This was an enormous disappointment. Partly because it's just written above my level - I'm not a chemist, nor am I a physicist, and this is clearly directed at people who are, as Hahn recaps his professional discoveries for a professional audience. But mostly that disappointment is because this just doesn't do what it says on the tin.

I wanted to read this because I am interested in Otto Hahn, and wanted to learn more about his life and the type of person that he was. "An autobiography will do that," I thought, but bar a brief opening chapter on his childhood, this did no such thing. In fact, Hahn seemed to go out of his way to remove any personal thoughts or references at all. His wife and child, including the death of the latter? Nary a mention. His experiences during WW1, developing gas warfare with Fritz Haber, and any ethical difficulties he had with this work? Skipped entirely over. His reaction to the growing Nazi threat, and how it impacted his life, his (successful) help getting Lise Meitner out of Germany, how he was able to go on doing German science in WW2 like nothing was happening around him, his experience in an internment camp, his refusal to countenance nuclear weapons... nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing.

If I'd wanted to read his scientific papers, strung together (as a handful are in the extensive appendices) I would have done that. Apparently there's another autobiography by him out there, called My Life, and I hope it's an improvement on this one, but I don't know if I can bring myself to read it. This book has a specific audience, of people already in the know, and isn't particularly welcoming to anyone else. There are a handful of interesting passages, but mostly it is pretty dull, really. (less)