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A Nuclear Narrative: Robert Oppenheimer, Autobiography, and Public Authority
- Biography
- University of Hawai'i Press
- Volume 33, Number 1, Winter 2010
- pp. 167-184
- 10.1353/bio.0.0156
- Article
- Additional Information
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This article explores the rhetorical strategies employed by Robert Oppenheimer in a personal narrative he wrote in 1954, defending himself against McCarthy-era charges that he was unfit for continued government employment. It argues that this personal narrative was central to establishing his public authority at this culturally tense moment, particularly in terms of his standing as a trustworthy atomic scientist.