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On July 16, 1945, just weeks before the atomic bombing of Hiroshima
and Nagasaki that brought about the surrender of Japan and the end
of World War II, the United States unleashed the world's first
atomic bomb at the Trinity testing site located in the remote
Tularosa Valley in south-central New Mexico. Immensely more
powerful than any weapon the world had seen, the bomb's effects on
the surrounding and downwind communities of plants, animals, birds,
and humans have lasted decades. In The First Atomic Bomb Janet
Farrell Brodie explores the history of the Trinity test and those
whose contributions have rarely, if ever, been discussed-the men
and women who constructed, served, and witnessed the first test-as
well as the downwinders who suffered the consequences of the
radiation. Concentrating on these ordinary people, laborers,
ranchers, and Indigenous peoples who lived in the region and
participated in the testing, Brodie corrects the lack of coverage
in existing scholarship on the essential details and everyday
experiences of this globally significant event. The First Atomic
Bomb also covers the environmental preservation of the Trinity test
site and compares it with the wide range of atomic sites now
preserved independently or as part of the new Manhattan Project
National Historical Park. Although the Trinity site became a
significant node for testing the new weapons of the postwar United
States, it is known today as an officially designated national
historic landmark. Brodie presents a timely, important, and
innovative study of an explosion that carries special historical
weight in American memory.
"High Anxieties "explores the history and ideological ramifications
of the modern concept of addiction. Little more than a century old,
the notions of "addict" as an identity and "addiction" as a disease
of the will form part of the story of modernity. What is addiction?
This collection of essays illuminates and refashions the term,
delivering a complex and mature understanding of addiction.
Brodie and Redfield's introduction provides a roadmap for readers
and situates the fascinating essays within a larger,
interdisciplinary framework. Stacey Margolis and Timothy Melley's
pieces grapple with the psychology of addiction. Cannon Schmitt and
Marty Roth delve into the relationship between opium and the
British Empire's campaign to control and stigmatize China. Robyn R.
Warhol and Nicholas O. Warner examine accounts of alcohol abuse in
texts as disparate as Victorian novels, Alcoholics Anonymous
literature, and James Fenimore Cooper's fiction. Helen Keane
scrutinizes smoking, and Maurizio Viano turns to the silver screen
to trace how the representation of drugs in films has changed over
time. Ann Weinstone and Marguerite Waller's essays on addiction and
cyberspace cap this impressive anthology.
Not a day goes by that humans aren't exposed to toxins in our
environment - be it at home, in the car, or workplace. But what
about those toxic places and items that aren't marked? Why are we
warned about some toxic spaces' substances and not others? The
essays in Inevitably Toxic consider the exposure of bodies in the
United States, Canada and Japan to radiation, industrial waste, and
pesticides. Research shows that appeals to uncertainty have led to
social inaction even when evidence, e.g. the link between carbon
emissions and global warming, stares us in the face. In some cases,
influential scientists, engineers and doctors have deliberately
"manufactured doubt" and uncertainty but as the essays in this
collection show, there is often no deliberate deception. We tend to
think that if we can't see contamination and experts deem it safe,
then we are okay. Yet, having knowledge about the uncertainty
behind expert claims can awaken us from a false sense of security
and alert us to decisions and practices that may in fact cause
harm.
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