This is a wonderful book, which I can't wait to assign to my students. It's not a conventional history of the nuclear age, but something much more unusual and creative--an exploration of the images and emotions that nuclear weapons and power generation have inspired, from the dropping of the Bomb up to the recent crisis at the Fukushima reactor in Japan. The interplay of emotion and reason in the atomic debate of the past 100 years is handled with great sensitivity but also incisive criticism. Neither side in that debate escapes Weart's penetrating rebuttal of their wilder claims. -- Gerard De Groot, author of The Bomb: A Life
Spencer R. Weart is Director Emeritus of the Center for History of Physics of the American Institute of Physics.
Published in 1988, just two years after the catastrophic explosion
at Chernobyl, Weart’s Nuclear Fear remains a classic study of the
way imagery has dominated the nuclear debate. This book is a
slimmed-down and revised version of the earlier 550-page volume.
Its publication is well timed. The threat of global warming has
brought about a second nuclear age, with even some
environmentalists now accepting that nuclear energy has a role to
play in a low-carbon future. But the meltdown at the Fukushima
reactors may undermine that—opinion polls show that fear of all
things nuclear is back to pre-1990 levels. From scientists’
fantasies of a utopian nuclear-powered White City, to anti-nuclear
fears of radioactive mutated monsters, Weart reveals how our atomic
dreams and nightmares form ‘one of the most powerful complexes of
images ever created outside of religions.’ He argues convincingly
that these potent images prevent us from facing the real issue: how
are we to ‘improve world prosperity while burning less fuel?’
*The Guardian*
[A] fascinating, insightful book… It’s a thoughtful look back at
our emotional relationship not just with atomic weapons but with
nuclear radiation generally, from its discovery by the Curies
through Fukushima, a history of how radiation went from ‘Gee Whiz!’
to ‘OH NO!’ It is also wonderfully entertaining, as Weart weaves
his story around the way radiation has been reflected in popular
culture. You’ll be familiar with some of the elements of the story,
amazed by others… [An] important book.
*Scientific American*
[This is a] streamlined history accessible to the general reader…
[It] is impressive, fusing a bold argument with deep erudition in
history, politics, physics, psychology, economics, art, and
literature… Any future history [of nuclear energy] will have to
place Weart’s arguments at the center… The Rise of Nuclear Fear is
a fresh account of the nuclear age.
*Physics Today*
Weart originally published this work in 1988 as Nuclear Fear. This
revision is a far more palatable working of a history that most
people of a certain age will recognize as forging their lives. It
is not only impressive for its illustrative range, from movies and
magazines to abstract expressionism and Nobel science, it is a
page-turning tour de force with power and relevance writ in memory
of Japanese fishermen aboard the Lucky Dragon and recapitulated at
Fukushima. Historically framed, this sobering fantasy of very real
nuclear fears in 300 documented, annotated pages, with a personal
update, time line, and, of course, that index, is a must read.
*Choice*
This is a wonderful book, which I can’t wait to assign to my
students. It’s not a conventional history of the nuclear age, but
something much more unusual and creative—an exploration of the
images and emotions that nuclear weapons and power generation have
inspired, from the dropping of the Bomb up to the recent crisis at
the Fukushima reactor in Japan. The interplay of emotion and reason
in the atomic debate of the past 100 years is handled with great
sensitivity but also incisive criticism. Neither side in that
debate escapes Weart’s penetrating rebuttal of their wilder
claims.
*Gerard De Groot, author of The Bomb: A Life*
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