In the early morning hours of April 26, 1986 there was a nuclear accident at one of the reactors in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, located near the city of Pripyat, in the north of the Ukrainian SSR in the Soviet Union, creating what many consider to be the worst disaster in the history of nuclear power generation. The accident caused the largest uncontrolled radioactive release into the environment ever recorded. Even after so many years of scientific research and investigations the questions about Chernobyl’s long-term health effects to the general population and environmental impact remain unanswered. To learn more please visit https://world-nuclear.org/
Remembering the Chernobyl disaster, Berghahn would like to bring to your attention a range of relevant nuclear studies titles.
THE MEANINGS OF A DISASTER
Chernobyl and Its Afterlives in Britain and France
Karena Kalmbach
“Through wide-ranging and careful research, Karena Kalmbach elaborates the many ways in which the Chernobyl accident became a European historical event closely turning around national politics in Great Britain and France. Kalmbach shows the irony of transnational nuclear technologies and nuclear fallout confined in national discourse.” • Kate Brown, MIT
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THE CHERNOBYL EFFECT
Antinuclear Protests and the Molding of Polish Democracy, 1986–1990
Kacper Szulecki, Janusz Waluszko, and Tomasz Borewicz
The 1986 Chernobyl catastrophe was not only a human and ecological disaster, but also a political-ideological one, severely discrediting Soviet governance and galvanizing dissidents in the Eastern Bloc. In the case of Poland, what began as isolated protests against the Soviet nuclear site grew to encompass domestic nuclear projects in general, and in the process spread across the country and attracted new segments of society.
WINNER OF THE 2019 DAAD/GSA PRIZE FOR THE BEST BOOK IN HISTORY AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
TAKING ON TECHNOCRACY
Nuclear Power in Germany, 1945 to the Present
Dolores L. Augustine
“Augustine’s broad coverage of the scientific and emotional stakes of nuclear power in both German states amid the Cold War make this a vital read for historians interested in environmentalism and new social movements. Engagingly written, it is accessible to advanced undergraduates as well.” • American Historical Review
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FRANCE, GERMANY, AND NUCLEAR DETERRENCE
Quarrels and Convergences during the Cold War and Beyond
Edited by Nicolas Badalassi and Frédéric Gloriant
Grounded in cutting-edge research and freshly discovered archival sources, France, Germany, and Nuclear Deterrence teases out the paradoxical nuclear interactions between France and Germany from 1954 to the present day.
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THE NUCLEAR CRISIS
The Arms Race, Cold War Anxiety, and the German Peace Movement of the 1980s
Edited by Christoph Becker-Schaum, Philipp Gassert, Wilfried Mausbach, Martin Klimke, and Marianne Zepp
“[This volume consists] of nineteen erudite and informative contributions by an extraordinary series of contributors — making it an unreservedly recommended publication for college and university library Nuclear Weapons & Warfare History, War & Peace, and Political Advocacy collections.” • Midwest Book Review
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Of Related Interest from Berghahn Journals
ANTHROPOLOGY OF THE MIDDLE EAST
Between ‘Greatness’ and ‘Ignorance’: The Transition to Nuclear Power in Turkey
Sezin Topçu (Vol. 14, Issue 2)
Confronting Nuclear Risks: Counter-Expertise as Politics Within the French Nuclear Energy Debate
Sezin Topçu (Vol. 3, Issue 2)
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