Take a photo of a barcode or cover
15 reviews for:
The Plutonium Files: America's Secret Medical Experiments in the Cold War
Eileen Welsome
4.16 AVERAGE
15 reviews for:
The Plutonium Files: America's Secret Medical Experiments in the Cold War
Eileen Welsome
4.16 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Nothing against this book - it's well-written and, as far as I can tell, well-researched. But every single time I sat down to read this, I ended up filled with incandescent rage at people who are already dead, and I simply don't have the spoons to keep up that level of emotional investment.
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
informative
challenging
dark
informative
slow-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Medical content, Medical trauma, Pregnancy
Moderate: Death, Vomit, Pregnancy
challenging
dark
informative
An exhaustively researched book on an infuriating topic. Embeds the experiments succinctly into the much wider context of the Cold War without deviating massively.
I’m certainly not one to buy into conspiracy theories but when given the facts about our government’s involvement in using its citizens as unknowing or unwilling guinea pigs during the Cold War it makes one reconsider their opinions. This stuff is tantamount to Nazi experimentation only it was done by our government on its own people. And per the usual they do not want to be held accountable when it comes to light. This is why people do not trust the government. Stuff like this. And it goes on all the time. The newest incarnation are the Republican backed “voter integrity” laws. Legislators can certainly have discussions about how to make voting fair, but when they are signing laws behind locked doors (Georgia) or putting proposals out for public recourse (Texas - where they displayed new legislation between 1:39 am to 1:40 am two days ago before voting it in), I suppose at the least in the past the government tried to keep such blatant corruption secret, now it’s out in the public forum. And they wonder why nobody believes anything they say. Shameful. Then you end up with “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” scenario with the pandemic. When will the “leaders” of this nation realize you can’t have it both ways. But this book just demonstrates that line of thinking and that thirst for power and corruption has been around a long time.
I was not the target audience for this book. A bit too tedious for me.
This book was an incredibly disturbing account of classified experiments associated with the Manhattan project. Many of the experiments were performed on patients without their consent or knowledge. However disturbing, it's an important read for those interested in history, ethics, and medicine.
wow. the true story behind tests condoned and conducted by the u.s. government on unsuspecting and uninformed citizens. tests that all involved exposure to different types of radioactive material so that the government would be able to ascertain/understand the effects of radioation on the human body. (i guess hiroshima & nagasaki weren't graphic enough evidence that radiation does terrible things to humans...) people were injected with plutonium, mentally handicapped children were fed radioactive isotope laced oatmeal (at the fernald school in boston) male prisoners in a cincinnati jail were injected with radioactive material all to see "what would happen." by turns chilling and fascinating i found this a great book for anyone interested in this science.