“A thrilling, intense, and disturbing account of the atomic era, from the discovery of X-rays to the tragic meltdown of Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant…Rich with powerful images and fraught with drama” (The Christian Science Monitor).When Marie Curie, Enrico Fermi, and Edward Teller forged the science of radioactivity, they began a revolution that ran from the nineteenth century through the course of World War II and the Cold War to our current confrontation with the dangers of nuclear power and proliferation. While nuclear science improves our lives, radiation’s invisible powers can trigger cancer and cellular mayhem. Writing with a biographer’s passion, New York Times bestselling author Craig Nelson unlocks one of the great mysteries of the universe. In The Age of Radiance, Nelson illuminates a pageant of fascinating historical figures: Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Curtis LeMay, John F. Kennedy, Robert McNamara, Ronald Reagan, and Mikhail Gorbachev, among others. He reveals how Jewish scientists fleeing Hitler transformed America from a nation that created light bulbs into one that split atoms; Alfred Nobel’s dream of global peace; and how, in our time, emergency workers and utility employees fought to contain life-threatening nuclear reactors. By tracing our complicated relationship with the dangerous energy we unleashed, Nelson discusses how atomic power and radiation are indivisible from our everyday lives. Brilliantly told and masterfully crafted, The Age of Radiance provides a new understanding of a misunderstood epoch in history and restores to prominence the forgotten heroes and heroines who have changed all of our lives for better and for worse. “This is the kind of book that doesn’t just inform you but leaves you feeling smarter.” (The Dallas Morning News).
...MoreReview Naomi Pasachoff (2015) Review of "The Age of Radiance: The Epic Rise and Dramatic Fall of the Atomic Era". Metascience: An International Review Journal for the History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Science (pp. 227-231).
Similar Citations
Book
Johnson, Robert R.;
(2012)
Romancing the Atom: Nuclear Infatuation from the Radium Girls to Fukushima
(/isis/citation/CBB001251283/)
Book
Tuniz, Claudio;
(2012)
Radioactivity: A Very Short Introduction
(/isis/citation/CBB001450621/)
Book
Alex Wellerstein;
(2021)
Restricted Data: The History of Nuclear Secrecy in the United States
(/isis/citation/CBB433725241/)
Article
Alcañiz, Isabella;
(2010)
Bureaucratic Networks and Government Spending: A Network Analysis of Nuclear Cooperation in Latin America
(/isis/citation/CBB001020860/)
Article
Zhang, Feng;
Hu, Huakai;
(2006)
Researches in the Institute of Radium of National Academy of Peiping
(/isis/citation/CBB001020747/)
Article
Jenkin, John;
(2004)
William Henry Bragg in Adelaide: Beginning Research at a Colonial Locality
(/isis/citation/CBB000410767/)
Book
Malley, Marjorie Caroline;
(2011)
Radioactivity: A History of a Mysterious Science
(/isis/citation/CBB001251423/)
Article
Reiter, Wolfgang L.;
(2001)
Stefan Meyer: Pioneer of Radioactivity
(/isis/citation/CBB000102522/)
Book
Katzir, Shaul;
Lehner, Christoph;
Renn, Jürgen;
(2013)
Traditions and Transformations in the History of Quantum Physics
(/isis/citation/CBB001550829/)
Article
Joye-Cagnard, Frédéric;
Strasser, Bruno J.;
(2009)
Energie atomique, guerre froide et neutralité: La Suisse et le plan “Atomes pour la Paix”, 1945--1957
(/isis/citation/CBB001022687/)
Article
Tatiana Kasperski;
Paul Josephson;
(2023)
Women, Reactors, and Nuclear Weapons: From Revolutionary Liberation to the "Miss Atom" Pageant in (Post-)Soviet Russia
(/isis/citation/CBB684442709/)
Chapter
Rodolfo Figari;
(2017)
Particle tracks in a cloud chamber: the Mott’s conjecture (1929)
(/isis/citation/CBB979079556/)
Chapter
Martins, Roberto de Andrade;
(2010)
Henri Becquerel and Radioactivity: A Critical Revision
(/isis/citation/CBB001250595/)
Book
Fengler, Silke;
(2014)
Kerne, Kooperation und Konkurrenz: Kernforschung in Österreich im internationalen Kontext (1900--1950)
(/isis/citation/CBB001552674/)
Thesis
Rentetzi, Maria;
(2003)
Gender, Politics, and Radioactivity Research in Vienna, 1910--1938
(/isis/citation/CBB001561544/)
Book
Bimbot, René;
(2006)
Histoire de la Radioactivité: l'évolution d'un concept et de ses applications
(/isis/citation/CBB000780169/)
Article
Guerra, Francesco;
Leone, Matteo;
Robotti, Nadia;
(2012)
The Discovery of Artificial Radioactivity
(/isis/citation/CBB001220406/)
Book
Bernstein, Jeremy;
(2013)
A Palette of Particles
(/isis/citation/CBB001213177/)
Book
Jayawardhana, Ray;
(2013)
Neutrino Hunters: The Thrilling Chase for a Ghostly Particle to Unlock the Secrets of the Universe
(/isis/citation/CBB001213184/)
Article
Thomas, William;
(2012)
Strategies of Detection: Interpretive Methods in Experimental Particle Physics, 1930--1950
(/isis/citation/CBB001252328/)
Be the first to comment!