A Conversation with Oppenheimer Biographer Kai Bird

Please join International Security Studies for a conversation with Kai Bird, Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer and journalist, and Beverly Gage, John Lewis Gaddis Professor of History. The conversation will be moderated by David Engerman, Leitner International Interdisciplinary Professor of History and Global Affairs.

Kai Bird is a biographer and journalist. He won the Pulitzer Prize for biography in 2006 for American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer (co-authored with Martin J. Sherwin). American Prometheus is the inspiration for Christopher Nolan's recent film, Oppenheimer. His most recent book, The Outlier: The Unfinished Presidency of Jimmy Carter, was published in 2021. Bird is the author of many authoritative biographies of American diplomats and political leaders, including Jimmy Carter and brothers McGeorge and William Bundy. Bird's own memoir, Crossing Mendelbaum Gate: Coming of Age between Arabs and Israelis, recounts his own childhood in the Middle East. His work includes critical writings on the Vietnam War, Hiroshima, nuclear weapons, the Cold War, the Arab-Israeli conflict and the CIA. He won the National Books Critics Circle Award, the Duff Cooper Prize for History and is the recipient of numerous fellowships. He is an elected member of the prestigious Society of American Historians. Bird is the Executive Director and Distinguished Lecturer of the Leon Levy Center for Biography at the CUNY Graduate Center in New York City.

This event is open to the Yale community. Please register in advance.