Critical Masses

Critical Masses is much more than merely a fine-grained scholarly analysis of major environmental disasters deriving from the nuclear arms race. In addition to neatly summarizing the massive amounts of sobering empirical data about the two infamous nuclear weapons production sites in the United States (Hanford) and Russia (Mayak), Russ Dalton and his co-authors enable us to understand the political, cultural, and structural dynamics creating unintended consequences in both cases. Along the way, they test and repair social-movement and environmental theory, making this book a trasure trove of information and insight for a broad array of social scientists, politicians, and the general public.

Edward J. Walsh, Department of Sociology, Penn State University

This book, the product of a unique interdisciplinary collaboration, explores the environmental damage left behind by plutonium production facilities in Washington State and in the Urals region of russia. Meticulously researched and elegantly written, it shows how two nuclear cities on opposite sides of the world became among the most contaminated places on earth and how local citizens struggled within the constraints of their political systems to respond to the devastation of their environments. The comparative persepctive works beautifully to show parallel ways in which the cold war destroyed human freedoms and the environment on both sides of the iron curtain, and to analyze the different political responses of citizens' groups a must-read for historians of the cold war, environmentalists, political scientists, historians of technology, and anyone interested in the tragic human consequences of the cold war.

Hugh Gusterson, Department of anthropology and Science Studies, MIT