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Oppenheimer: An Improbable Leader
In this exhilarating talk, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and historian Kai Bird delves into the decades-long process that led to American Prometheus – the definitive Oppenheimer biography that inspired Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster film Oppenheimer.
When Robert Oppenheimer was selected to be the director of the Los Alamos “secret city” in 1942, he was a highly improbably candidate. He had never managed more than a dozen graduate students at Berkley. But Oppenheimer transformed himself into a charismatic leader, inspiring collaborative efforts to solve complicated problems. Brilliant and beloved, Oppenheimer gathered the best minds across disciplines, listened to disparate voices with extraordinary pleasure, and carved a path forward that secured his place in history.
Bird shares the riveting history of Oppenheimer, the award-winning chronicle of his life and work, and the charismatic and collaborative leadership lessons that speak to audiences today.
Leadership Lessons from History
Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Kai Bird has profiled some of history’s most compelling and iconoclastic leaders – from John J. McCloy to Jimmy Carter, from McGeorge Bundy to J. Robert Oppenheimer. Before our current era of divisive, highly partisan politics, we had an American Establishment personified by leaders who know how to work across the aisle, collaborating on bipartisan and common-sense solutions to matters of war and peace. In this highly customizable talk, master historian Kai Bird offers an unmatched analysis of leadership lessons from history:
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A Biographer’s Wild Journey: The Art of Decision-Making
In this thought-provoking talk, Pulitzer Prize winner Kai Bird shares how the art – and craft – of biography informs decision-making.
Pulitzer Prize winning biographer Kai Bird teaches lessons from great leaders in history
Pulitzer Prize winning historian and journalist KAI BIRD is an expert in the art of biography, made a household name due to his profiles of history’s most compelling leaders: Jimmy Carter, John J. McCloy, J. Robert Oppenheimer, and more. His work detailing an American Establishment of bipartisan, action-driven leaders provides a retrospective roadmap to the contemporary applications of powerful leadership philosophy.
As Executive Director of CUNY Graduate Center’s Leon Levy Center for Biography, Kai Bird contributes to the crucial work of biographers forging a collective memory of the past to be used as a lens through which to rethink the present. Across his contributing essays for The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Nation, and upcoming work on Roy Cohn, Bird is an important voice in the ongoing cultural discussion of what makes a truly great leader. Kai Bird’s analysis of history’s leadership lessons, delivered with clear expertise, showcase his masterful application of the past to current events. A gifted lecturer in and out of the classroom, Bird provides an engaging, insightful discussion of what we learn from U.S. leaders in history.
Watch Kai Bird in conversation at the Leon Levy Center for Biography>>
Pulitzer Prize winner Kai Bird is behind ‘American Prometheus’ – the book that inspired Christopher Nolan’s ‘Oppenheimer’
Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer, historian, and journalist KAI BIRD is the co-author of American Prometheus, the exhilarating biography that inspired Christopher Nolan’s Hollywood blockbuster Oppenheimer. Released in 2005, American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer received enormous acclaim – the New York Times called it “exhaustive and exhilarating” and The Boston Globe called it “an achievement not likely to be surpassed or equaled.” Proving already to be an enduring classic, American Prometheus is once again climbing New York Times bestseller lists in all formats with the popularity of the film Oppenheimer (2023). In thought-provoking talks, Bird shares the complicated legacy of Oppenheimer and the charismatic and collaborative leadership lessons that still resonate with audiences today.
Bird and his work have received tremendous accolades – in addition to the Pulitzer, he won the National Books Critics Circle Award, the Duff Cooper Prize for History, and is an elected member of the prestigious Society of American Historians. In an op-ed for The New York Times, Bird writes that he hopes Nolan’s Oppenheimer “will initiate a national conversation not only about our existential relationship to weapons of mass destruction, but also the need in our society for scientists as public intellectuals.” The LA Times has described the film as “a multigenerational saga nearly half a century in the making.” Bird is both a relentless chronicler of history and a consummate storyteller – elevating lessons from the past to undeniable relevance for audiences of today.
Watch Kai Bird on Amanpour and Company >>
Watch Kai Bird in conversation at the Institute for Advanced Study >>
Kai Bird is a Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer and journalist. He is the Executive Director and Distinguished Lecturer of the Leon Levy Center for Biography at the CUNY Graduate Center in New York City.
His most recent book, The Good Spy: The Life and Death of Robert Ames, was a New York Times best-seller. He chronicled his childhood in the Middle East in his memoir, Crossing Mandelbaum Gate: Coming of Age Between the Arabs and Israelis. He is the author of biographies of John J. McCloy, McGeorge Bundy, and William Bundy. He won the Pulitzer Prize for biography in 2006 for American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer (co-authored with Martin J. Sherwin). His work includes critical writings on the Vietnam War, Hiroshima, Nuclear weapons, the Cold War, the Arab-Israeli conflict and the CIA.
He won the National Books Critics Circle Award, the Duff Cooper Prize for History and is the recipient of numerous fellowships. He is an elected member of the prestigious Society of American Historians.
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