Summary and Reviews of Memoirs by Edward Teller

Media Reviews

National Interest A fascinating record of the mutual entanglement of theoretical physics and world politics in the 20th century.

Physics Today Fascinating...Edward has captured the joys and the sorrows of [his life journey] in beautiful detail.

San Diego Union-Tribune [A]n illuminating, personable portrayal of arguably one of the greatest physicists of modern times.

Washington Post An important, informative, and interesting...book that fully lives up to expectations and can be wholeheartedly recommended.

National Review At once lively and profound...[ Memoirs] chronicles a remarkable life.

Scientific American Whatever one thinks of physicist Teller's reputation as a hawk in military matters and a controversial figure in science politics, he and his collaborator, Shoolery (a writer, editor and former science teacher), have produced a page-turner.

Nature [Teller] writes with warmth, humor, and optimism.

Times Literary Supplement Much of [Memoirs] is indeed the raw material of history and deserves to be held as an archive.

Booklist Starred review. Acclaimed as a genius, reviled as a madman, Edward Teller refuses to be ignored.....Curiosity will impel even [Teller's] harshest critics into these memoirs, where both his powerful intellect and his imperious ego are on full display.

Publishers Weekly Starred review. Panoramic and beautifully written recollections of one of the great scientific, if controversial, figures of all time.

Kirkus Reviews Though it will be disturbing to many readers, Teller's narrative has many fine moments he writes affectingly of his youth in a Hungary, and later Germany, in which anti-Semitism was on the rise, pays quiet homage to his beloved late wife, and even explains how he lost a foot in an accident involving a trolley car. (Terry Southern and Kubrick cruelly commemorated that loss by placing their Dr. Strangelove in a wheelchair.) But those fine moments are diminished somewhat by Teller's snappish dismissals of those who question the ethics of modern science, and he closes by insisting that we moderns have nothing to fear from today's bugbears such as genetically modified food, cloning, and nuclear power, all of which, he assures us, will lead to a brighter tomorrow. This memoir will not silence Teller's many critics; indeed, it will provide them further ammunition. Still, a useful, if (of course) self-serving, contribution to the history of science and the literature of the Cold War.

Library Journal - Gregg Sapp At 93, Teller is one of the last living links to the golden age of 20th-century physics. He was there when quantum theory was conceived, he participated in the Manhattan Project, and he has been called the father of the hydrogen bomb. Yet for all of his indisputable scientific genius, he is perhaps best known for his conservative politics. Just as Teller has been lauded by conservatives and reviled by liberals, some readers will find this book frank and revealing, while others will see it as hubristic and self-serving.... Political opinions aside, this book has flaws. It is too long and packed with unnecessary details, and it contains just one appendix...