University of New Mexico Press Land of Nuclear Enchantment: A New Mexican History of the Nuclear Weapons Industry

Review Genay's contribution of so many oral histories in this piece enhances the depth and breadth of atomic history in New Mexico and the West.--Joshua McGuffie, H-Net ReviewsAmerican-studies scholar Lucie Genay has penned an engaging examination of the history of the nation's 'nuclear weapons complex' in the land of enchantment.--Western Historical QuarterlyGenay has clearly listened carefully to locals and endeavored to understand the place and its nuclear legacy as residents do. Her book will help put lesser-known sources and figures alongside the popular biographies and histories that draw public audiences to the topic of nuclear development.--Flannery Burke, Journal of Arizona HistoryGenay's book is certain to inspire some and outrage others. It provides a portrait of a US state drawn with racial divisions and social inequality firmly in mind. It may be that some American readers will bristle at her conclusions, accustomed to thinking of the Bomb as the double-edged sword of achievement and destruction. For Genay, it is another history of colonialism, and the Bomb's story was there among the people, in the place of its making.--Jacob Darwin Hamblin, Pacific Historical ReviewGenay's work provides a contemporary and complicated perspective on New Mexico's history.--Julie A. Cohn, Southwestern Historical QuarterlyLibraries interested in the history of New Mexico as well as the nuclear industry should add this well-researched book to their collections.--Choice Product Description In this thoughtful social history of New Mexico's nuclear industry, Lucie Genay traces the scientific colonization of the state in the twentieth century from the points of view of the local people. Genay focuses on personal experiences in order to give a sense of the upheaval that accompanied the rise of the nuclear era. She gives voice to the Hispanics and Native Americans of the Jémez Plateau, the blue-collar workers of Los Alamos, the miners and residents of the Grants Uranium Belt, and the ranchers and farmers who were affected by the federal appropriation of land in White Sands Missile Range and whose lives were upended by the Trinity test and the US government's reluctance to address the ""collateral damage"" of the work at the Range. Genay reveals the far-reaching implications for the residents as New Mexico acquired a new identity from its embrace of nuclear science. About the Author Lucie Genay is an associate professor of US civilization in the English and American Studies Department at the University of Limoges, France.