Overview

Dear Comrades! Since the accident at the Chernobyl power plant, there has been a detailed analysis of the radioactivity of the food and territory of your population point. The results show that living and working in your village will cause no harm to adults or children. So began a pamphlet issued by the Ukrainian Ministry of Health--which, despite its optimistic beginnings, went on to warn its readers against consuming local milk, berries, or mushrooms, or going into the surrounding forest. This was only one of many misleading bureaucratic manuals that, with apparent good intentions, seriously underestimated the far-reaching consequences of the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe. After 1991, international organizations from the Red Cross to Greenpeace sought to help the victims, yet found themselves stymied by post-Soviet political circumstances they did not understand. International diplomats and scientists allied to the nuclear industry evaded or denied the fact of a wide-scale public health disaster caused by radiation exposure. Efforts to spin the story about Chernobyl were largely successful; the official death toll ranges between thirty-one and fifty-four people. In reality, radiation exposure from the disaster caused between 35,000 and 150,000 deaths in Ukraine alone.

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9781665127882

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Reviews

[A] humane and strange book about the irreversible things a technological disaster does to people and landscapes. -- New Statesman A gripping book part scientific exploration, part Cold War thriller...Brown's in-depth research and clean, concise writing illuminate the reality behind decades of 'half-truths and bald-faced lies.' -- Publishers Weekly (starred review) A magisterial blend of historical research, investigative journalism and poetic reportage...an awe-inspiring journey. -- The Economist Brown is interested in the aftermath of Chernobyl, not the disaster itself. Her heroes are not first responders but brave citizen-scientists, independent-minded doctors and health officials, journalists, and activists who fought doggedly to uncover the truth. -- New York Review of Books Brown's page-turner skillfully weaves an original narrative on the long-term medical effects of the Chernobyl disaster. -- Nature Explosive, exquisitely researched...Brown's prose is sometimes technical but largely accessible and even turns poetic when she describes changed lives...This sobering book should be read--and studied--by policymakers and citizens...to spark a renewed debate over nuclear power. -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review) There have been several good books recently about Chernobyl...Brown wants to examine the present and the science around it...[and] she makes her case comprehensible to the general reader. -- The Times (London) This engagingly written book reads like a cold war thriller and uncovers the devastating effects of one of the world's worst nuclear disasters. -- Alison MacFarlane, director, Institute for International Science and Technology Policy, George Washington University

Author Information

Kate Brown is an award-winning historian of environmental and nuclear history at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her book Plutopia won seven academic prizes, and Manual for Survival was a finalist for the 2019 National Book Critics Circle Award. Christina Delaine is an AudioFile Earphones Award-winning narrator and accomplished stage actress. Her theater credits include Jewtopia, the longest-running comedy in Off-Broadway history, and the title role in Antigone at both Portland Center Stage and Kentucky Repertory Theatre. She holds a BA degree from Dartmouth College and an MFA in acting from Brown University.

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