On January 27, 1951, the first atomic weapon was detonated over a section of desert known as Frenchman Flat in southern Nevada, providing dramatic evidence of the Nevada Test Site's beginnings. Fifty years later, author A. Costandina Titus reviews contemporary nuclear policy issues concerning the continued viability of that site for weapons testing. Titus has updated her now-classic study of atomic testing with fifteen years of political and cultural history, from the mid-1980s Reagan-Gorbachev nuclear standoff to the authorization of the Nevada Test Site Research Center, a Desert Research Institute facility scheduled to open in 2001. In this second edition of Bombs in the Backyard, Titus deftly covers the post-Cold War transformation of American atomic policy as well as our overarching cultural interest in all matters atomic, making this a must-read for anyone interested in atomic policy and politics.

Acclaim for the Bomb in My Garden "This one book will tell you more about Iraq's quest for weapons of mass destruction than all U.S. intelligence on the subject. It is a fascinating and rare glimpse inside Saddam Hussein's Iraq—and inside a tyrant's mind." —Fareed Zakaria, author of The Future of Freedom "The Bomb in My Garden is important and utterly gripping. The old cliché is true—you start reading, and you don't want to stop. Mahdi Obeidi's story makes clear how hard Saddam Hussein tried to develop a nuclear weapon, and the reasons he fell short. It is also unforgettable as a picture of how honorable people tried to cope with a despot's demands. I enthusiastically recommend this book." —James Fallows, National Correspondent, The Atlantic Monthly "One of the three or four accounts that anyone remotely interested in the Iraq debate will simply have to read. Apart from its insight into the workings of the Saddam nuclear project, it provides a haunting account of the atmosphere of sheer evil that permeated every crevice of Iraqi life under the old regime." —christopher hitchens, Slate "Mahdi Obeidi describes in jaw-dropping detail how Iraq acquired the means to produce highly enriched uranium, the key ingredient to building a nuclear weapon, by the eve of the first Gulf War. . . . [His book] offers insights into how a determined dictator, backed by sufficient resources, can come within reach of acquiring the world's most horrific weapons." —The Washington Post BookWorld

"A ... memoir-in-essays that tackles the big questions of life, death, and existential fear with humor and hope"--

“An intimate and deeply human memoir that shows why we should all be concerned about nuclear safety, and the dangers of ignoring science in the name of national security.”—Rebecca Skloot, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks A shocking account of the government’s attempt to conceal the effects of the toxic waste released by a secret nuclear weapons plant in Colorado and a community’s vain search for justice—soon to be a feature documentary Kristen Iversen grew up in a small Colorado town close to Rocky Flats, a secret nuclear weapons plant once designated "the most contaminated site in America." Full Body Burden is the story of a childhood and adolescence in the shadow of the Cold War, in a landscape at once startlingly beautiful and--unknown to those who lived there--tainted with invisible yet deadly particles of plutonium. It's also a book about the destructive power of secrets--both family and government. Her father's hidden liquor bottles, the strange cancers in children in the neighborhood, the truth about what was made at Rocky Flats--best not to inquire too deeply into any of it. But as Iversen grew older, she began to ask questions and discovered some disturbing realities. Based on extensive interviews, FBI and EPA documents, and class-action testimony, this taut, beautifully written book is both captivating and unnerving.

Most Americans assume that the United States provides a gold standard for human rights—a 2007 survey found that 80 percent of U.S. adults believed that "the U.S. does a better job than most countries when it comes to protecting human rights." As well, discussions among scholars and public officials in the United States frame human rights issues as concerning people, policies, or practices "over there." By contrast, the contributors to this volume argue that many of the greatest immediate and structural threats to human rights, and some of the most significant efforts to realize human rights in practice, can be found in our own backyard. Human Rights in Our Own Backyard examines the state of human rights and responses to human rights issues, drawing on sociological literature and perspectives to interrogate assumptions of American exceptionalism. How do people in the U.S. address human rights issues? What strategies have they adopted, and how successful have these strategies been? Essays are organized around key conventions of human rights, focusing on the relationships between human rights and justice, the state and the individual, civil rights and human rights, and group rights versus individual rights. The contributors are united by a common conception of the human rights enterprise as a process involving not only state-defined and implemented rights but also human rights from below as promoted by activists.

January 1964: America is embroiled in the Cold War. Tensions erupt following the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the United States and Soviet Union both possess massive nuclear arsenals, poised to engage in mutually assured destruction. For the United States, this means that massive aircraft armed with nuclear weapons are constantly circling allied airspace, ready to attack at a moment's notice. A B-52 Stratofortress, icon of American airpower, suffers engine failure while on patrol and must return for repairs. A retrieval crew expects a short flight from Massachusetts to bring the aircraft to its base in Georgia. But within an hour of departure, the flight collides with a colossal blizzard. Wind shear rips off the tail, sending the aircraft into a spiral. The crew must eject-at 30,000 feet, in a blinding blizzard, in the middle of the night. Crew members land miles away from each other in the mountains of western Maryland, facing near zero temperatures, up to four feet of snow, and difficult terrain. They have only their parachutes and simple survival kits. Phones ring in pre-dawn hours to alert military authorities and emergency responders, spurring a town-wide effort to find the downed crew in bleak conditions. But the situation is more dire with the aircraft's payload of live nuclear bombs on board-a payload with more than 1,000 times the destructive potential than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima in WWII. Crews must race to prevent the loss of life of the crew and the unthinkable detonation of nuclear weapons or radiation leaks on American soil. This is the story of a community-wide effort to band together and overcome incredible odds to help crew and country in the wake of a B-52 down.