Table of Contents

Introduction. Sunrise in the West: snow in the tropics; 1. Operation crossroads: the World's first nuclear disaster; 2. The coming of the 'Super'; 3. Runaway bomb; 4. The victims of Bravo; 5. Monsters and movements: the cultural 'Fallout' of nuclear testing; 6. Bikini postmortem I: public perceptions and official obsessions; 7. Bikini postmortem II: nuclear policy and nuclear tests; Epilogue. Back to Bikini?; Appendix 1. Ultimate weapons; Appendix 2. Radiation exposure, dosage, and its biomedical effects; Notes; Bibliography.

Promotional Information

A narrative history of the nuclear tests conducted by the United States in the Marshall Islands from 1946 to 1958.

About the Author

Keith M. Parsons, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Houston-Clear Lake, has won awards for both teaching and research. He has published in diverse fields including the philosophy of science, the history of science, the philosophy of religion, and logic and critical thinking. Robert Zaballa is a physicist specializing in nuclear physics. His areas of research include models of excited nuclei, high energy heavy ion collisions, and quantum space-time. In addition to teaching physics at the college level, he is currently employed as a radiographer at Grady Memorial Hospital, Atlanta.

Reviews

'Philosopher Keith M. Parsons and physicist Robert Zaballa have teamed up not only to write a brilliant narrative of the nuclear tests in the Marshall Islands, with a focus on the events experienced by the participants, but also a thoughtful meditation on contrasting historical claims, endorsing the ones that seem most reasonable to them.' Joseph M. Siracusa, The Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University, Melbourne, Australia, and co-author of A History of U.S. Nuclear Testing and Its Influence on Nuclear Thought, 1945–1963

'The authors have written a highly-readable but also technically well-informed account of a time thankfully now passed - the era of atmospheric nuclear testing. It seems especially relevant today, when some advocate a return to nuclear tests by the superpowers.' Gregg Herken, author of Brotherhood of the Bomb: The Tangled Lives and Loyalties of Robert Oppenheimer, Ernest Lawrence, and Edward Teller

'Parsons and Raballa's multidisciplinary contribution provides a valuable reading of the Cold War's impact on the Marshall Islanders with a largely non-judgemental analysis of the key factors at play.' Roy Smith, Journal of New Zealand & Pacific Studies

'… equally understandable for the lay reader as the graduate student.' Katie L. Brown, H-Net