Nuclear Rites: A Weapons Laboratory at the End of the Cold War / Edition 1

by Hugh Gusterson

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520213739
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	11/29/1996
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	392
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Hugh Gusterson is a Professor of Anthropology and International Affairs at the George Washington University. He is the author of The Insecure American and coeditor of Why America's Top Pundits Are Wrong, both from UC Press.

Table of Contents

PREFACE 
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 
A NOTE ON NAMES 
1. Introduction
2. Beginnings 
3· Becoming a Weapons Scientist 
4· Secrecy 
5· Bodies and Machines 
6. Testing, Testing, Testing 
7· Crisis 
8. A Different Reality 
9· Conclusion: The End of an Era? 
Postscript 
Comments on the Text 
NOTES 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 
INDEX 

Editorial Reviews

"Reading this fascinating and fairly written book is the best way to understand the moral dilemma that has haunted the inventors of high explosives, from Alfred Nobel to J. Robert Oppenheimer. . . . An anthropologist with a keen sense of humor, Gusterson illuminates this thorough study with poignant details."

San Francisco Chronicle

"Reading this fascinating and fairly written book is the best way to understand the moral dilemma that has haunted the inventors of high explosives, from Alfred Nobel to J. Robert Oppenheimer. . . . An anthropologist with a keen sense of humor, Gusterson illuminates this thorough study with poignant details."

San Francisco Chronicle