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Author: Scott Kirsch Publisher: Rutgers University Press ISBN: 9780813536668 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 284
Book Description
In Proving Grounds, Scott Kirsch traces the rise and fall of this astonishing cold war initiative. He examines the work that went into making "geographical engineering" or "earthmoving" an imminent possibility as well as the public controversy, scientific uncertainty, and political opposition that kept it--with the exception of several massive craters in the Nevada desert--out of the landscape.
Author: Scott Kirsch Publisher: Rutgers University Press ISBN: 9780813536668 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 284
Book Description
In Proving Grounds, Scott Kirsch traces the rise and fall of this astonishing cold war initiative. He examines the work that went into making "geographical engineering" or "earthmoving" an imminent possibility as well as the public controversy, scientific uncertainty, and political opposition that kept it--with the exception of several massive craters in the Nevada desert--out of the landscape.
Author: Scott Kaufman Publisher: Cornell University Press ISBN: 0801465834 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 313
Book Description
Inspired by President Dwight D. Eisenhower's "Atoms for Peace" speech, scientists at the Atomic Energy Commission and the University of California's Radiation Laboratory began in 1957 a program they called Plowshare. Joined by like-minded government officials, scientists, and business leaders, champions of "peaceful nuclear explosions" maintained that they could create new elements and isotopes for general use, build storage facilities for water or fuel, mine ores, increase oil and natural gas production, generate heat for power production, and construct roads, harbors, and canals. By harnessing the power of the atom for nonmilitary purposes, Plowshare backers expected to protect American security, defend U.S. legitimacy and prestige, and ensure access to energy resources. Scott Kaufman's extensive research in nearly two dozen archives in three nations shows how science, politics, and environmentalism converged to shape the lasting conflict over the use of nuclear technology. Indeed, despite technological and strategic promise, Plowshare's early champions soon found themselves facing a vocal and powerful coalition of federal and state officials, scientists, industrialists, environmentalists, and average citizens. Skeptical politicians, domestic and international pressure to stop nuclear testing, and a lack of government funding severely restricted the program. By the mid-1970s, Plowshare was, in the words of one government official, "dead as a doornail." However, the thought of using the atom for peaceful purposes remains alive.
Author: Kristen Tobey Publisher: Penn State Press ISBN: 0271078286 Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 179
Book Description
In September 1980, eight Catholic activists made their way into a Pennsylvania General Electric plant housing parts for nuclear missiles. Evading security guards, these activists pounded on missile nose cones with hammers and then covered the cones in their own blood. This act of nonviolent resistance was their answer to calls for prophetic witness in the Old Testament: “They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not take up sword against nation; they shall never again know war.” Plowshares explores the closely interwoven religious and social significance of the group’s use of performance to achieve its goals. It looks at the group’s acts of civil disobedience, such as that undertaken at the GE plant in 1980, and the Plowshares’ behavior at the legal trials that result from these protests. Interpreting the Bible as a mandate to enact God’s kingdom through political resistance, the Plowshares work toward “symbolic disarmament,” with the aim of eradicating nuclear weapons. Plowshares activists continue to carry out such “divine obediences” against facilities where equipment used in the production or deployment of nuclear weapons is manufactured or stored. Whether one agrees or disagrees with their actions, this volume helps us better understand their motivations, logic, identity, and ultimate goal.
Author: Jayita Sarkar Publisher: Cornell University Press ISBN: 1501764411 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 184
Book Description
India's nuclear program is often misunderstood as an inward-looking endeavor of secretive technocrats. In Ploughshares and Swords, Jayita Sarkar challenges this received wisdom, narrating a global story of India's nuclear program during its first forty years. The book foregrounds the program's civilian and military features by probing its close relationship with the space program. Through nuclear and space technologies, India's leaders served the technopolitical aims of economic modernity and the geopolitical goals of deterring adversaries. The politically savvy, transnationally connected scientists and engineers who steered the program obtained technologies, materials, and information through a variety of state and nonstate actors from Europe and North America, including both superpowers. They thus maneuvered around Cold War politics and the choke points of the nonproliferation regime. Hyperdiversification increased choices for the leaders of the nuclear program but reduced democratic accountability at home. The nuclear program became a consensus-enforcing device in the name of the nation. Ploughshares and Swords is a provocative new history with global implications. It shows how geopolitical and technopolitical visions influence decisions about the nation after decolonization. Thanks to generous funding from the Swiss National Science Foundation, the ebook editions of this book are available as Open Access volumes from Cornell Open (cornellpress.cornell.edu/cornell-open) and other repositories.
Author: Dan O'Neill Publisher: Basic Books ISBN: 0465097529 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 450
Book Description
In 1958, Edward Teller, father of the H-bomb, unveiled his plan to detonate six nuclear bombs off the Alaskan coast to create a new harbor. However, the plan was blocked by a handful of Eskimos and biologists who succeeded in preventing massive nuclear devastation potentially far greater than that of the Chernobyl blast. The Firecracker Boys is a story of the U.S. government's arrogance and deception, and the brave people who fought against it-launching America's environmental movement. As one of Alaska's most prominent authors, Dan O'Neill brings to these pages his love of Alaska's landscape, his skill as a nature and science writer, and his determination to expose one of the most shocking chapters of the Nuclear Age.
Author: Arno J. Mayer Publisher: Verso Books ISBN: 1789604087 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 597
Book Description
A critical history of Israel and the Arab–Israeli conflict Eminent historian Arno J. Mayer traces the thinkers, leaders, and shifting geopolitical contexts that shaped the founding and development of the Israeli state. He recovers for posterity internal critics such as the philosopher Martin Buber, who argued for peaceful coexistence with the Palestinian Arabs. “A sense of limits is the better part of valour,” Mayer insists. Plowshares into Swords explores Israel’s indefinite deferral of the “Arab Question,” the strategic thinking behind the building of settlements and border walls, and the endurance of Palestinian resistance.
Author: Liane Ellison Norman Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers ISBN: 1532607644 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 253
Book Description
""As a study of the nature and sources of personal heroism in pursuit of moral vision, this book is remarkable."" --Ramsey Clark ""Molly Rush is one of the pioneers and heroes of our modern age."" --Helen Caldicott, founding president of Physicians for Social Responsibility; founder of Women's Action for Nuclear Disarmament ""We are not exactly the world we were when Molly struck her blow for peace. One reason we are not is that Molly Rush defied popular wisdom. 'If it would do any good, ' people said, 'we'd do it too.' Molly did it without a warranty. She had no assurance it would do good, but she did it all the same. Her story is truly, beautifully, soundly, responsibly, and reliably told by Liane Norman."" --Mark Harris, author of The Southpaw and Bang the Drum Slowly ""Praising Molly Rush seems to me a redundant exercise; somewhat like praising the Grand Canyon or a Mojave sunset. She is, like them, a natural wonder. Spouse and parent, conscious and joyous spirit, friend and arduous worker, she seems to me above all a teacher of what the human might be. She lives her ideals."" --Father Daniel Berrigan, poet and member of the Plowshares Eight ""Molly Rush's story is a testament to the extraordinary strengths of 'ordinary' people. With warm sympathy and lyric grace, Liane Norman illumines Molly's discovery of strength and freedom, and with it the possibility of finding our own."" --Mark Sommer, author of Beyond the Bomb and The Conquest of War ""Liane Norman brilliantly tells the story of Molly Rush, a true hero of our time, resisting nonviolently the onslaught of nuclearism, accepting prison as an expression of love for her children and her country. Norman's faithful narrative ensures a deeply moving and edifying experience for any serious reader."" --Richard Falk, professor emeritus of international law, Princeton University; author (with Robert Jay Lifton) of Indefensible Weapons
Author: National Research Council Publisher: National Academies Press ISBN: 0309096731 Category : Technology & Engineering Languages : en Pages : 146
Book Description
Underground facilities are used extensively by many nations to conceal and protect strategic military functions and weapons' stockpiles. Because of their depth and hardened status, however, many of these strategic hard and deeply buried targets could only be put at risk by conventional or nuclear earth penetrating weapons (EPW). Recently, an engineering feasibility study, the robust nuclear earth penetrator program, was started by DOE and DOD to determine if a more effective EPW could be designed using major components of existing nuclear weapons. This activity has created some controversy about, among other things, the level of collateral damage that would ensue if such a weapon were used. To help clarify this issue, the Congress, in P.L. 107-314, directed the Secretary of Defense to request from the NRC a study of the anticipated health and environmental effects of nuclear earth-penetrators and other weapons and the effect of both conventional and nuclear weapons against the storage of biological and chemical weapons. This report provides the results of those analyses. Based on detailed numerical calculations, the report presents a series of findings comparing the effectiveness and expected collateral damage of nuclear EPW and surface nuclear weapons under a variety of conditions.
Author: Carole Sargent Publisher: Liturgical Press ISBN: 0814637469 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 248
Book Description
In July 2012, a Holy Child sister and two Catholic Workers committed the largest breach in US nuclear security history. They entered an enriched uranium facility armed with candles, bread, Bibles, and roses, to pray and paint peace slogans. As Transform Now Plowshares, they hoped to put nuclear weapons—which target civilians in violation of the Geneva Conventions and UN treaties—on trial, making international news. This book shares their discernments of conscience and the civil resistance legacy of Plowshares with its background of Dorothy Day's Catholic Worker, while also engaging the work of the Berrigan brothers, the Catonsville nine, and the recent Kings Bay Plowshares seven. Learn their stories and see the principles of Catholic Social Teaching in action.
Author: Scott Kirsch
Author: Scott Kirsch
Author: Scott Kaufman
Author: Kristen Tobey
Author: Jayita Sarkar
Author: Dan O'Neill
Author: Arno J. Mayer
Author: Liane Ellison Norman
Author: U.S. Atomic Energy Commission
Author: National Research Council
Author: Carole Sargent