This event will take place on all Wednesdays in March (03/6, 03/13, 03/20, 03/27) from 1:00PM - 2:30PM in the Brookside Room of the UMKC Administrative Center. Bryan LeBeau, Ph.D. will be leading this course and it costs $50 ($70 with a parking permit). There is also a Zoom option.

In 2006, the award-winning book, American Prometheus, rekindled readers’ interest in the person widely credited with, or disdained for, developing the atomic bomb. The more recent film, Oppenheimer, brought to the widescreen a portrait of the extraordinary but flawed, brilliant but enigmatic, and irresistibly fascinating figure. This course will explore Oppenheimer’s triumphant and tragic life, both personal and public, in context of the culture and politics of his time, one of the most complex periods in American history. Although neither the book nor the film is required to follow class discussions, one or the other is highly recommended. Given the length of the film and the book, we will not have time to screen the film in class, though short clips may be shown, and readers may want to get a head-start on the book.