08 Brown, Plutopia PDF
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Plutopia: Nuclear Families, Atomic Cities, and the Great Soviet and American Plutonium Disasters Reprint Edition
by Kate Brown (Author)
4.6 out of 5 stars 197 ratings
ISBN-13: 978-0190233105
ISBN-10: 0190233109Why is ISBN important?
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While many transnational histories of the nuclear arms race have been written, Kate Brown provides the first definitive account of the great plutonium disasters of the United States and the Soviet Union.
In Plutopia, Brown draws on official records and dozens of interviews to tell the extraordinary stories of Richland, Washington and Ozersk, Russia-the first two cities in the world to produce plutonium. To contain secrets, American and Soviet leaders created plutopias--communities of nuclear
families living in highly-subsidized, limited-access atomic cities. Fully employed and medically monitored, the residents of Richland and Ozersk enjoyed all the pleasures of consumer society, while nearby, migrants, prisoners, and soldiers were banned from plutopia--they lived in temporary "staging
grounds" and often performed the most dangerous work at the plant. Brown shows that the plants' segregation of permanent and temporary workers and of nuclear and non-nuclear zones created a bubble of immunity, where dumps and accidents were glossed over and plant managers freely embezzled and
polluted. In four decades, the Hanford plant near Richland and the Maiak plant near Ozersk each issued at least 200 million curies of radioactive isotopes into the surrounding environment--equaling four Chernobyls--laying waste to hundreds of square miles and contaminating rivers, fields, forests,
and food supplies. Because of the decades of secrecy, downwind and downriver neighbors of the plutonium plants had difficulty proving what they suspected, that the rash of illnesses, cancers, and birth defects in their communities were caused by the plants' radioactive emissions. Plutopia was
successful because in its zoned-off isolation it appeared to deliver the promises of the American dream and Soviet communism; in reality, it concealed disasters that remain highly unstable and threatening today.
An untold and profoundly important piece of Cold War history, Plutopia invites readers to consider the nuclear footprint left by the arms race and the enormous price of paying for it.
Editorial Reviews
Review
Winner of the Ellis W. Hawley Prize of the Organization of American Historians
Winner of the Albert J. Beveridge Award of the American Historical Association
Winner of the George Perkins Marsh Prize of the American Society for Environmental History
Winner of the Wayne S. Vucinich Book Prize of the Association for Slavic Studies, East European, and Eurasian Studies experienced and the casualness with which wastes poured into the local air, land and rivers... An angry but fascinating account of negligence, incompetence and injustice justified (as it still is) in the name of national security." --Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"An unflinching and chilling account." --Seattle Times
"Harrowing... Meticulously researched... Plutopia has important messages for those managing today's nuclear facilities, arguing for caution and transparency." --Nature
"The book tells two intertwined stories. One is an appalling narrative of environmental disasters... The second narrative is about the towns, the townspeople, and the creation of a spatially segmented landscape that enabled those disasters... This is admirable comparative history." --Carl Abbott,
Environmental History
"Fascinating." -- Dissent
"One of the Cold War's more striking perversities never made it to public view. ... Brown is a good writer, and she describes with precision the construction of the two sites (a difficult process in the U.S. case, an unbelievably horrid one in the Russian case), the hazardous occupations undertaken
by their inhabitants, and the consciously contrived bubbles of socioeconomic inequality both places became." --Foreign Affairs
"Brown's account is unique, partisan and occasionally personal in that she includes some of her thoughts about interviews she conducted... But because she is open and thorough about her sources, those are strengths to be celebrated, not weaknesses to be deplored. It also means her book is engaging,
honest and, in the end, entirely credible." --New Scientist
"An amazing book... Brown found many parallels between Richland and Ozersk that disrupt the conservative Cold War dichotomy between the 'free world' and the totalitarian one. Her research included not only uncovering previously secret documents in both countries but also tracking down and
interviewing old-time residents of Ozersk and Richland. Her picture of the treatment of plutonium workers on both sides of the Iron Curtain is enough to make you gnash your teeth or cry." --Jon Wiener, American Historical Review
"Arresting, engagingly narrated... Kate Brown skillfully mixes Cold War policy assessment and associated political intrigue with sociological study of the lives of those who lived and worked in those places... Plutopia is history told through the voice of drama and investigative reporting."
--Stephen E. Roulac, New York Journal of Books
"Plutopia is reporting and research at its best, both revealing a hidden history and impacting the important discussions about nuclear power that should be happening today." --Glenn Dallas, San Francisco Book Review
"An untold and profoundly important piece of Cold War history, Plutopia invites readers to consider the nuclear footprint left by the arms race and the enormous price of paying for it." --H-Soyuz
"Kate Brown has written a provocative and original study of two cities -- one American, one Soviet -- at the center of their countries' nuclear weapons complexes. The striking parallels she finds between them help us -- impel us -- to see the Cold War in a new light. Plutopia will be much discussed.
It is a fascinating and important book." --David Holloway, author of Stalin and the Bomb
"Kate Brown has produced a novel and arresting account of the consequences of Cold War Nuclear policies on both sides of the Iron Curtain. Interweaving documentary research in government archives, reviews and revisions of the public record, and a host of personal interviews with the citizens --
perpetrators, victims, and witnesses -- Brown's Plutopia makes a lasting contribution to the continuing chronicle of the human and environmental disasters of the atomic age." --Peter Bacon Hales, author of Atomic Spaces: Living on the Manhattan Project
"It may be the best piece of research and writing in the nuclear history field in the last 25 years - perhaps the best ever... Extremely impressive." -- Rodney Carlisle, Prof. Emeritus, Rutgers University, author of Encyclopedia of the Atomic Age
About the Author
Kate Brown is Associate Professor of History at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and the author of A Biography of No Place: From Ethnic Borderland to Soviet Heartland, winner of the American Historical Association's George Louis Beer Prize. A 2009 Guggenheim Fellow, her work has also
appeared in the Times Literary Supplement, American Historical Review, Chronicle of Higher Education, and Harper's Magazine Online.
Product details
Publisher : Oxford University Press; Reprint edition (August 1, 2015)
Language : English
Paperback : 416 pages
Customer Reviews:
4.6 out of 5 stars 197 ratings
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Kate Brown
4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
197 global ratings
Top reviews from the United States
Derek Chastain
4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, but keep politics out of itReviewed in the United States on December 25, 2021
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This is a good book because it's from the perspective of the families and workers who built the plutonium military industrial complexes in the US and Soviet Union. The stories from the areas around Mayak, in particular are of great interest as many of the stories have not been covered previously. However, as a note to the author, keep your politics to yourself. I tire of whining, spoiled children of plenty who like to go back in time and judge the actions of nations using the lens of hindsight. This is a favorite tactic of liberal elitists who take their freedoms for granted and don't stand for the flag under which millions of people died for their very right to whine, complain, and judge.
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M. Love
5.0 out of 5 stars The history is intriguingReviewed in the United States on February 7, 2019
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This book is well-researched and written. It is a rather long read, but the parallels between the US and Russia development of making plutonium for atomic bombs is so interesting. The history of the companies in the US that managed the plant in Hanford, WA is also enlightening. This book depicts a lot of racism and disregard for human life, so that might bother some readers. I still have many pages to read, but feel the book will remain interesting to the end. I highly recommend this book for those that know little about the production of plutonium here in the US and in Russia during the 1940s to early 1950s.
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Chris S.
1.0 out of 5 stars Liberal put down of US atomic program.Reviewed in the United States on November 12, 2019
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This author seems to want to point out all the bad, racist,unequal,class war, rich vs poor, white vs black, Indian, migrant crap.
This effort was done during a world war, get a grip. As a patriotic American intrested in atomic history, this book and author left a bad taste in my mouth.
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Mitchell I. Bonner
5.0 out of 5 stars Who can make a bigger Plutonium disaster mess in their country?Reviewed in the United States on October 3, 2016
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Both the United States and the Soviet Union built Plutonium manufacturing plants and their supporting cities. This book talks about the building of these plants, the elite way of life of the scientists and technicians that lived in these cities compared to their other country men, the nuclear accidents and disasters that contaminated the surrounding countrysides, and the long term adverse effects still taking place today.
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G. Lukes
5.0 out of 5 stars ShockingReviewed in the United States on August 7, 2018
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The government doesn't really care about the people's health. They will reward a few contractors and people, turn on the PR machine, but really everyone is cannon fodder.
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travelin'man
5.0 out of 5 stars Well-researched and writtenReviewed in the United States on February 17, 2014
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Kate Brown has done the almost impossible, using vast files of information long classified in America and the former USSR to plumb the depths of the secrecy and the cover-ups involved in the pursuit of plutonium for weapons production. While some Americans as well as Russians dispute the accidents and cover-ups, one can only surmise that they were so patriotically blinded by their participation as to deny anything which besmirched their remembrances of the programs and their lives in the secret cities. Some of the evidence, to be sure, is anecdotal, however Brown has managed to document her assertions and is to be commended as a brave historian for attacking an investigation into a part of history that many would wish to remain unknown. Having spent a good part of the past 20 years traveling in Russia and seeing the fear of contemporary Russians that the walls still "have ears" demonstrates the degree of difficulty Brown must have had to gain the confidence of people there in telling this story, not to mention similar challenges in the U.S., particularly among people still residing in and near Hanford.
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Taylor Smith
5.0 out of 5 stars A story which needed to be told.Reviewed in the United States on July 25, 2016
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The production of plutonium is a oft-forgotten piece of the global conflicts which have long shaped multiple societies. In this refreshing inquisitive work, Kate Brown illustrates that the tragedy and ingenuity wrapped up in this colossally dangerous process should never depart from any related narrative.
The book carries an activistic tone, but at the same time reliably articulates the histories of two (surprisingly similar) communities, Richland in Washington State, and Ozersk in the Ural mountains. Brown intricately illustrates how, as radiation mutated bodies and landscapes, the production of plutonium mutated cultures.
Brown constructs local histories which weave together into an intriguing global tapestry. Well worth reading.
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Kimmy
5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating ComparisonReviewed in the United States on January 3, 2020
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Fascinating book comparing atomic cities in the Soviet Union and the United States. So interesting! I learned so much that you would not find in a traditional history book. It’s definitely wordy, but it’s filled with such intricate and rich research.
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DS
4.0 out of 5 stars Worth reading, but some mistakes in the physicsReviewed in the United Kingdom on January 1, 2019
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Prof Kate Brown is a historian, and that is both the strength and weakness of this book. Tracking events in both the USA and USSR gave the book a balanced view and compelling structure. It is clearly carefully researched and uncovers some events little documented elsewhere (other sections may be familiar e.g. Chernobyl).
Another reader criticised it for having an agenda... I don't think the book ever claims to represent an unbiased account. It is revealing a number of problems, so in that sense it is very negative about the nuclear industry - but that's what the book is about (the clue is in the title, specifically the word "disasters").
There were some errors in the description of nuclear physics. I suspect this could be because the author is a historian and not a nuclear physicist. For the average reader this probably won't matter since most of it is correct. On balance this is recommended reading.
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David James
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent but very technicalReviewed in the United Kingdom on January 5, 2020
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This is excellent account of the US and USSR's quest to harness the atom and the cities they created to do so. Be aware that it gets quite technical and what is missing is a better accounting of those who lived in these cities. You get a high-level account of the residents but little on how the survived the isolation etc.
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Technophobic
5.0 out of 5 stars Shocking stuff!Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 30, 2015
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A very disturbing work. I was aware of the contamination from the heydays of the atmospheric tests but the extent of pollution around Hanford and Ozersk is truly shocking, also the way workers and people living around these place were and are treated. This book will have you wide eyed and slack jawed in places. The plutonium genie is out of the bottle and it's never going back in.
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Amazon Kunde
5.0 out of 5 stars great bookReviewed in Germany on April 8, 2018
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I am interested in nuclear history and nuclear biology, although they are completely unrelated to my field of study and work. This book by a historian is very informative, well researched, objective, but reads easier than your regular history book. Kate Brown shows in beautiful writing an interwoven world of history, politics, physics, chemistry, biology and the communities they created; sacrifices that were made knowingly or unknowingly, wittingly or unwittingly in the name of social security, management of nuclear crises, the human drama of communities tied to and dependent on contaminated landscapes in the Soviet Union and the USA. Ultimately I think this book should be read by progenies of both sides of the Cold War if they really want to understand their past.
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Oubai Elkerdi
5.0 out of 5 stars An important book for historians, engineers, and scientistsReviewed in Canada on March 26, 2019
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“Plutopia” was a required reading in one of my graduate history of technology classes. Every student of history, science, and engineering must read and learn from this work.
Kate Brown managed to write a book that is simultaneously gripping, moving, informative, and sobering. Reading “Plutopia” is like watching a film while sitting next to the director and hearing their live commentary; students of history will find her approach insightful and unique. Rather than dropping a ‘finished’ narrative on the reader’s lap, Brown takes the reader through her journey and research, through her dilemmas and analyses in the face of contradictory, surprising, or incomplete historical evidence.
The book tells the story of largely unheard-of nuclear disasters. It is an important work not only because these disasters are unknown, but also because they affect so many lives and because Brown exposes the inadequacy of simplistic scientific methodologies. Philosophers of science will also benefit from this reading.
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