- Hardcover: 208 pages
- Publisher: Knopf (Oct 21 2003)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1400041139
- ISBN-13: 978-1400041138
- Product Dimensions: 27.5 x 2.6 x 34.4 cm
- Shipping Weight: 1.7 Kg
- Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
-
Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
#280,912 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #32 in Books > Arts & Photography > Photography > Colour
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Despite all the thousands of caricatures and artistic re-interpretations of the nuclear "mushroom cloud," photographs of the real thing are still intensely frightening and visually fascinating. The "thousand suns" referred to in the Bhagavad Gita, from which J. Robert Oppenheimer quoted when the first atomic bomb was detonated in New Mexico on July 16, 1945, are depicted here in 100 carefully selected photographs of the aboveground nuclear tests conducted by the United States in the Nevada and New Mexico deserts and over the Pacific Ocean. Culled by Light (Full Moon) from formerly classified documents held by the United States National Archives and Los Alamos National Laboratory, the photos, dating from 1942 to 1962, are awe-inspiring. Crisply printed on black glossy stock, each photo is printed full-page recto, with the facing verso page containing only the plate number, the name of the test ("Trinity"; "Mike"; "Wahoo"), the test date and the number of kilotons (or megatons) of energy released. Extensive notes on each photo and test are in the back, along with a bibliography. Many of the photos show only the blast, but some have people. One photograph, in particular ("019. Simon"), does not show an explosion: soldiers huddle in a trench, identifiable only by the blurred shapes of their helmets, with what looks like glowing debris raining upon them. The back caption notes: "In a moment the ground and air shockwaves will toss them like dolls, then fill their mouths with radioactive dust and also make it temporarily impossible to see." Ultimately, that particular test "scattered deadly fallout throughout southwest Utah" and "highly radioactive rain fell in Albany, New York the following day." Aboveground tests ended with the 1963 Partial Test Ban Treaty. Releasing worldwide with a first printing of 35,000, this book, some of whose colors are impossible to describe, will leave readers changed.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
*Starred Review* Light gathered together select NASA images to create the spellbinding Full Moon (1999), and now he presents that pleasurable volume's evil twin, a riveting collection of photographs of aboveground atomic detonations culled from Los Alamos National Laboratory and the U.S. National Archives. These apocalyptic images of man-made suns captured on film at great risk by military photographers in both stark black-and-white and fiery color are nearly pornographic (one bomb is named "Climax") in their troubling allure. In the Nevada desert bomb tests, fantastic clouds roar into the sky like monsters from the center of the earth and assume phallic and mushroom shapes, while soldiers crouch in the foreground as the deadly flash overtakes them. The ocean tests are even more surreal as lethal radiance bombards the shock-waved sea and explosions grow so impossibly enormous it looks as though the molten lifeblood of the planet is being shot into space. Light offers a terse and sobering history of the bomb at this staggering and unprecedented volume's conclusion, fully documenting each detonation and tacitly reminding readers of the need to stay informed about the state of the world's nuclear arsenal and make their concerns known. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most helpful customer reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
How We Won The War,
By
This review is from: 100 Suns (Hardcover)
These images of American above-ground nuclear tests are indeed terrifyingly beautiful, and beatifully terrifying. Seeing the massive energy of the atom unleashed, in the archetypical mushroom cloud, is an arresting experience no matter how long ago these photos were taken. The images are rather samey, save for some that show oddly botanical detail of some clouds, probably due to water vapor. The test blasts have retro-sounding Army code names like FIZEAU, YANKEE, BAKER, MAGNOLIA, and etc. There is no visual perspective-big and small blasts seem the same size due to different camera distances. Some images taken from high-speed time lapse films seem like giant bacilli. Some, irrespective of kilo- or megatonnage, seem like they are splitting the heavens. Hats off to all the servicemen who were subjected to these tests. It probably wasn't nice for the Pentagon to subject these men to these hazards, and I echo the wish that it never has to happen again. But I do appreciate their sacrifice, because I think it was well worth it. The author tosses in a sneer at the Strategic Defense Initiative in his end of book timeline. But Reagan understood that nuclear weapons could not be un-invented, only rendered obsolete. Like it or not, nukes are a fact of international life, and a wise leader will not try to wish them away. The author wants to evoke a Strangelovian mood, but it's too late for that. It makes a difference, whether nuclear superiority resides with free countries or tyrants, now as well as in the Fifties and Sixties. America's nuclear arsenal kept the Soviets and their proxies from gobbling up even more nations than they actually did. The fact that America won the Cold War is, once and for all, A Good Thing, and it was these weapons, along with the MAD doctrine, that helped win it. Better MET than red.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent!,
By A Customer
This review is from: 100 Suns (Hardcover)
I couldn't put it down. The photos are excellent, the info in the back is captivating, and I hope there is never another nuclear explosion to photograph!
5.0 out of 5 stars
Eerie, haunting, horrible and beautiful,
By "eminentbrain" (SF Bay Area, CA USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: 100 Suns (Hardcover)
I appreciate the nature of these images more having read Richard Rhodes' "Making of the Atomic Bomb" many years ago. Without a doubt, what is documented here is the overt potential for total global annihilation by nuclear hellfire, but what is also documented are the direct descendants of one of the most impressive scientific and engineering achievments of all time.Knowing that these images represent the ability to destroy on a massive scale, one might find it hard to divest themselves of their instinct to be horrified and shun these pictures, but if you can do so, I think you'll find a great collection of some of the most stark, eerie, organic and beautiful images of our recent secret history. The fact that these pictures were taken for documentation purposes, rather than those of art, makes the dichotomy between the beauty and the horror of this book even more apparent. Well worth the simoleons.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Want to see more reviews on this item?
|
Most recent customer reviews |
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
