One Nobel Prize-winning physicist called Edward Teller, "A great man of vast imagination...[one of the] most thoughtful statesmen of science." Another called him, "A danger to all that is important...It would have been a better world without [him]." That both opinions about Teller were commonly held and equally true is one of the enduring mysteries about the man dubbed "the father of the H-bomb." In the story of Teller's life and career, told here in greater depth and detail than ever before, Peter Goodchild unravels the complex web of harsh early experiences, character flaws, and personal and professional frustrations that lay behind the paradox of "the real Dr. Strangelove." Goodchild's biography draws on interviews with more than fifty of Teller's colleagues and friends. Their voices echo through the book, expressing admiration and contempt, affection and hatred, as we observe Teller's involvement in every stage of building the atomic bomb, and his subsequent pursuit of causes that drew the world deeper into the Cold War--alienating many of his scientific colleagues even as he provided the intellectual lead for politicians, the military, and presidents as they shaped Western policy. Goodchild interviewed Teller himself at the end of his life, and what emerges from this interview, as well as from Teller's Memoirs and recently unearthed correspondence, is a clearer view of the contradictions and controversies that riddled the man's life. Most of all, though, this absorbing biography rescues Edward Teller from the caricatures that have served to describe him until now. In their place, Goodchild shows us one of the most powerful scientists of the twentieth century in all his enigmatic humanity. (20040418)

The birth of Armageddon. The first H-bomb detonates and the proud father is Edward Teller. But he's on a collision course with Robert Oppenheimer, the inventor of the bomb that obliterated Hiroshima. Now Oppenheimer has turned pacifist and the government will stop at nothing to "neutralize" him. And Teller is their star witness! The collision course traveled by Edward Teller, father of the "H" Bomb, and Robert Oppenheimer, whose bomb was dropped on Hiroshima during World War II, is the sobering subject of The Real Dr. Strangelove. Adapted from the book by Peter Goodchild, director Matt August presents this harrowing tale that takes place at the height of the "Red Scare." In the play, Oppenheimer has turned pacifist and the government will stop at nothing to "neutralize" him. At his trial, his rival in science, Teller - "the real Dr. Strangelove" - emerges as the prosecution's star witness. Drawing on interviews he conducted, manuscript materials, and secondary sources, Goodchild sketches a revealing portrait of the brilliant-but-tortured Teller as a gifted and extraordinarily influential figure, although certainly not a popular one. The LATW production of Strangelove stars Simon Templeman (TV's "Charmed", "24", "Monk") as Teller. LATW veteran John de Lancie, best known as "Q" on the long-running "Star Trek": Voyager series, plays Lewis Strauss, the one-time assistant to Herbert Hoover who became a Rear Admiral in the Navy during World War II. The play also features Rafael Sbarge (The Cherry Orchard at the Mark Taper) who plays Hans Bethe, the head of the theoretical division at Los Alamos and a government advisor, Jonathan Nichols ("CSI", "Without a Trace") who plays Luis Alvarez, and Joe Spano ("Hill Street Blues") as Italian physicist Enrico Fermi.

The birth of Armageddon. The first H-bomb detonates and the proud father is Edward Teller. But he's on a collision course with Robert Oppenheimer, the inventor of the bomb that obliterated Hiroshima. Now Oppenheimer has turned pacifist and the government will stop at nothing to "neutralize" him. And Teller is their star witness! The collision course traveled by Edward Teller, father of the "H" Bomb, and Robert Oppenheimer, whose bomb was dropped on Hiroshima during World War II, is the sobering subject of The Real Dr. Strangelove. Adapted from the book by Peter Goodchild, director Matt August presents this harrowing tale that takes place at the height of the "Red Scare." In the play, Oppenheimer has turned pacifist and the government will stop at nothing to "neutralize" him. At his trial, his rival in science, Teller - "the real Dr. Strangelove" - emerges as the prosecution's star witness. Drawing on interviews he conducted, manuscript materials, and secondary sources, Goodchild sketches a revealing portrait of the brilliant-but-tortured Teller as a gifted and extraordinarily influential figure, although certainly not a popular one. The LATW production of Strangelove stars Simon Templeman (TV's "Charmed", "24", "Monk") as Teller. LATW veteran John de Lancie, best known as "Q" on the long-running "Star Trek": Voyager series, plays Lewis Strauss, the one-time assistant to Herbert Hoover who became a Rear Admiral in the Navy during World War II. The play also features Rafael Sbarge (The Cherry Orchard at the Mark Taper) who plays Hans Bethe, the head of the theoretical division at Los Alamos and a government advisor, Jonathan Nichols ("CSI", "Without a Trace") who plays Luis Alvarez, and Joe Spano ("Hill Street Blues") as Italian physicist Enrico Fermi.

This is an analysis of deterrence in the nuclear age. It is a dramatically new view of where we have been and where we are as a result of the development of nuclear weapons. There is an indepth study of Stanley Kubrck's movie sub titled; "How I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb". The book is erudite in that it examines all the relevent literature. And it has wonderful drawings by David Levine of all the major players. But, above all, this is a hopeful book for as the author puts it; "...if nothing can be done it may seem that nothing NEED be done. Naturally enough, those who take comfort in that view tend to leave the arena of debate to those who want to do something. Thus the more believers in the power of deterrence, the fewer advocates for action. Dr.Strangelove and the Hideous Epoch reviews the debate's history from the viewpoint of that less representative side and argues the the end of the hideous epoch...is now within view."