Tuxedo Park by Jennet Conant is a truly remarkable story that unfolds in the late 1930s against the backdrop of the Second World War effort in the United States. The main protagonist is Averell Harriman, a self-made millionaire and influential diplomat who played an integral role in the formation of the so-called “Alsos Mission”. This was an elite force of America’s brightest minds who were tasked with exploiting Germany’s secret weapons program in order to strengthen the Allied cause. Along his journey, Harriman developed close relationships with a number of notable figures, including Robert Oppenheimer and Enrico Fermi.
However, Tuxedo Park does not simply follow Harriman and his mission. It also includes many individuals and organizations which left an indelible imprint on the nation’s response to the war and their lasting legacy. Most notably amongst these is the “Secret City” at Tuxedo Park, a small rural settlement in the East of the United States. This quite unassuming community provided an ideal location for the actualization of the Alsos Mission, as it hosted not only many of the brightest minds in modern physics but also a number of experimental stations, including the very first atomic bomb. In turn, this setup provided the platform that allowed America to gain a crucial advantage in the development of nuclear weapons.
The story itself is interspersed with great personal anecdotes, both Harriman’s and of those enmeshed in the Tuxedo Park mission. These moments interject within a great narrative that seeks to examine not only the incredible success of the Alsos mission but also the personal costs associated with the pursuit of victory. Thus, those in Tuxedo Park were not only a part of an elite wartime mission, but also a unique social experiment. This environment saw the emergence of an entirely new kind of community, one founded upon loyalty, warfare and also an overwhelming sense of patriotism.
Of course, victory did not come without sacrifice, and as the war neared to a close, many of those at Tuxedo Park faced tough moral and emotional choices. In particular, personal relationships became tested in the face of national security and had to carefully be negotiated in order to ensure the Allied victory. As a result, Jennet Conant’s narrative of Tuxedo Park includes a great many shades of human emotion throughout, reflecting how this environment was far more than just a center of great scientific and technological breakthroughs.
In conclusion, Tuxedo Park by Jennet Conant provides an insightful insight into one of the most important hotbeds of wartime activity. Through her close focus on individuals, she allows us to gain a much deeper understanding of the relationship between science and politics in times of heightened tension and the true human cost associated with such endeavours. All in all, this is an incredibly accurate and compelling tale that engages its readers on many levels.
