Nuclear Bodies: The Global Hibakusha (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780300230338)

The Cold War reconsidered as a limited nuclear war

"[A] grimly important analysis of the cold war."--Andrew Robinson, Nature

"Inexorable clarity and care for his fellow humans mark Robert Jacobs's guide to the Cold War as a limited nuclear war, whose harms disfigure any possible future."--Norma Field, author of In the Realm of a Dying Emperor: Japan at Century's End

In the fall of 1961, President Kennedy somberly warned Americans about deadly radioactive fallout clouds extending hundreds of miles from H-bomb detonations, yet he approved ninety-six U.S. nuclear weapon tests for 1962. Cold War nuclear testing, production, and disasters like Chernobyl and Fukushima have exposed millions to dangerous radioactive particles; these millions are the global hibakusha. Many communities continue to be plagued with dire legacies and ongoing risks: sickness and early mortality, forced displacement, uncertainty and anxiety, dislocation from ancestors and traditional lifestyles, and contamination of food sources and ecosystems.

Robert A. Jacobs re-envisions the history of the Cold War as a slow nuclear war, fought on remote battlegrounds against populations powerless to prevent the contamination of their lands and bodies. His comprehensive account necessitates a profound rethinking of the meaning, costs, and legacies of our embrace of nuclear weapons and technologies.

Author: Robert A. Jacobs
ISBN-10: 0300230338
ISBN-13: 9780300230338
Publisher: Yale University Press
Language: English
Published: 03/29/2022
Pages: 344
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.40lbs
Size: 9.37h x 6.06w x 1.26d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 11/01/2022