Camera Atomica: Photographing the Nuclear World

If you like scary reading and nightmares in your sleep, Camera Atomica fits the bill—except this is not fiction. Edited by John O’Brian, this volume was written by eight authors in eight chapters. Each chapter includes an essay and many, mostly black-and-white historic photos. The collection of photos is large and many show the same or similar subjects. Editor O’Brian, unfortunately, decided on quantity instead of quality. The reader will get bored with the hundreds of photos. Also unfortunate that captions are mostly inadequate: just a title, name of photographer and the year taken. Most readers are interested in the story behind the photo that the title rarely explains without reading the extensive text. The text has not been edited well, even typos are included. Many scientific terms are left unexplained. Some authors’ writings are easy to read others are less so. Nevertheless, this is an excellent academic reference book on this scary subject with many footnotes and references. Both text and photos deal with the horrific consequences of radiation, both intentional and accidental, and the lies mining companies and government officials provide regarding safety from radiation. This includes uranium mining, milling and production, nuclear testing and nuclear power plants.