{"product_id":"the-unexpected-exodus-louise-cassels-9781570037092","title":"The Unexpected Exodus: How the Cold War Displaced One Southern Town","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA firsthand account of a bomb factory's impact on small-town life in South Carolina\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFirst published in 1971, this poignant memoir by grade school teacher Louise Cassels recounts the displacement of the residents of Ellenton, South Carolina, in the early 1950s to make way for the massive Savannah River Plant, a critical cold-war nuclear weapons facility.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn late 1950, amid escalating cold-war tensions, the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission announced plans to construct facilities to produce plutonium and tritium for use in hydrogen bombs. One such facility, the Savannah River Plant, was built at a cost of $1.3 billion at a site that encompassed more than 315 square miles in South Carolina's Barnwell, Allendale, and Aiken counties. Some fifteen hundred families residing in small communities within the new plant's borders were forced to leave their homes. The largest of the affected towns was Ellenton, in Aiken County, with a population of 760 residents. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDetailing the period of evacuation and resettlement from 1950 to 1952, \u003ci\u003eThe Unexpected Exodus\u003c\/i\u003e recalls in words and pictures the dramatic personal consequences of the cold war on the American South through the narrative of one uprooted family. Cassels touches on such enduring historical themes as southerners' sense of place and antipathy toward the federal government as she struggles to maintain equilibrium through life-changing circumstances. Throughout the text her extreme pride and patriotism are set against profound feelings of bitterness and loss. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eKari Frederickson's new introduction to this Southern Classics edition places Cassels's compelling tale against the larger historical backdrop of the cold war's impact on the South, a history often lost in the shadow of more widely read civil-rights narratives from the same era. Frederickson has also added more photographs from the Savannah River Site archives to document the dismantling of Ellenton.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Louise Cassels\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1570037094\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781570037092\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of South Carolina Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 09\/06\/2007\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 98\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.49lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.01h x 6.35w x 0.41d","brand":"Louise Cassels","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":43985162830079,"sku":"9781570037092","price":19.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_dec1171b-86d9-431d-aec3-47b721c14852.jpg?v=1683275921","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/the-unexpected-exodus-louise-cassels-9781570037092","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}