Great Scientists (American Profiles)

Rating:
Summary: I question some of the selections, still a good book
Review: When I first picked up this book, I immediately asked the question, "How do they define American scientist?" For on the back cover, there is the statement, "'Great Scientists' profiles eight American scientists who made significant contributions to the ever-changing world of 20th-century science." However, two of the eight scientists profiled are Albert Einstein and Enrico Fermi, neither of which was born in the United States. Einstein, who was German, didn't become a permanent resident until he was 54 and Fermi, who was Italian, became a permanent resident when he was 37.
The other scientists profiled are:

*) Thomas Hunt Morgan for his work in genetics.
*) Robert Hutchings Goddard for his work in rocketry.
*) Arthur Holly Compton for his work in subatomic particles.
*) Linus Carl Pauling for his work in chemistry and for peace.
*) Robert Oppenheimer for his work in nuclear physics and building the atomic bomb.
*) James Watson for his work in revealing the structure of DNA.

If you consider Goddard to be a physicist, then five of the eight worked in physics, one in chemistry, one in biology and one, Watson, who did his work in biochemistry. All of them are of course first class scientists and the biographies describe their work at the level of the non-scientist. However, in my opinion, a little more diversity in backgrounds would have been appropriate. Also, I would not have considered Fermi and Einstein as American scientists. If necessary to include a physicist, I would have replaced one of them by Richard Feynman.
Outside of the selections of the people to be profiled, I found this a good book for young people to learn about some of the greatest scientists of the earlier part of the twentieth century. It is well written and gives you a basic background of what they did and also what kind of people they were.