Ebook: Radiation Nation: Three Mile Island and the Political Transformation of the 1970s

On March 28, 1979, the worst nuclear reactor accident in U.S. history occurred at the Three Mile Island power plant. Radiation Nation uses the accident to explore the late 1970s as a turning point, focusing on how women crafted a homegrown ecological politics and a new body-centered nationalism. The first cultural history of the accident, Radiation Nation reveals the surprising ecological dimensions of post-Vietnam conservatism while showing how growing anxieties surrounding bodily illness infused the political realignment of the 1970s in ways that blurred any easy distinction between left and right.

On March 28, 1979, the worst nuclear reactor accident in U.S. history occurred at the Three Mile Island power plant. In this innovative study, Natasha Zaretsky uses the near-meltdown to shed new light on the era’s political realignments. Radiation Nation uncovers the surprising bodily and ecological dimensions of post-Vietnam conservatism.