The Last Man Who Knew Everything: The Life and Times of Enrico Fermi, Father of the Nuclear Age

by David N. Schwartz

Overview

The definitive biography of the brilliant, charismatic, and very human physicist and innovator Enrico Fermi

In 1942, a team at the University of Chicago achieved what no one had before: a nuclear chain reaction. At the forefront of this breakthrough stood Enrico Fermi. Straddling the ages of classical physics and quantum mechanics, equally at ease with theory and experiment, Fermi truly was the last man who knew everything — at least about physics. But he was also a complex figure who was a part of both the Italian Fascist Party and the Manhattan Project, and a less-than-ideal father and husband who nevertheless remained one of history's greatest mentors. Based on new archival material and exclusive interviews, The Last Man Who Knew Everything lays bare the enigmatic life of a colossus of twentieth century physics.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780465072927
Publisher:	Basic Books
Publication date:	12/05/2017
Pages:	480
Sales rank:	304,048
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.80(d)

About the Author

David N. Schwartz holds a PhD in political science from MIT and is the author of two previous books. He has worked at the State Department Bureau of Politico-Military Affairs, and at Goldman Sachs in a variety of roles in both London and New York. He lives in New York with his wife, Susan. His father, Melvin Schwartz, shared the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1988.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

Introduction xiii

Part 1 Becoming Fermi

Chapter 1 Prodigy 3

Chapter 2 Pisa 20

Chapter 3 Germany and Holland 31

Chapter 4 Quantum Breakthroughs 44

Chapter 4 Of Geckos and Men 53

Part 2 The Rome Years

Chapter 6 Family Life 63

Chapter 7 The Rome School 80

Chapter 8 Beta Rays 95

Chapter 9 Goldfish 107

Chapter 10 Physics as Soma 126

Chapter 11 The Nobel Prize 137

Part 3 The Manhattan Project

Chapter 12 The New World 149

Chapter 13 Splitting the Atom 156

Chapter 14 Fermi Meets the Navy 166

Chapter 15 Piles of Graphite 178

Chapter 16 The Move to Chicago 187

Chapter 17 "We're Cookin!" 205

Chapter 18 Xenon-135 217

Chapter 19 On a Mesa 234

Chapter 20 An Unholy Trinity 256

Part 4 The Chicago Years

Chapter 21 Return to Chicago 271

Chapter 22 In the Public Eye 297

Chapter 23 A Patent Fight 314

Chapter 24 Brilliant Teacher, Beloved Mentor 323

Chapter 25 Travels Abroad 333

Chapter 26 Home to Die 340

Chapter 27 Fermi's Legacy 350

Acknowledgments 367

Credits 373

Notes 375

Bibliography 419

Index 437

Editorial Reviews

There have been other accounts of [Fermi's] life, yet David N. Schwartz's new portrait, The Last Man Who Knew Everything, is the first thorough biography to be published since Fermi's death…Schwartz, working with limited sources, tells the story well…[His] biography adds importantly to the literature of the utterly remarkable men and women who opened up nuclear physics to the world.

The New York Times Book Review - Richard Rhodes

★ 10/09/2017
Schwartz (NATO’s Nuclear Dilemmas), a State Department alumnus, introduces a new generation to Enrico Fermi (1901–1954) with the first English-language biography of Fermi in 47 years. An Italian immigrant, Nobel laureate, and passionate outdoorsman, Fermi pioneered the physics breakthroughs that shaped the 20th century. Readers will find no equations here, only unfaltering, clear explanations of the science behind his discoveries relating to the weak and strong interactions, Fermi-Dirac statistics, computational physics, and nuclear reactors. Along with Fermi’s life in Italy and America, Schwartz ably resurrects his Los Alamos years, showing how “much of what was secret in the Manhattan Project originated in Fermi’s brain.” Uniquely, Fermi triply excelled in experimentation, theory, and teaching. By “stripping problems to their bare essentials and leading his students through step-by-step solutions,” Fermi “believed that anyone could learn what he knew.” Charismatic, confident, and approachable, he was beloved by students and peers alike. But Fermi showed reticence “in every aspect of his personal life,” writing “neither letters nor diaries.” Schwartz recreates Fermi’s story from the outside in, aided by the writings of his wife, Laura, and his colleagues. Told in a sure, steady voice, Schwartz’s book delivers a scrupulously researched and lovingly crafted portrait of the “greatest Italian scientist since Galileo.” (Dec.)

Publishers Weekly

"Mr. Schwartz deftly conveys the aesthetic beauty of Fermi's insights without getting mired in their minutiae."—Economist

"There have been other accounts of his life, yet David N. Schwartz's new portrait, The Last Man Who Knew Everything, is the first thorough biography to be published since Fermi's death 64 years ago in 1954. Schwartz, working with limited sources, tells the story well...[His] biography adds importantly to the literature of the utterly remarkable men and women who opened up nuclear physics to the world."—New York Times Book Review

"[Schwartz] does an admirable job of explaining the science and provides careful assessments of Fermi's influence... [and illuminates] the human effects of a project that was so urgent yet so terrible in its long-term implications."—Foreign Affairs

"Schwartz's The Last Man Who Knew Everything offers the most comprehensive description of Fermi's work so far, as well as fresh insights into his personality."—Nature

"The Last Man Who Knew Everything manages the neat double trick of making both Fermi and his abstruse work accessible to readers living in the world he did so much to create, for good and ill."—Christian Science Monitor

"An informative and fun read, rich in those anecdotes and tales that...help to elucidate what was driving the work of the giant that Fermi was.... The more mundane aspects of Fermi's life—his fears, vanities and human errors, emerge...from these pages."—Physics World

"David Schwartz's elegant narrative is a formidable achievement, shining a bright light on Enrico Fermi, the most enigmatic physicist of the early atomic era. Schwartz has exhausted the archives and crafted what will certainly stand as the most deeply biographical account of this brilliant scientist's tragically short life." —Kai Bird, Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer and co-author with Martin J. Sherwin of American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer

"It is testimony to David N. Schwartz's excellence as a biographer that he can reveal the workaholic Fermi to have been such a fascinatingly complex figure... [Schwartz] excels in a portrayal that is balanced and nuanced, sympathetic but unflinching."—The Spectator (UK)

"A lucid writer who has done his homework, Schwartz...delivers a thoroughly enjoyable, impressively researched account...Never a media darling like Einstein or Oppenheimer, Enrico Fermi (1901-1954) is now barely known to the public, but few scientists would deny that he was among the most brilliant physicists of his century...A rewarding, expert biography of a giant of the golden age of physics."—Kirkus

"Told in a sure, steady voice, Schwartz's book delivers a scrupulously researched and lovingly crafted portrait of the 'greatest Italian scientist since Galileo.'"—Publishers Weekly

"In this compelling new biography, Schwartz makes clear how little lay beyond the reach of this scientific polymath.... A sophisticated portrayal of a complex man."—Booklist

"No physicist has more concepts and places named after him than Enrico Fermi, and for good reason. A central figure in so much of twentieth-century physics, Fermi was renowned for his imagination, his brilliance, and his style. This comprehensive biography is a treasure trove of detail and revealing insight into a unique scientific figure." —Sean Carroll, author of The Big Picture: On the Origins of Life, Meaning, and the Universe Itself

"A tremendous book, fascinating and clear. I now know Enrico Fermi as well as anyone could today. Schwartz writes with a joy and passion for the subject and genuine interest in the man that shines through. There are great scientists working today on AI and gene-editing, exploring 'multi-verse' theories, searching for 'Goldilocks' planets, and developing new means of powering space travel. I hope they will someday have a biographer and chronicler as talented as Schwartz to tell their story."—Richard A. Clarke, author of Against All Enemies, Cyber War, and Warnings

"One of the finest biographies of the year, The Last Man Who Knew Everything combines the historic, the scientific and the personal in a deft and effortless way. Enrico Fermi was easily one of the most fascinating human beings of the 20th century, a man whose intellectual brilliance was trapped inside an all-too-human shell. The result, in David Schwartz's able interpretation, is nothing short of spellbinding."—Gary Shteyngart, author of Little Failure and Super Sad True Love Story

"In this compelling and well-researched biography, David Schwartz reveals both triumph and tragedy in the life and work of Enrico Fermi, one of the greatest and hitherto most enigmatic scientists of the 20th century."—Frank Close, professor of physics at Oxford and author of Neutrino and Half-Life

"David Schwartz has written a highly-readable account of an undervalued figure in the making of the atomic age—one that puts Enrico Fermi in the proper historical context."—Gregg Herken, author of Brotherhood of the Bomb

"Enrico Fermi was part of a great brain drain pre-WWII from Axis nations, when ideology overwhelmed the search for truth and even self-interest. We don't want to happen in America. Despite what you might think from the title, The Last Man Who Knew Everything, this amazing book by David Schwartz is brimming with anecdotes in which Enrico Fermi is not the smartest guy in the room. He is focused on family, colleagues and meaning. David really puts us intimately at the table for the historic atomic revolution. This humanization of geniuses and forging public engagement in complex science is crucial today as we become ever more dependent on technological leadership. As fresh and riveting a biography as any you will find." —George Church, author of Regenesis

"Enrico Fermi was a singular figure of modern science, and David Schwartz has written a singular biography. His book is unusually adept and nuanced in its appreciation and explanation of both the scientific and humanistic aspects of its subject. It is also a joy to read, as Schwartz has a beautiful authorial voice that is perfectly appropriate for his subject matter: appreciative and sympathetic, without falling into the hyperbolic or uncritical. It is a rare book that will please both the experts and the novices, but I think this is such a rare book." —Alex Wellerstein, assistant professor at the Stevens Institute of Technology and author of Restricted Data: The Nuclear Secrecy Blog

From the Publisher

2017-08-28
A fine life of the scientist "who knew everything about physics, the study of matter, energy, time, and their relationship."Never a media darling like Einstein or Oppenheimer, Enrico Fermi (1901-1954) is now barely known to the public, but few scientists would deny that he was among the most brilliant physicists of his century. A lucid writer who has done his homework, Schwartz (NATO's Nuclear Dilemma, 1983), whose father won a Nobel Prize in physics, delivers a thoroughly enjoyable, impressively researched account. The son of a middle-class Italian family, Fermi was a prodigy. As an adolescent, he absorbed textbooks in physics and mathematics and obtained perfect grades in those subjects in college. After graduation, he led a team that made Italy, formerly a backwater, a world-class center of physics. In the decade after 1925, Fermi described the weak interaction, one of the four fundamental forces of nature, and perfected neutron bombardment of the atomic nucleus, which produced artificial radioactivity and ultimately nuclear fission and the atomic bomb. After winning the Nobel Prize in physics in 1938, he left Mussolini's Italy for the United States, where his research indicated that neutrons from uranium fission would lead to a chain reaction releasing enormous energy. Proving this required an actual chain reaction, which he accomplished in 1942 after building the first atomic reactor. He led a section of the Manhattan project, which produced the atomic bomb, and remained a dominant figure until his premature death at 53. Einstein only theorized; Ernest Lawrence only built machines and experimented; Fermi excelled at both besides being a superb teacher universally loved by students. Neither eccentric nor introspective, he kept no diary, so little is known of his inner life, but Schwartz has no qualms about speculating. A rewarding, expert biography of a giant of the golden age of physics.

Kirkus Reviews

Enrico Fermi was a giant in nuclear physics, but his story has gone largely untold until now. This audiobook seeks to fill that gap. Tristan Morris offers a solid narration with an appropriate pace and an engaging tone He adds no dramatics to a career that included developing the atomic bombs that were used to end WWII. Morris often gives no clue when he is reading a direct quotation, so listeners might not be clear when an assessment is that of the author or one of Fermi’s contemporaries. Also, the author “fills the stage” with so many players that it becomes hard to keep them straight. A basic knowledge of nuclear physics would be helpful for a full understanding of the technical passages. R.C.G. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine

JANUARY 2018 - AudioFile

Enrico Fermi was a giant in nuclear physics, but his story has gone largely untold until now. This audiobook seeks to fill that gap. Tristan Morris offers a solid narration with an appropriate pace and an engaging tone He adds no dramatics to a career that included developing the atomic bombs that were used to end WWII. Morris often gives no clue when he is reading a direct quotation, so listeners might not be clear when an assessment is that of the author or one of Fermi’s contemporaries. Also, the author “fills the stage” with so many players that it becomes hard to keep them straight. A basic knowledge of nuclear physics would be helpful for a full understanding of the technical passages. R.C.G. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine

JANUARY 2018 - AudioFile