Tuxedo Park, Jennet Conant
Tuxedo Park, Jennet Conant
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Tuxedo Park
A Wall Street Tycoon and the Secret Palace of Science That Changed the Course of World War II

Author: Jennet Conant

Narrator: John Kroft

Unabridged: 13 hr 40 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 09/25/2018


Synopsis

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.

About Jennet Conant

Jennet Conant is the author, most recently, of Fierce Ambition. Her other books include the New York Times bestselling Tuxedo Park, 109 East Palace, The Irregulars, The Great Secret, and the critically acclaimed Man of the Hour. She lives in Sag Harbor, New York.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Jane on June 07, 2012

This is a very interesting but somewhat difficult read. Interesting to learn about the development of radar, something that we take for granted today, but was only developed in the early 1940's. It is now a part of our daily lives (much more than we even realize) but was one of the deciding factors......more

Goodreads review by Phrodrick slowed his growing backlog on January 28, 2023

3.5 * rounded up by the facts of the man. In reviewing any book there are a number of aspects that may be addressed. Reviewers may focus on some or all of plotting, character development or the degree to which the writer has a happy facility with words. In the case of Jannet Conant’s Tuxedo Park : A......more

Goodreads review by Andrew on March 10, 2010

This is a book that's well-suited to someone with a good understanding of the history of World War II, as it provides valuable background to the development of radar, Loran and atomic energy. Alfred Loomis was a financier who managed to guard his fortune through the Depression by liquidating assets......more

Goodreads review by Chunyang on August 10, 2020

This book felt like an overdone steak: incredibly dry, tough, and such a waste of a good cut of meat. The central story of Alfred Loomis is incredibly fascinating, as a man who pulled string and financed some of the largest war research efforts in American history, primarily in the development of ra......more

Goodreads review by Mal on April 29, 2020

Radar helped win World War II, and one little-remembered man was the key to developing it. He was a privileged young man, a product of Andover, Yale, and Harvard Law and a first cousin and protegé of Henry L. Stimson (who was variously Secretary of State and War under Presidents Herbert Hoover and Fr......more