The Last Man Who Knew Everything: The Life and Times of Enrico Fermi, Father of the Nuclear Age by David N. Schwartz
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Last Man Who Knew Everything is an outstanding biography of Enrico Fermi. Beginning with his birth in 1901, the author takes us through Fermi’s personal and professional lives, his education and career, the decision to emigrate to the United States, his involvement with the Manhattan Project, etc. The flow of the narrative makes it a very pleasant and informative read.

To me, one of the joys of this book is that it explains Fermi’s contributions to physics – beta decay and the weak force, slow neutron capture and fission, nuclear chain reactions, pion-proton scattering, etc – without ever resorting to equations. That is quite an accomplishment given the breadth of Fermi’s accomplishments.

Enrico Fermi was one of the true giants of 20th Century physics. He was a fascinating man and this biography allows us to examine his life and his legacy. I highly recommend this book!