0
Your cart

Your cart is empty

Books > Earth & environment > The environment > Nuclear issues

Buy Now

Suffering Made Real - American Science and the Survivors at Hiroshima (Hardcover, New) Loot Price: R2,672
Discovery Miles 26 720
Suffering Made Real - American Science and the Survivors at Hiroshima (Hardcover, New): M.Susan Lindee

Suffering Made Real - American Science and the Survivors at Hiroshima (Hardcover, New)

M.Susan Lindee

 (sign in to rate)
Loot Price R2,672 Discovery Miles 26 720 | Repayment Terms: R250 pm x 12*

Bookmark and Share

Expected to ship within 12 - 17 working days

This account of how US authorities studied the surviving victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki ought to be of wide interest, but Lindee's version of the story will not attract a general readership outside academic circles. Japanese novelist Kenzaburo Oe, the 1994 Nobel laureate in literature, has described the atomic bomb survivors as "people who, despite all, didn't commit suicide." After the war these people comprised the world's best sample by far for studies of how exposure to radiation affects individuals and their offspring. An Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission was set up under the US Atomic Energy Commission, and the work of the ABCC over nearly three decades is the subject of this book. Lindee (History and Sociology of Science/Univ. of Pennsylvania) refers to the ABCC's work as "colonial science," by which she means primarily that the dominant power could not carry out its work without the cooperation of its defeated subjects. How was the organization and work of the commission affected by this dilemma? Did any kind of systematic bias creep into the many scientific papers published under its auspices? These are the kinds of questions that interest Lindee, but the language in which she cloaks her conclusions sometimes makes it hard to tell what they are. Take the question of why it was decided that the ABCC would not provide medical care to the survivors as it was studying them: "I suggest that the treatment debate was a forum in which various parties explored the proper relationship of the Americans to the Japanese." Although this is an authoritative scholarly work, it suffers from an excess of sophistication and circumspection, so that the questions readers most want answered are not addressed squarely enough. (Kirkus Reviews)
The atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August of 1945 unleashed a form of energy as mysterious as it was deadly. Suffering Made Real is the compelling story of the first attempts to understand how radiation affected the survivors of the atomic bomb and subsequent generations of Japanese. Arguing that Cold War politics and cultural values fundamentally shaped this scientific research, M. Susan Lindee examines the daily workings, expectations, purposes, and limitations of a project that raises disturbing questions about the ethical implications of using human subjects in scientific research. In 1946, an American scientific agency, the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission (ABCC), was established in Japan to study the long-term biomedical effects of radiation on the survivors. Over the next twenty-nine years, American scientists and physicians, with funding from the Atomic Energy Commission, published hundreds of papers documenting the effects of radiation on aging, life span, fertility, and disease. In 1975, the agency was renamed and reorganized to permit greater Japanese input. How did the emerging Cold War affect the work of the ABCC? What problems seemed most important to ABCC scientists in their interpretation and public presentation of their data? Why did the ABCC have a "no-treatment" policy toward the survivors, one that conflicted with the ABCC's actual practices? Through a detailed examination of ABCC policies, archival materials, the minutes of committee meetings, newspaper accounts, and interviews with ABCC scientists, Lindee demonstrates how political and cultural interests were reflected in the day-to-day operations of this controversial research program. Set in aperiod of conflicting views on nuclear weapons and nuclear power, Suffering Made Real follows the course of a politically charged research program and reveals in detail how politics and cultural values can shape the conduct, results, and uses of science. As scientists, politicians, and health care professionals have become sensitized to the ethical problems of research on human subjects, this book speaks not only to the painful legacy of the atomic bomb, but also to contemporary concerns about the biomedical use of potentially dangerous substances on patients, children, prisoners, and other vulnerable citizens.

General

Imprint: University of Chicago Press
Country of origin: United States
Release date: December 1994
First published: December 1994
Authors: M.Susan Lindee
Dimensions: 233 x 162 x 2mm (L x W x T)
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 295
Edition: New
ISBN-13: 978-0-226-48237-8
Categories: Books > Medicine > General issues > History of medicine
Books > Earth & environment > The environment > Nuclear issues
Books > Humanities > History > Asian / Middle Eastern history > General
Books > Humanities > History > History of specific subjects > Military history
Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Anthropology > General
Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > International relations > General
Books > Social sciences > Warfare & defence > War & defence operations > Battles & campaigns
Books > Medicine > General issues > Medical equipment & techniques > Medical research
Books > Humanities > History > World history > From 1900 > Second World War
Books > History > Asian / Middle Eastern history > General
Books > History > History of specific subjects > Military history
Books > History > World history > From 1900 > Second World War
LSN: 0-226-48237-5
Barcode: 9780226482378

Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate? Let us know about it.

Does this product have an incorrect or missing image? Send us a new image.

Is this product missing categories? Add more categories.

Review This Product

No reviews yet - be the first to create one!

Partners