If you've ever wondered what it is that makes nuclear weapons
scientists - as opposed to their products - tick, look no further
than this excellent and original study from an authority in the
field, anthropologist and Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT) professor Hugh Gusterson. After becoming an anti-nuclear
activist in the 1980s, in San Francisco, Gusterson soon realized
that he was more interested in studying the whys and wherefores of
nuclear weaponry than in winning his argument. This book sets out
his findings, starting with his arrival at the US nuclear site
Livermore in 1987 to conduct fieldwork. He includes numerous
accounts from those working in the industry, such as that of a
young US weapons designer, Richard, who reveals: 'If you get a
degree in physics, there's almost nowhere to get a job where you're
not part of the military-industrial complex.' Gusterson deals with
the process of becoming a nuclear scientist, the secrecy involved,
the traumas of testing and the touchpoints of crisis. His work is
not designed so much to enlighten those already knowledgeable about
nuclear science, but rather to develop a much wider critique of the
way in which the industry has evolved, and why it functions in the
way that it does. (Kirkus UK)
Based on fieldwork at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory -
the facility that designed the neutron bomb and the warhead for the
MX missile - "Nuclear Rites" takes the reader deep inside the
top-secret culture of a nuclear weapons lab. Exploring the
scientists' world of dark humor, ritualized secrecy, and
disciplined emotions, anthropologist Hugh Gusterson uncovers the
beliefs and values that animate their work. He discovers that many
of the scientists are Christians, deeply convinced of the morality
of their work, and a number are liberals who opposed the Vietnam
War and the Reagan-Bush agenda. Gusterson also examines the
anti-nuclear movement, concluding that the scientists and
protesters are alike in surprising ways, with both cultures
reflecting the hopes and anxieties of an increasingly threatened
middle class. In a lively, wide-ranging account, Gusterson analyzes
the ethics and politics of laboratory employees, the effects of
security regulations on the scientists' private lives, and the role
of nuclear tests - beyond the obvious scientific one - as rituals
of initiation and transcendence. He shows how the scientists learn
to identify in an almost romantic way with the power of the
machines they design - machines they do not fear. In the 1980s the
'world behind the fence' was thrown into crisis by massive
anti-nuclear protests at the gates of the lab and by the end of the
Cold War. Gusterson links the emergence of the anti-nuclear
movement to shifting gender roles and the development of
postindustrial capitalism.
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