"The gripping biography of a notorious Cold War villain--the German-born British scientist who handed the Soviets top-secret American plans for the plutonium bomb--showing a man torn between conventional loyalties and a sense of obligation to a greater good"-- Provided by publisher.

Klaus Fuchs was convicted of espionage by Britain in 1950 for handing over the designs of the plutonium bomb to the Russians, and has gone down in history as one of the most dangerous agents in American and British history. Using German archives and family correspondence, Greenspan brings into sharp focus the moral and political ambiguity of the times in which Fuchs lived. After years of struggle and ideological conflict, when Fuchs joined the atomic bomb project his loyalties were firmly split. He started handing over top secret research to the Soviets in 1941, and continued for years from deep within the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos, seemingly driven by a dedication to peace, seeking to level the playing field of the world powers. -- adapted from jacket