Broken Genius The Rise and Fall of William Shockley, Creator of the Electronic Age

by Shurkin, Joel N.

• ISBN13: 9781403988157
• ISBN10: 1403988153
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-06-13
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

When William Shockley invented the transistor, the world was changed forever and he was awarded the Nobel Prize. But today Shockley is often remembered only for his incendiary campaigning about race, intelligence, and genetics. His dubious research led him to donate to the Nobel Prize sperm bank and preach his inflammatory ideas widely, making shocking pronouncements on the uselessness of remedial education and the sterilization of individuals with IQs below 100. Ultimately his crusade destroyed his reputation and saw him vilified on national television, yet he died proclaiming his work on race as his greatest accomplishment. Now, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Joel N. Shurkin offers the first biography of this contradictory and controversial man. With unique access to the private Shockley archives, Shurkin gives an unflinching account of how such promise ended in such ignominy.

Author Biography

Joel N. Shurkin is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and the author of many books, including Engines of the Mind and Terman's Kids. He lives in Washington, DC.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
Part I Moira: May and Billy
1 'I've got dark eyes. I can frighten people.'	3	(19)
2 The lightness of being	22	(23)
Part II Hubris: war and the transistor
3 'Of a highly explosive character'	45	(18)
4 'I hope you have better luck in the future'	63	(23)
5 'I think we better call Shockley'	86	(21)
6 'There's enough glory in this for everybody'	107	(18)
7 '...To do my climbing by moonlight & unroped'	125	(17)
8 'Well-equipped female with brains'	142	(21)
Part III Nemesis: Silicon Valley and obsession
9 'Really peculiar ideas about how to motivate people'	163	(27)
10 'Three generations of imbeciles are enough'	190	(22)
11 'What law of nature have you discovered?'	212	(14)
12 'Someday we may actually be terribly alone'	226	(15)
13 'The high cost of thinking the unthinkable'	241	(16)
14 'I love you'	257	(17)
Bibliography	274	(11)
Acknowledgments	285	(3)
Index	288