A review by ellist
The Age of Radiance: The Epic Rise and Dramatic Fall of the Atomic Era by Craig Nelson

informative slow-paced

2.5

A book obviously written by an ex-publishing executive with plenty of connections which supersede the need to be a good author. The book is certainly helped by the fact that what feels like a vast majority of it is direct, barely introduced or contextualized quotes. Often entire pages were just one quote after another. Additionally, the final chapter (which coincidentally has the most original writing of any chapter of the book, though it does reuse quotes) feels like a painfully simplistic reading of atomic power as somehow passé, mostly harmless, and part of a bygone age. Overall, despite including so many direct quotes from the still-effected hibakusha of Japan and those displaced by Chernobyl, as well as citing the ongoing struggles faced by Indigenous uranium miners and their families (in a single, throwaway sentence), it appears that Craig Nelson cannot see the ongoing pain and power of the Atomic Age, only knowing that he is not effected by it and appearing desperate to believe he never will be. I can only hope he is right.