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Cover photo of Ken Case, "the Atomic Cowboy," from "American Ground Zero: The Secret Nuclear War" published by The MIT Press and by Random House in paperback.

Friday, April 23, 2010




















For an edited version of "Thank you, Mr. Avedon," retitled as "Transformations" and edited into pablum, see Daylight Magazine issue # 6, 2007.
http://www.daylightmagazine.org/store/issue-6-atomic-issue
ISBN 978-0-7391-3557-0 www.LexingtonBooks.com

Just published, "Filling the Hole in the Nuclear Future: Art and Popular Culture Respond to The Bomb" was edited by Robert Jacobs, with a foreword by Tom Engelhardt. Robert Jacobs is associate professor at the Hiroshima Peace Institute of Hiroshima City University. Tom Engelhardt, esteemed editor of such authors as Studs Terkel, John Dower and Paul Boyer, is also an author (The End of Victory Culture: Cold War America and the Disillusioning of a Generation" and "The Last Days of Publishing." He is the editor of TomDispatch, an online project of The Nation magazine, publishing some of the most influential writings on current American politics.

Contributors to this book include Mick Broderick, John Canaday, Carole Gallagher, Judy Hiramoto, Kenji Ito, Robert Jacobs, Minoru Maeda, Naoko Maeda, Yuki Tanaka, and Spencer Weart.

My essay about living downwind of the Nevada Test Site, as well as cultural difficulties and various absurdities one may encounter doing documentary work in Utah, "Thank you, Mr. Avedon," is included in this collection. It may read like a satire, yet it is 100% non-fiction.
A few minutes ago every tree was excited, bowing to the roaring storm, waving, swirling, tossing their branches in glorious enthusiasm like worship. But though to the outer ear these trees are now silent, their songs never cease. Every hidden cell is throbbing with music and life, every fiber thrilling like harp strings, while incense is ever flowing from the balsam bells and leaves. No wonder the hills and groves were God's first temples, and the more they are cut down and hewn into cathedrals and churches, the farther off and dimmer seems the Lord himself.

-John Muir, naturalist, explorer, and writer (1838-1914)

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Happy Earth Day!

Here is an interview conducted by Helen Caldicott about my book, "American Ground Zero: The Secret Nuclear War," for her radio program, "If You Love This Planet."

http://www.radio4all.net/index.php/program/40214

"American Ground Zero" was first published on Earth Day, 1993.