Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

Pennsylvania

A Wall Street Tycoon and the Secret Palace of Science That Changed the Course of World War II

"In the fall of 1940, as German bombers flew over London and with America not yet at war, a small team of British scientists on orders from Winston Churchill carried out a daring transatlantic mission. The British unveiled their most valuable military secret in a clandestine meeting with American nuclear physicists at the Tuxedo Park mansion of a mysterious Wall Street tycoon, Alfred Lee Loomis. Powerful, handsome, and enormously wealthy, Loomis had for years led a double life, spending his days brokering huge deals and his weekends working with the world's leading scientists in his deluxe private laboratory that was hidden in a massive stone castle." "In this account of a hitherto unexplored but crucial story of the war, Jennet Conant traces one of the world's most extraordinary careers and scientific enterprises. She describes Loomis' phenomenal rise to become one of the Wall Street legends of the go-go twenties. He rode out the Depression years in high style, and indulged in the hobbies of the fabulously rich." "At the height of his influence on Wall Street, Loomis abruptly retired and devoted himself purely to science. He turned his Tuxedo Park laboratory into the meeting place for the most visionary minds of the twentieth century: Albert Einstein, Werner Heisenberg, James Franck, Niels Bohr, and Enrico Fermi. With England threatened by invasion, he joined Vannevar Bush, Karl Compton, and the author's grandfather, Harvard president James B. Conant, in mobilizing civilian scientists to defeat Nazi Germany, and personally bankrolled pioneering research into the radar detection systems that ultimately changed the course of World War II." "Together with his friend Ernest Lawrence, the Nobel Prize-winning atom smasher, Loomis established a top-secret wartime laboratory at MIT and recruited the most famous names in physics. Through his close ties to his cousin Henry Stimson, who was secretary of war, Loomis was able to push FDR to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to create the advanced radar systems that defeated the German Air Force and deadly U-boats, and then to build the first atomic bomb. One of the greatest scientific generals of World War II, Loomis' legacy exists not only in the development of radar but also in his critical role in speeding the day of victory."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Tuxedo Park

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Jennet Conant

Presents the story of financier Alfred Lee Loomis and his role in the American victory during World War II, discussing Tuxedo Park, the lavish safe haven he created for some of the world's greatest scientists to meet and share ideas.

Category - Non Fiction / History

Format - Hardcover

Condition - Excellent

Listed - 10 months ago

Views - 11

Ships From - Pennsylvania

Est. Publication Date - Jan 2003

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Tuxedo Park: A Wall Street Tycoon and the Secret Palace of Science That Changed the Course of World War II

ISBN: 9780684872872

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Category - Non Fiction / History

Format - Hardcover

Condition - Excellent

Listed - 10 months ago

Views - 11

Ships From - Pennsylvania

Est. Publication Date - Jan 2003

Additional Information

Tuxedo Park: A Wall Street Tycoon and the Secret Palace of Science That Changed the Course of World War II

ISBN: 9780684872872

Publisher Description

Tags

Tuxedo Park

By:

$2.50

Meet the seller

Discover more

Tuxedo Park

By: Jennet Conant

More from this seller

Additional titles by Jennet Conant

'Tuxedo Park' readers also enjoyed:

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