For The Love of Bombs

Forget the mainstream narratives about atomic weapons and follow Peder Anker in his quest for a people’s history of the bomb. Drawing on a rich array of sources, Anker dismantles the toxic narrative that has normalized the violence not only of deploying but also of producing the bomb, while unearthing the voices of resistance against it. This is a handbook for narrative resistance in times of war and violence.” — Marco Armiero, ICREA Research Professor, Autonomous University of Barcelona “Blowing up the traditional history of the atomic bomb, Peder Anker eschews Oppenheimer-centered narratives for an alternative account of the bomb’s origins and its consequences. Beginning with uranium extraction by the Dene First Nation followed by the destruction of the small farming community of Wheat, Tennessee, on which stood the Manhattan Project’s Secret City, Anker concludes by tracing its explosive reach from bikini swimsuits and sexbombs to climate change, in an original exploration of mythmaking and destruction in a world marked by exploitation and sexploitation.” — Jimena Canales, Author of The Physicist and the Philosopher: Einstein, Bergson and the Debate that Changed Our Understanding of Time “In this powerful book on the caustic environmental destruction and immense human suffering behind the A-bomb, historian Peder Anker turns our attention away from the usual nuclear physics heroes of the Manhattan Project and opens our eyes to the hypocrisy of US military propaganda and the narrow-mindedness of mainstream historiography on the most dangerous weapon ever created. In these dark times, it is a sadly urgent read.” — Sverker Sörlin, Professor of Environmental History, KTH Environmental Humanities Laboratory, Stockholm “In beautiful, accessible, and powerful prose, Peder Anker’s For the Love of Bombs sheds a bright light on the darker history of the US military’s pursuit of nuclear knowledge. The result is less about Americans’ love affair with nuclear energy and more an honest and emotional “people’s history” of those most seriously affected by the inequitable development of our atomic arsenal.” —Neil M. Maher, Author of Apollo in the Age of Aquarius