Overview

This study provides a cultural history of Australia and nuclear power. The author examines the country’s role as a nuclear test site, the aspirations of the nation toward the postwar nuclear club, its deference to the demands of Britain and the United States, and the complex discourses of Australian society surrounding nuclear power.

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9781498587594

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Reviews

From the occupation of post-nuclear Hiroshima, through to mining most of the fuel burning inside the world's nuclear power fleets--some of which melted down under Fukushima--Gerster deftly tracks the murky and contradictory path of 'atomic Australia' through embodied, imaginary, and political culture. Gerster unearths a uranium-like vein woven beneath the continent's veneer, braiding it to the history and ecology of the whole world.--Robert A. Jacobs, Hiroshima City University In a major contribution to nuclear studies, Robin Gerster controversially demonstrates the deep ties between Hiroshima and Australia. Gerster's Hiroshima and Here: Reflections on Australian Atomic Culture does for Australian nuclear culture what Paul Boyer's classic 1985 book By Bomb's Early Light did for American nuclear culture: it brings together disparate and varied developments and makes them into a coherent and inclusive narrative that will define the parameters of the conversation to come. Gerster's rich and thought-provoking volume draws on years of engagement with Australia's nuclear history. Gerster's range and deep knowledge of the scholarly and popular literature enable him to capture the contradictory nuclear reactions and engagements Australians had with the A-bomb. This history spans the space between the ruined city itself, which Australian soldiers patrolled, Uranium mining towns, British test sites in the Australian outback and the activities of anti-nuclear organizations on campuses and city streets, and examines the fascinatingly complex cultural response of Australia to the nuclear world.--Ran Zwigenberg, Pennsylvania State University Unique in its range and coverage, Hiroshima and Here sets the gold standard for exploring Australia's complex Atomic Age experience. A comprehensive, interdisciplinary study of Australia's nuclear episteme, Gerster's narrative effortlessly melds ethnographic observation, dark tourism, personal anecdote, and incisive analysis across the spectrum of radiological impacts intersecting Australia's nuclear trajectory and shifting geopolitical past, present, and future.--Mick Broderick, Murdoch University

Gerster deftly tracks the murky and contradictory path of 'atomic Australia' through embodied, imaginary, and political culture. Gerster unearths a uranium-like vein woven beneath the continent's veneer, braiding it to the history and ecology of the whole world.--Robert A. Jacobs, Hiroshima City University In a major contribution to nuclear studies, Robin Gerster controversially demonstrates the deep ties between Hiroshima and Australia. Gerster's rich and thought provoking volume draws on years of engagement with Australia's nuclear history. . . . (to) examine the fascinatingly complex cultural response of Australia to the nuclear world.--Ran Zwigenberg, Pennsylvania State University Unique in its range and coverage, Hiroshima and Here sets the gold standard for exploring Australia's complex Atomic Age experience. A comprehensive, interdisciplinary study of Australia's nuclear episteme, Gerster's narrative effortlessly melds ethnographic observation, dark tourism, personal anecdote and incisive analysis across the spectrum of radiological impacts intersecting Australia's nuclear trajectory and shifting geopolitics past, present and future.--Mick Broderick, Murdoch University

Author Information

Robin Gerster is professor in the School of Languages, Literature, Cultures and Linguistics at Monash University.

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