Romancing the atom : nuclear infatuation from the radium girls to Fukushima /
Nuclear infatuation from the radium girls to Fukushima
Robert R. Johnson.
- xvi, 217 pages : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm
Includes bibliographical references (pages 203-212) and index.
Acknowledgments -- Introduction-- Part 1: Inventing The Atomic Mindset: Dial Painters, Comic Books, And Paradise Lost: -- For the love of pretty things: the radium girls and "dying for science" -- On a need-to-know basis: from "the bomb" to the uranium frenzy to the living room -- Only answered in the stars: the human testing of the bikini islanders-- Part 2: Using The Atomic Mindset: Native Americans, Guinea Pigs, And Uranium Cottage Industries: -- Engagements with rocks and land: uranium, dine culture, and the yellow monster -- Dangerous Familiars Part 1: Nuclear science and its human subjects -- Dangerous Familiars Part 2: Three cases of human testing, 1949-2011 -- Doing it in the backyard: Alba Craft, Inc, Part 1 -- Part 3: Confronting The Atomic Mindset: Community Action, The Rhetoric Of Nuclear Power, And Fukushima: -- What's a community to do?: Alba Craft, Inc, Part 2 -- Nuclear green and the end of power -- Nightmares revisited: Japan, Tsunamis, the Atom, and ironies -- Afterword: Of romance, Soteigai, celebrations, and the mundane -- Appendix: Living in an atomic world: voices from "on the ground" of the nuclear age -- Making Up Your Own Mindset: Reading group discussion questions and classroom resources -- Bibliography-- Index.
Overview: This book presents a compelling account of atomic development over the last century that demonstrates how humans have repeatedly chosen to ignore the associated impacts for the sake of technological, scientific, military, and economic expediency. -- Draws from top-secret government and military documents from the history of atomic development, archival documents from the Library of Congress, and letters from Albert Einstein and other prominent scientists during the 1950s and 1960s. -- Presents chronological histories of events such as the displacement and relocation of the Bikini Islanders, uranium mines on Native American lands, and the cleanup of a secret uranium milling facility in a residential neighborhood in Oxford, Ohio. -- Contains various maps including radioactive cleanup sites in the United States and other parts of the world. -- Includes many photographs and illustrations that accompany the text. -- Provides a bibliography containing a significant collection of books, magazine articles, newspaper reports, movies, comics, government documents, and other related archival materials.