Nuclear Rites: A Weapons Laboratory at the End of the Cold WarUniversity of California Press, 1996 - 351 pagina's Based on fieldwork at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory—the facility that designed the neutron bomb and the warhead for the MX missile—Nuclear Rites takes the reader deep inside the top-secret culture of a nuclear weapons lab. Exploring the scientists' world of dark humor, ritualized secrecy, and disciplined emotions, anthropologist Hugh Gusterson uncovers the beliefs and values that animate their work. He discovers that many of the scientists are Christians, deeply convinced of the morality of their work, and a number are liberals who opposed the Vietnam War and the Reagan-Bush agenda. Gusterson also examines the anti-nuclear movement, concluding that the scientists and protesters are alike in surprising ways, with both cultures reflecting the hopes and anxieties of an increasingly threatened middle class. In a lively, wide-ranging account, Gusterson analyzes the ethics and politics of laboratory employees, the effects of security regulations on the scientists' private lives, and the role of nuclear tests—beyond the obvious scientific one—as rituals of initiation and transcendence. He shows how the scientists learn to identify in an almost romantic way with the power of the machines they design—machines they do not fear. In the 1980s the "world behind the fence" was thrown into crisis by massive anti-nuclear protests at the gates of the lab and by the end of the Cold War. Linking the emergence of the anti-nuclear movement to shifting gender roles and the development of postindustrial capitalism, Gusterson concludes that the scientists and protesters are alike in surprising ways, and that both cultures reflect the hopes and anxieties of an increasingly threatened middle class. |
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Nuclear Rites: A Weapons Laboratory at the End of the Cold War Hugh Gusterson Gedeeltelijke weergave - 1996 |
Nuclear Rites: A Weapons Laboratory at the End of the Cold War Hugh Gusterson Geen voorbeeld beschikbaar - 1996 |
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Alamos American anthropology antinuclear activists antinuclear movement argued arms control arms race asked Atomic Scientists badge Bay Area bomb church civil disobedience cold war critique culture debate defense discourse Edward Teller Energy engineers ethics example experience explosion feel fieldwork Foucault free electron laser Hiroshima ideology incinerator interview issue laboratory employees laboratory scientists Lawrence Livermore National Livermore laboratory Livermore National Laboratory Livermore scientists Livermore's lives Manhattan Project metaphors military missile Nagasaki Nevada Test Nevada Test Site Nuclear Age nuclear deterrence Nuclear Freeze nuclear testing nuclear war nuclear weapons design nuclear weapons scientists Peace physicists physics plutonium political protestors protests psychological Q clearance Reagan reliability ritual San Francisco scientific secrecy secret social society Soviet Teller told Tri-Valley Herald University Press Valley warhead designer weapons laboratories weapons scientists women X-ray laser York
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