Includes bibliographical references (pages 291-306) and index.
Contents:
Ground zero -- Land of cultural and economic survival -- The skeleton of a domestic nuclear empire -- The manifest destiny of atomic scientists -- The atomic sun shines over the desert -- The nuclear golden goose -- A federal sponsor -- Cloaked in secrecy -- Dangerous practices, toxic legacies -- The sociocultural impacts of a scientific conquest -- Land, lawsuits, and waste -- Memory.
Summary:
"In this thoughtful social history of New Mexico's nuclear industry, Lucie Genay traces the scientific colonization of the state in the twentieth century from the points-of-view of the local people, including Hispanics, Native Americans, and Anglos. Genay focuses on personal experiences in relation to postwar socioeconomic and cultural changes rather than on Cold War policy and political and scientific figures in order to give a sense of the upheaval that accompanied the rise of the nuclear era. She gives voice to the Hispanics and Native Americans of the JeĢmez Plateau, the blue-collar workers of Los Alamos, the miners and residents of the Grants Uranium Belt, and the ranchers and farmers who were affected by the federal appropriation of land in White Sands Missile Range and whose lives were upended by the Trinity test and the US government's reluctance to address the 'collateral damage' of the work at the Range. Genay reveals the far-reaching implications to the residents of New Mexico as the state acquired a new identity from its embrace with nuclear science"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.