Book Read Free

Radiation Nation

Page 34

by Natasha Zaretsky


  4. Klein, This Changes Everything, 423–434.

  5. The contemporary Black Lives Matter movement and the writings of Ta-Nehisi Coates build upon this earlier politicization of the black body. See Coates, Between the World and Me (New York: Spiegel and Grau, 2015).

  6. See, for example, Kevin Kruse, White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of Modern Conservatism (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005); Kevin Kruse and Thomas Sugrue, eds., The New Suburban History (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006); Matthew Lassiter, The Silent Majority: Suburban Politics in the Sunbelt South (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2012); Lisa McGirr, Suburban Warriors: The Origins of the New American Right (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2002); and Robert Self, American Babylon: Race and the Struggle for Postwar Oakland (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005).

  7. Courtney Jung, Lactivism: How Feminists and Fundamentalists, Hippies and Yuppies, and Physicians and Politicians Made Breastfeeding Big Business and Bad Policy (New York: Basic, 2015).

  8. Jackie Orr, Panic Diaries: A Genealogy of Panic Disorders (Durham: Duke University Press, 2006), 12.

  9. On the history of neoliberalism, see David Harvey, A Brief History of Neoliberalism (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007); and Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism’s Stealth Revolution (Cambridge: Zone, 2015).

  10. For a recent example of how this palliative mode works vis-à-vis ecological threats, see Natasha Zaretsky, “Trusting the Water Again: Understanding the West Virginia Chemical Spill,” Tikkun, April 9, 2014. During the chemical spill in West Virginia in January 2014, the state government could provide no guarantee that the water supply was safe. Instead, the governor told the local population that the question of water consumption was “their choice” and that they should only drink the water if they felt “comfortable.”

  11. Polling suggested that the industry’s rebranding as a clean, green technology was working. One Gallup poll conducted in January 2014 found that 62 percent of the public favored nuclear power (up from 46 percent in 2001), and an NEI commissioned poll placed the approval figure even higher at 70 percent.

  12. On the nuclear renaissance, see “A US Nuclear Future?,” Nature 467 (September 23, 2010): 391–393; Alvin Weinberg, “New Life for Nuclear Power,” Issues in Science and Technology 19, no. 4 (Summer 2003): 60–62; Paul Joskow and John Parsons, “The Economic Future of Nuclear Power,” Daedalus 138, no. 4 (Fall 2009): 45–59; Federation of American Scientists, The Future of Nuclear Power in the United States (Lexington: Washington and Lee University, 2012); and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, The Future of Nuclear Power: An Interdisciplinary Study, 2003, updated in 2009. The issue of Daedalus from fall 2009, titled “On the Global Nuclear Future,” was devoted to the theme.

  13. Richard Lester and Robert Rosner, “The Growth of Nuclear Power: Drivers and Constraints,” Daedalus 138, no. 4 (Fall 2009): 19–30; and Paul Joskow and John Parsons, “The Economic Future of Nuclear Power,” Daedalus 138, no. 4 (Fall 2009): 45–59. As of early 2009, there were forty-four new nuclear units under global construction: eleven in China, eight in Russia, six in India, and five in South Korea. See Jose Goldemberg, “Nuclear Energy in Developing Countries,” Daedalus 138, no. 4 (Fall 2009): 71–80.

  14. See Harold Feiveson, “A Skeptic’s View of Nuclear Energy,” Daedalus 138, no. 4 (Fall 2009): 60–70.

  15. Stephanie LeMenager, Living Oil: Petroleum Culture in the American Century (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014). Compared to this “cheap” energy, nuclear power is expensive. This is partly because while the nuclear industry is required to pay for its own waste disposal, there is no fee for disposing of the principle waste produced by carbon-based fuels, carbon dioxide. As a result, the true cost of carbon is artificially suppressed. If the staggering social and environmental costs of carbon emissions were ever internalized (through a carbon tax, for example), nuclear power might look more competitive. In making this argument, I do not mean to imply that the current crisis can be remedied through the free market and its capacities for self-correction. Instead, I agree with sociologist Jason Moore when he writes: “calls for capital to pay the ‘true costs’ of resource-use … are to be welcomed, because such calls directly contradict capital’s fundamental logic. To call for capital to pay its own way is to call for the abolition of capitalism.” See Jason W. Moore, Capitalism in the Web of Life: Ecology and the Accumulation of Capital (London: Verso, 2015), 145.

  16. Robert Stone, dir., Pandora’s Promise (CNN Films, 2013).

  17. Evan Osnos, “The Fallout: Letter from Fukushima,” New Yorker, October 17, 2011, 46.

  18. See Julia Adeney Thomas, “History and Biology in the Anthropocene: Problems of Scale, Problems of Value,” American Historical Review 119, no. 5 (December 2014): 1587–1607; Steve Kroll Smith and Worth Lancaster, “Bodies, Environments, and a New Style of Reasoning,” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 584 (November 2002): 203–212; Michelle Murphy, “Chemical Regimes of Living,” Environmental History 13, no. 4 (October 2008): 695–703; Barbara Allen, “Environment, Health and Missing Information,” Environmental History 13, no. 4 (October 2008): 659–666; Sarah Vogel, “From ‘The Dose Makes the Poison’ to ‘The Timing Makes the Dose’: Conceptualizing Risk in the Synthetic Age,” Environmental History 13, no. 4 (October 2008): 667–673; and Vogel, “The Politics of Plastics: The Making and Unmaking of Bisphenol A ‘Safety,’ ” American Journal of Public Health 99, no. S3 (September 3, 2009): 559–566; Linda Nash, “Purity and Danger: Historical Reflections on Environmental Regulations,” Environmental History 13, no. 4 (October 2008): 651–658.

  19. Andrew Solomon, Far From the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity (New York: Scribner, 2013), 1.

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

  ARCHIVAL SOURCES

  Association of Religious Data Archives. www.thearda.com/mapsReports/reports/counties/42043_1980.asp

  Baylor University Editorial Cartoon Collection, Waco, Texas

  Beverly Hess Papers

  Clamshell Alliance

  Dick Thornburgh Papers

  Editorial Cartoons—Nuclear Power

  Edwin K. Charles Papers

  Jane Lee Papers

  Jimmy Carter Presidential Library, Atlanta, Georgia

  John H. Murdoch Papers

  Lonna Malmsheimer Oral History Interviews

  National Archives II, University of Maryland, College Park

  National Nuclear Weapons Freeze Collection

  Papers of the President’s Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island

  Physicians for Social Responsibility Collection

  Public Interest Resource Center Papers

  Records of the Office of the Staff Secretary

  SANE, Inc. Records

  Shad Alliance Records, 1978–1983

  State Historical Society of Missouri, University of Missouri at St. Louis

  Swarthmore College Peace Collection, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania

  Three Mile Island Alert Papers

  Three Mile Island Collection, Dickinson College Archive and Special Collections, Carlyle, Pennsylvania

  University of Pittsburgh Special Collections

  GOVERNMENT PUBLICATIONS

  “Atoms for Peace.” Address by Dwight D. Eisenhower to the 470th plenary meeting of the United Nations General Assembly, December 8, 1953. Reprinted in Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States, Dwight D. Eisenhower: Containing the Public Messages, Speeches, and Statements of the President, January 20, 1953 to January 20, 1961, 813–822. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1958–1961.

  “Mental Health Aspects of the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy: Report of a Study Group.” No. 151, World Health Organization, Technical Paper, Geneva, 1958.

  Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Special Inquiry Group. Three Mile Island: A Report to the Commissioners and to the Public. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1980.

  US Congress. Hearing B
efore the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe. 109th Cong., 2nd sess., April 25, 2006.

  US Congress, House of Representatives. Briefing and Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Energy Conservation and Power of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. 99th Cong., 2nd sess., May 1 and 7, 1986.

  US Congress, House of Representatives. Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Energy Conservation and Power of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. 98th Cong., 1st sess., May 23, 1983.

  US Congress, House of Representatives. Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Energy Conservation and Power of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. 98th Cong., 1st sess., June 30, 1983.

  US Congress, House of Representatives. Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Energy Research and Production of the House Committee on Science and Technology. 97th Congress, 1st sess., December 15, 1981.

  US Congress, House of Representatives. Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Natural Resources and Environment of the Committee on Science and Technology. 96th Cong., 1st sess., June 2, 1979.

  US Congress, House of Representatives. Oversight Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Energy and the Environment of the House Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs. 101 Cong., 2nd sess., May 10, 1990.

  US Congress, House of Representatives, Committee on Science and Technology. Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Natural Resources and the Environment. 96th Cong., 1st sess., June 2, 1979.

  US Congress, House of Representatives, Subcommittee on Natural Resources and Environment of the Committee on Science and Technology. Research on Health Effects of Nonionizing Radiation. 96th Cong., 1st sess., July 12, 1979.

  US Congress, Joint Hearings. Joint Hearings of Subcommittee on Nuclear Regulation of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works and the Subcommittee on Energy and the Environment of the House Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs. 96th Cong., 1st sess., October 31, 1979.

  US Congress, Joint Hearing, Special Subcommittee on Radiation of the Joint House and Senate Committee on Atomic Energy. Fallout from Nuclear Weapons Tests. 86th Cong., 1st sess., June 1959.

  US Congress, Joint Hearings, Subcommittee on Nuclear Regulation of the Senate Committee on Environmental and Public Works, and the Subcommittee on Energy and the Environment of the House Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs. Report of the Presidential Commission on the Three Mile Island Accident. 96th Cong., 1st sess., October 31, 1979.

  US Congress, Joint Hearings, Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations of House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, and Health and Scientific Research Subcommittee of the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee and Committee on the Judiciary. Health Effects of Low-level Radiation, Volume 1. 96th Cong., 1st sess., April 19, 1979.

  US Congress, Office of Technology Assessment. The Effects of Nuclear War. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1979.

  US Congress, Senate. Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Energy, Nuclear Proliferation, and Federal Services of the Committee on Governmental Affairs. 96th Cong., 1st sess., 1979.

  US Congress, Senate. Hearing on Radiological Contamination in the United States Before the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs. 102 Cong., 2nd sess., April 9, 1992.

  US Congress, Senate, Subcommittee on Health and Scientific Research of the Committee on Labor and Human Resources. Three Mile Island Nuclear Accident, 1979. 96th Cong., 1st sess., April 4, 1979.

  “You Can Understand the Atom.” Washington, DC: Atomic Energy Commission, 1951.

  PERIODICALS

  Ambio

  American Journal of Orthopsychiatry

  American Journal of Public Health

  Annals of Internal Medicine

  Bulletin of Atomic Scientists

  Christian Science Monitor

  Common Cause Magazine

  Daedalus

  Emergency Management Review

  Esquire

  Forbes

  Harper’s Magazine

  Harrisburg Evening News

  Harrisburg Patriot News

  Hastings Center Report

  Health Physics

  Issues in Science and Technology

  Journal of Public Health Policy

  Journal of the American Medical Association

  Lancaster Intelligencer Journal

  Lancet

  Las Vegas Sun

  Los Angeles Review of Books

  Los Angeles Times

  McCall’s

  Mother Jones

  Nature

  New England Journal of Medicine

  New Physician

  New Republic

  Newsweek

  New Yorker

  New York Times

  Nuclear Times

  Pennsylvania Illustrated

  People Magazine

  Philadelphia Bulletin

  Philadelphia Daily News

  Philadelphia Inquirer

  Philadelphia Magazine

  Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

  Pittsburgh Press

  Redbook

  Rolling Stone

  Saturday Evening Post

  Science

  Scientific American

  Social Science Journal

  Time Magazine

  US News and World Report

  Wall Street Journal

  Washington Post

  PUBLISHED SOURCES

  Ackland, Len. Making a Real Killing: Rocky Flats and the Nuclear West. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1999.

  Adam, Barbara. Timescapes of Modernity: The Environment and Invisible Hazards. London: Routledge, 1998.

  Adams, Ruth, and Susan Cullen, eds. The Final Epidemic: Physicians and Scientists on Nuclear War. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981.

  Adamson, Greg. We All Live on Three Mile Island Now: The Case Against Nuclear Power. Sydney: Pathfinder, 1981.

  Adamson, Joni, Mei Mei Evans, and Rachel Stein, eds. The Environmental Justice Reader: Politics, Poetics, and Pedagogy. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2002.

  Alaimo, Stacey. Bodily Natures: Science, Environment and the Material Self. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2010.

  Allen, Barbara. “Environment, Health and Missing Information.” Environmental History 13, no. 4 (October 2008): 659–666.

  Allen, Michael J. Until the Last Man Comes Home: POWs, MIAs, and the Unending Vietnam War. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2011.

  Alonso, Harriet Hyman. “Mayhem and Moderation: Women Peace Activists During the McCarthy Era.” In Not June Cleaver: Women and Gender in Postwar America, 1945–1960, edited by Joanne Meyerowitz, 128–150. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1994.

  ______. Peace as a Women’s Issue: A History of the U.S. Movement for World Peace and Women’s Rights. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1993.

  Amen, Carol, dir. Testament. PBS, 1983.

  Arendt, Hannah. “Lying in Politics: Reflections on the Pentagon Papers.” In Crises of the Republic. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1972.

  Badash, Lawrence. A Nuclear Winter’s Tale: Science and Politics in the 1980s. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2009.

  ______. “Radium, Radioactivity, and the Popularity of Scientific Discovery.” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 122 (1978): 145–154.

  Baehr, Peter. “Social Extremity, Communities of Fate, and the Sociology of SARS.” European Journal of Sociology 46, no. 2 (2005): 179–211.

  Ball, Howard. Justice Downwind: America’s Atomic Testing Program in the 1950’s. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986.

  Balogh, Brian. Chain Reaction: Expert Debate and Public Participation in American Commercial Nuclear Power, 1945–1975. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.

  Beck, John. Dirty Wars: Landscape, Power, and Waste in Western American Literature. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2009.

  Bedford, Henry. Seabrook Station: Citizen Politics and Nuclear Power. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1990.

  Beers, Paul. City Contented, City
Discontented: A History of Modern Harrisburg. Harrisburg: Midtown Scholar, 2011.

  Bell, Daniel, ed. The Radical Right: The New American Right. New York: Doubleday, 1963.

  Berger, Dan. The Hidden 1970s: Histories of Radicalism. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2010.

  Blum, Elizabeth. Love Canal Revisited: Race, Class, and Gender in Environmental Activism. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2008.

  Boltanski, Luc. The Foetal Condition: A Sociology of Engendering and Abortion. London: Polity, 2013.

  Borstelmann, Thomas. The 1970s: A New Global History from Civil Rights to Economic Inequality. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2013.

  Bourke, Joanna. Fear: A Cultural History. Berkeley: Counterpoint, 2007.

  Boyer, Paul. By the Bomb’s Early Light: American Thought and Culture at the Dawn of the Atomic Age. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina, 1994.

  ______. Fallout: A Historian Reflects on America’s Half-Century Encounter with Nuclear Weapons. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1998.

  ______. “From Activism to Apathy: The American People and Nuclear Weapons, 1963–1980.” Journal of American History 70, no. 4 (March 1984): 821–844.

  Brand, Stewart. Whole Earth Discipline: Why Dense Cities, Nuclear Power, Transgenic Crops, Restored Wildlands, and Geoengineering Are Necessary. New York: Penguin, 2010.

 

‹ Prev