Synopses & Reviews
andlt;Pandgt;Uranium from Africa has long been a major source of fuel for nuclear power and atomic weapons, including the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. In 2002, George W. Bush claimed that Saddam Hussein had andquot;sought significant quantities of uranium from Africaandquot; (later specified as the infamous andquot;yellowcake from Nigerandquot;). Africa suddenly became notorious as a source of uranium, a component of nuclear weapons. But did that admit Niger, or any of Africa's other uranium-producing countries, to the select society of nuclear states? Does uranium itself count as a nuclear thing? In this book, Gabrielle Hecht lucidly probes the question of what it means for something--a state, an object, an industry, a workplace--to be andquot;nuclear.andquot; andlt;/Pandgt;andlt;Pandgt;Hecht shows that questions about being nuclear--a state that she calls andquot;nuclearityandquot;--lie at the heart of today's global nuclear order and the relationships between andquot;developing nationsandquot; (often former colonies) and andquot;nuclear powersandquot; (often former colonizers). Nuclearity, she says, is not a straightforward scientific classification but a contested andlt;Iandgt;technopoliticalandlt;/Iandgt; one.andlt;/Pandgt;andlt;Pandgt;Hecht follows uranium's path out of Africa and describes the invention of the global uranium market. She then enters African nuclear worlds, focusing on miners and the occupational hazard of radiation exposure. Could a mine be a nuclear workplace if (as in some South African mines) its radiation levels went undetected and unmeasured? With this book, Hecht is the first to put Africa in the nuclear world, and the nuclear world in Africa. Doing so, she remakes our understanding of the nuclear age.andlt;/Pandgt;
Review
Gabrielle Hecht's Being Nuclear is a monumental new study of the geopolitics of uranium. It profoundly shifts how we think about things marked 'nuclear,' underscoring the complex historical and technopolitical work embedded in any use of the term. Beautifully written and meticulously researched -- a major contribution. The MIT Press
Review
This impassioned, broad-ranging, and beautifully written book puts the bodies of ordinary people at the very center of a sweeping study of the geopolitics and cultural anxieties that surround all things nuclear. Being Nuclear reorients the study of occupational health by calling attention to vital questions of knowledge production, activism, and governance in a postcolonial world. < b=""> Joseph Masco <> , University of Chicago; author of < i=""> The Nuclear Borderlands: The Manhattan Project in Post-Cold War New Mexico <>
Review
Being Nuclear is nothing short of pathbreaking. Hecht's analysis of the techno-politics of African uranium production presents a critical and convincing rethinking of the global nuclear order. This is a very smart book, based on daunting and original research, on a topic of genuine importance. < b=""> Steven Epstein <> , Professor of Sociology and John C. Shaffer Professor in the Humanities, Northwestern University; author of < i=""> Inclusion: The Politics of Difference in Medical Research <>
Review
andlt;Pandgt;"Gabrielle Hecht's andlt;Iandgt;Being Nuclearandlt;/Iandgt; is a monumental new study of the geopolitics of uranium. It profoundly shifts how we think about things marked 'nuclear,' underscoring the complex historical and technopolitical work embedded in any use of the term. Beautifully written and meticulously researched -- a major contribution."andlt;Bandgt;--Joseph Mascoandlt;/Bandgt;, University of Chicago; author of andlt;Iandgt;The Nuclear Borderlands: The Manhattan Project in Post-Cold War New Mexicoandlt;/Iandgt;andlt;/Pandgt; The MIT Press The MIT Press
Review
andlt;Pandgt;"This impassioned, broad-ranging, and beautifully written book puts the bodies of ordinary people at the very center of a sweeping study of the geopolitics and cultural anxieties that surround all things nuclear. andlt;Iandgt;Being Nuclear andlt;/Iandgt;reorients the study of occupational health by calling attention to vital questions of knowledge production, activism, and governance in a postcolonial world."andlt;Bandgt;--Steven Epsteinandlt;/Bandgt;, Professor of Sociology and John C. Shaffer Professor in the Humanities, Northwestern University; author of andlt;Iandgt;Inclusion: The Politics of Difference in Medical Researchandlt;/Iandgt;andlt;/Pandgt; The MIT Press
Review
andlt;Pandgt;andquot; andlt;Iandgt;Being Nuclearandlt;/Iandgt; is nothing short of pathbreaking. Hecht's analysis of the techno-politics of African uranium production presents a critical and convincing rethinking of the global nuclear order. This is a very smart book, based on daunting and original research, on a topic of genuine importance.andquot;andlt;Bandgt;--Julie Livingstonandlt;/Bandgt;, Associate Professor of History, Rutgers Universityandlt;/Pandgt;
Review
Hecht has written the first history of nuclear Africa which, given the importance of the subject and the obstacles she faced, is a major achievement. < b=""> Julie Livingston <> , Associate Professor of History, Rutgers University
Review
Being Nuclear is nothing short of pathbreaking. Hecht's analysis of the techno-politics of African uranium production presents a critical and convincing rethinking of the global nuclear order. This is a very smart book, based on daunting and original research, on a topic of genuine importance. < b=""> Steven Epstein <> , Professor of Sociology and John C. Shaffer Professor in the Humanities, Northwestern University; author of < i=""> Inclusion: The Politics of Difference in Medical Research <>
Review
Hecht has written the first history of nuclear Africa which, given the importance of the subject and the obstacles she faced, is a major achievement. < b=""> Julie Livingston <> , Associate Professor of History, Rutgers University
Review
Not only does the book stand out as one of the most comprehensive attempts to study the history of uranium mining in Africa, it also caters to an expansive academic audience -- from historians of science and technology and sociologists and anthropologists of science, to those taking a broader interest in labour rights, public health issues and mining corporations. < b=""> Jock McCulloch <> , < i=""> Journal of African History <>
Review
and#8220;A striking portrait of the emergence of Cold War science. The book contributes to a growing historical literature that has begun to reconfigure our understanding of the period and its enduring legacies. . . . Creagerand#8217;s deft attention to the ironies that have accompanied efforts to harness the atom is history of science at its best: a crystal clear portrait of just how untidy the impacts of science can be.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;The Manhattan Projectand#8217;s impact reverberated beyond the atomic bomb, reveals Angela Creager in this lucid scientific history. . . . Creager deploys radioisotopes as and#8216;historical tracersand#8217; to explore shifts in medicine, perceptions of cancer risk, and the porous and#8216;civilian-military divide.and#8217;and#8221;
Review
and#8220;Angela Creagerand#8217;s deeply researched and elegantly written new book is a must-read account of the history of science in twentieth-century America. . . . Not only is it a historiographically important and meticulously crafted work based on exhaustive research, but itand#8217;s also a great set of stories. The pages of Life Atomic are full of guinea pigs, scientific vaudeville, and stories and characters from many different fields of the modern life sciences, expertly weaving them together into a compelling set of arguments.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;Radioisotopes are a cornerstone of technology, facilitating basic research and augmenting medical treatment. As a biochemist familiar with such isotopes, decorated historian Creager is well qualified to examine the expansion of radioactive power. Her Life Atomic is a strikingly complete narrative of the social and scientific factors sparking such expansion in the peaceful realm. . . . Students and seasoned professionals alike will gain significant insight into the foundations of this central technology, making it a critical resource for academic and professional libraries. Essential.and#8221;
Review
"Creager's Life Atomic will serve as a benchmark for outstanding scholarship and as an essential point of reference on the use of radioisotopes in science and medicine for many years to come."
Review
"It would be hard to ask for a better history of radioisotopes than Creager's Life Atomic."
Review
andldquo;A fascinating portrait of the use and meaning of radioisotopes in twentieth-century science and medicine, Angela N. H. Creagerandrsquo;s
Life Atomic is serious, high-quality scholarship that contributes to our understanding of science over the last century. This long-awaited volume justifies the wait.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;
Life Atomic is the first comprehensive history of radioactive tracing, a key research technology without which a science such as molecular biology would not have come into being. Through this technology, the life sciences and medicine came into deep resonance with the atomic Cold War era. Angela N. H. Creager beautifully unfolds this web before our eyes, and does so by making use of a rich variety of archival sources.andrdquo;
Review
and#8220;Angela N. H. Creagerand#8217;s book is breathtaking in scope, a lucid, original account of how radioisotopes came to suffuse and, in many ways, transform research in fields ranging from the experimental life sciences to biomedicine and ecology. It evenhandedly reveals the close coupling between their exploitation and the dynamics of the Cold War, illuminating how they served at once the purposes of health and security, pressing against the ethical boundaries of research with human subjects while helping to tie together the laboratory and the clinic. In all, a masterful work of historical scholarship.and#8221;
Review
"Historians of the physical and biological sciences will find this book indispensable, but Creagerand#8217;s thorough explication of both the science and the institutional context in which it was pursued makes this work accessible to and useful for audiences interested in postwar nuclear culture writ large. Fact-dense but not pedantic, and argumentatively nuanced without being overly subtle, Life Atomic is a first-rate work in the history of science."
Review
andquot;Enjoyable not only for those and#39;in the tradeand#39; but for all scientific and health professionals.andquot;
Review
andquot;A thorough and fascinating account of the challenges that the US Atomic Energy Commission faced in the course of trying to remake nuclear radiation into a scientific and medical tool, as well as a profitable product. . . . Life Atomic is an enjoyable and important book, which should top the reading list of any scholar interested in the development of postwar science and medicine.andquot;
Review
andquot;Exhaustively documented and sharply written, with no place for anecdote, Life Atomic provides a coherent narrative about the industrialisation, regulation, and scientific and medical impact of radioisotopes in the United States during the Cold War.andquot;
Review
andquot;A landmark achievement. . . . Well researched and masterfully narrated, Life Atomic is a must-read book for anyone who is interested in the instrument-driven development of life sciences following the WWII.andquot;
Review
andquot;Novel and engaging. . . . With its dedication to tracing the diverse, recent, and now mostly forgotten trajectories of radioisotopes in American biomedicine, Life Atomic abounds with historicist insights.andquot;
Synopsis
Uranium from Africa has long been a major source of fuel for nuclear power and atomic weapons, including the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. In 2003, after the infamous "yellow cake from Niger," Africa suddenly became notorious as a source of uranium, a component of nuclear weapons. But did that admit Niger, or any of Africa's other uranium-producing countries, to the select society of nuclear states? Does uranium itself count as a nuclear thing? In this book, Gabrielle Hecht lucidly probes the question of what it means for something--a state, an object, an industry, a workplace--to be "nuclear."
Hecht shows that questions about being nuclear--a state that she calls "nuclearity"--lie at the heart of today's global nuclear order and the relationships between "developing nations" (often former colonies) and "nuclear powers" (often former colonizers). Hecht enters African nuclear worlds, focusing on miners and the occupational hazard of radiation exposure. Could a mine be a nuclear workplace if (as in some South African mines) its radiation levels went undetected and unmeasured? With this book, Hecht is the first to put Africa in the nuclear world, and the nuclear world in Africa. By doing so, she remakes our understanding of the nuclear age.
Synopsis
After World War II, the US Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) began mass-producing radioisotopes, sending out nearly 64,000 shipments of radioactive materials to scientists and physicians by 1955. Even as the atomic bomb became the focus of Cold War anxiety, radioisotopes represented the governmentandrsquo;s efforts to harness the power of the atom for peaceandmdash;advancing medicine, domestic energy, and foreign relations.and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;In Life Atomic, Angela N. H. Creager tells the story of how these radioisotopes, which were simultaneously scientific tools and political icons, transformed biomedicine and ecology. Government-produced radioisotopes provided physicians with new tools for diagnosis and therapy, specifically cancer therapy, and enabled biologists to trace molecular transformations. Yet the governmentandrsquo;s attempt to present radioisotopes as marvelous dividends of the atomic age was undercut in the 1950s by the fallout debates, as scientists and citizens recognized the hazards of low-level radiation. Creager reveals that growing consciousness of the danger of radioactivity did not reduce the demand for radioisotopes at hospitals and laboratories, but it did change their popular representation from a therapeutic agent to an environmental poison. She then demonstrates how, by the late twentieth century, public fear of radioactivity overshadowed any appreciation of the positive consequences of the AECandrsquo;s provision of radioisotopes for research and medicine.
About the Author
Angela N. H. Creager is the Thomas M. Siebel Professor in the History of Science at Princeton University. She is the author of
The Life of a Virus and coeditor of
Feminism in Twentieth-Century Science, Technology, and Medicine, both published by the University of Chicago Press. She lives in Princeton, NJ.
Table of Contents
Preface
Abbreviations
1.and#160;Tracers
2.and#160;Cyclotrons
3.and#160;Reactors
4.and#160;Embargo
5.and#160;Dividends
6.and#160;Sales
7.and#160;Pathways
8.and#160;Guinea Pigs
9.and#160;Beams and Emanations
10.and#160;Ecosystems
11.and#160;Half-Lives
Bibliography
Index