The rise of nuclear fear / Spencer R. Weart.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Weart, Spencer R., 1942-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Antinuclear movement--History.

Antinuclear movement.

Nuclear energy--History.

Nuclear energy.

Nuclear energy--Psychological aspects.

Radiation--Public opinion--History.

Radiation.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (381 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 2012.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

After a tsunami destroyed the cooling system at Japan's Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant, triggering a meltdown, protesters around the world challenged the use of nuclear power. Germany announced it would close its plants by 2022. Although the ills of fossil fuels are better understood than ever, the threat of climate change has never aroused the same visceral dread or swift action. Spencer Weart dissects this paradox, demonstrating that a powerful web of images surrounding nuclear energy holds us captive, allowing fear, rather than facts, to drive our thinking and public policy.Building on his classic, Nuclear Fear, Weart follows nuclear imagery from its origins in the symbolism of medieval alchemy to its appearance in film and fiction. Long before nuclear fission was discovered, fantasies of the destroyed planet, the transforming ray, and the white city of the future took root in the popular imagination. At the turn of the twentieth century when limited facts about radioactivity became known, they produced a blurred picture upon which scientists and the public projected their hopes and fears. These fears were magnified during the Cold War, when mushroom clouds no longer needed to be imagined; they appeared on the evening news. Weart examines nuclear anxiety in sources as diverse as Alain Resnais's film Hiroshima Mon Amour, Cormac McCarthy's novel The Road, and the television show The Simpsons.Recognizing how much we remain in thrall to these setpieces of the imagination, Weart hopes, will help us resist manipulation from both sides of the nuclear debate.

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

PREFACE

1. RADIOACTIVE HOPES

2. RADIOACTIVE FEARS

3. RADIUM: ELIXIR OR POISON?

4. THE SECRET, THE MASTER, AND THE MONSTER

5. THE DESTROYER OF WORLDS

6. THE NEWS FROM HIROSHIMA

7. NATIONAL DEFENSES

8. ATOMS FOR PEACE

9. GOOD AND BAD ATOMS

10. THE NEW BLASPHEMY

11. DEATH DUST

12. THE IMAGINATION OF SURVIVAL

13. THE POLITICS OF SURVIVAL

14. SEEKING SHELTER

15. FAIL/SAFE

16. REACTOR PROMISES AND POISONS

17. THE DEBATE EXPLODES

18. ENERGY CHOICES

19. CIVILIZATION OR LIBERATION?

20. WATERSHEDS

21. THE SECOND NUCLEAR AGE

22. DECONSTRUCTING NUCLEAR WEAPONS

23. TYRANTS AND TERRORISTS

24. THE MODERN ARCANUM

25. ARTISTIC TRANSMUTATIONS

A PERSONAL NOTE

NUCLEAR HISTORY TIMELINE

NOTES

FURTHER READING

INDEX

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780674068667

0674068661

9780674065062

0674065069

OCLC:

794003587