the excesses of the McCarthy era. Jessica Wang's 1) book is important, ground-breaking and compelling because, for the first time, it critically and carefully studies American scientists' encounters with anti-communism in the period leading up to the Oppenheimer affair.