July 3, 2017
James Conant (1893–1978) is not a household name, but this extensive biography by one of his granddaughters, historian Jennet Conant (Tuxedo Park), should convince readers that he was an important figure in his time. A world-class chemist, Conant became chairman of Harvard’s chemistry department in 1931 and, to the surprise of many, university president in 1933. His reforms stirred controversy, but he attracted F.D.R.’s attention through early support of intervention against Hitler. In 1940, Conant joined the National Defense Research Committee, which had been created to mobilize the scientific establishment for military research. He quickly entered the debate over the possibility of developing an atomic bomb; long before J. Robert Oppenheimer was hired to build it, Conant was at work. His granddaughter composes a masterly account of his performance in organizing, recruiting, and supervising the immense Manhattan Project. Conant continued to serve Truman and Eisenhower during the Cold War. Retiring after working as the first U.S. ambassador to West Germany, he wrote several volumes that criticized America’s educational system. The minutia of political maneuvering occasionally becomes a hard slog, but mostly this is a perceptive portrayal of a major player in world events throughout the mid-20th century.