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asnyder331's review against another edition
3.0
Parts of this were really interesting and other parts felt like they dragged, but overall, not a bad read.
mattleesharp's review against another edition
5.0
Plutopia really opened my eyes to many less visible consequences of the Nuclear Age. The book follows a city in the US and another in the USSR basically through the entire second half of the twentieth century. And it's not pretty.
From construction to present, there are literally a book's worth of horror stories. I think Kate Brown does an excellent job of covering institutions and people fairly though. Through interviews and data you get a feel for the devastating ramifications of this toxic production (the disease, the deception, sacrificing lives and health to hit a quicker timetable) and it is definitely fair to hold many decision makers's feet to the fire in this historical account. But Brown also shows how clueless and eager to find optimistic interpretations many of those leasers were.
The Nuclear Arms Race was part of a really hysterical era. People made genuine mistakes and people made unconscionable calculations. This book is the story of all of it. This is necessary and fascinating reading.
From construction to present, there are literally a book's worth of horror stories. I think Kate Brown does an excellent job of covering institutions and people fairly though. Through interviews and data you get a feel for the devastating ramifications of this toxic production (the disease, the deception, sacrificing lives and health to hit a quicker timetable) and it is definitely fair to hold many decision makers's feet to the fire in this historical account. But Brown also shows how clueless and eager to find optimistic interpretations many of those leasers were.
The Nuclear Arms Race was part of a really hysterical era. People made genuine mistakes and people made unconscionable calculations. This book is the story of all of it. This is necessary and fascinating reading.
thisisstephenbetts's review against another edition
4.0
A dense and detailed book about the "Plutopian" societies set up by the USA & the USSR to provide the plutonium for their atomic weapons, and the parallels between them. As you may imagine, it's not a fun read. There are many depressing threads to the book, but I guess the largest is the disregard for safety. Particularly for the poorest workers at the plants, but also, of course, the public living near the plant (memorably referred to as "downwinders").
Given the time - the tail end of the 2nd World War and the early years of the cold war - it is not surprising, perhaps justifiable, that corners were cut initially, but sadly that quickly became standard. The disregard for public safety is particularly horrifying - in the USA, a state of wilful ignorance was cultivated. Relevant studies on the effects of ingested radioactive materials were not done - even now, the book asserts, there are no studies on the effect on humans of ingesting the radioactive waste that leaves the plutonium factories (and that ignores the stuff that is not supposed to get out but does leak). The effects were at least acknowledged a little more in the USSR, although unfortunately that didn't translate into protection for the people around. In both countries, one of the difficulties in dealing with these health issues that were all too apparent is that they were classified as matters of national security.
On a slightly less horrifying note, the early communities set up around the plutonium factories were also very similar - affluent, and culturally homogeneous. And both were societies that were in contravention of their nation's stated ideals - in the USA's case the city (Richmond) was anything but a free society, but instead was heavily managed, with everyone renting their houses from the government/industry partnership that managed the plant and city. In the USSR, the residents of Ozersk were much better paid, and had access to amenities that others in the country could only dream about.
Throughout the book, I was assuming that these things are coming to light now partly because the problems have gone away. Sadly that isn't really the case. More money is being spent on nuclear weapon development now than at the height of the Cold War (although I assume that's not adjusted for inflation). The Fukushima reactors, which melted down so horrifically, were reactors designed for military purposes and then pushed into civilian use (as is the case in many other countries).
The author obviously has an opinion on these things - she wouldn't claim to be impartial - but she does aim for the factual, and the book is very extensively footnoted, giving her work considerable credibility.
As Lawrence R. Korb, Assistant Secretary of Defense under Reagan and Bush said, "The cold war is over, and the military-industrial complex has won".
Given the time - the tail end of the 2nd World War and the early years of the cold war - it is not surprising, perhaps justifiable, that corners were cut initially, but sadly that quickly became standard. The disregard for public safety is particularly horrifying - in the USA, a state of wilful ignorance was cultivated. Relevant studies on the effects of ingested radioactive materials were not done - even now, the book asserts, there are no studies on the effect on humans of ingesting the radioactive waste that leaves the plutonium factories (and that ignores the stuff that is not supposed to get out but does leak). The effects were at least acknowledged a little more in the USSR, although unfortunately that didn't translate into protection for the people around. In both countries, one of the difficulties in dealing with these health issues that were all too apparent is that they were classified as matters of national security.
On a slightly less horrifying note, the early communities set up around the plutonium factories were also very similar - affluent, and culturally homogeneous. And both were societies that were in contravention of their nation's stated ideals - in the USA's case the city (Richmond) was anything but a free society, but instead was heavily managed, with everyone renting their houses from the government/industry partnership that managed the plant and city. In the USSR, the residents of Ozersk were much better paid, and had access to amenities that others in the country could only dream about.
Throughout the book, I was assuming that these things are coming to light now partly because the problems have gone away. Sadly that isn't really the case. More money is being spent on nuclear weapon development now than at the height of the Cold War (although I assume that's not adjusted for inflation). The Fukushima reactors, which melted down so horrifically, were reactors designed for military purposes and then pushed into civilian use (as is the case in many other countries).
The author obviously has an opinion on these things - she wouldn't claim to be impartial - but she does aim for the factual, and the book is very extensively footnoted, giving her work considerable credibility.
As Lawrence R. Korb, Assistant Secretary of Defense under Reagan and Bush said, "The cold war is over, and the military-industrial complex has won".
caliesha's review against another edition
4.0
at this point, i'm convinced grad school is just reading about environmental disasters. Brown's research is chilling, devastating, and terrifyingly unsurprising.
pnwlisa's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
sad
medium-paced
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Cancer, Infertility, Medical trauma, Child death, War, Medical content, Miscarriage, and Police brutality
callunavulgaris's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
sad
slow-paced
4.5