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Synopsis
In 1958, Edward Heller, father of the H-bomb, unveiled his plan to detonate six nuclear bombs off the Alaskan coast to create a new harbor. However, the plan was blocked by a handful of Eskimos and biologists, who succeeded in preventing massive nuclear devastation potentially far greater than that of the Chernobyl blast. An unprecedented account of one of the most shocking chapters of the Nuclear Age.
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About the Author
Dan O'Neill is the author of A Land Gone Lonesomeand The Last Giant of Beringia. He was named Alaska Historian of the Year by the Alaska Historical Society for The Firecracker Boys. He lives in Fairbanks, Alaska.
From Kirkus Reviews
The story of how we nearly Chernobylized our northwest Alaskan wilderness. O'Neill, a University of Alaska oral historian, builds on his previous studies of Project Chariot, a plan by the Atomic Energy Commission in the 1950s to use a thermonuclear blast to create a major harbor on the Alaskan coast. We are taken back to 1948, when a science writer at the New York Times gushed that work on the atom would usher in a ``new Eden'' where man would ``abolish disease and poverty, anxiety and fear.'' Atomic hubris is personified by O'Neill's Faust, Edward Teller, who wanted to nuke the world's ice pack and flood the deserts in what he called ``geographic engineering.'' Teller and others from the military and scientific communities were opposed by a vocal minority of Alaskans, by the first environmental activists (such as Barry Commoner), and by Arctic-loving scientists. (O'Neill delights in describing this last group eating parasites from dead caribou and crawling into dens to take the rectal temperatures of hibernating bears.) Because the stakes in this largely bureaucratic drama were so high, we can forgive O'Neill for demonizing the Atomic Energy Commission as ``little boys...with a pathological glee'' for setting off explosions. The proposed ground zero was a pristine spot called Tikiraq. O'Neill periodically breaks from the political wrangling to limn in glorious detail the richness of Arctic wildlife and Eskimo culture, rendering absurd the government promises to relocate natives and turn them into ``productive'' coal miners. For the first time, the Feds (obsessed with Reds) had to consider a people's irreplaceable loss of their ``way of life.'' Federal money for an O'Neill film on Project Chariot disappeared, but this book became his eloquent revenge. Eyebrow- and consciousness-raising at its ecological best. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
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- PublisherSt. Martin's Griffin
- Publication date1995
- ISBN 10 0312134169
- ISBN 13 9780312134167
- BindingPaperback
- Edition number1
- Number of pages400
- Rating
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The Firecracker Boys
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Trade paperback. Condition: Good. Second printing [stated]. [12], 388 pages. Maps. Illustrations. Methodology. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Name in ink on half-title page. Front cover has some curling. Dan O'Neill is an Alaskan writer. Dan O'Neill came to Alaska in the 1970s and did a variety of things, such as conducting oral history interviews, and as a producer of radio, television, and video productions dealing with history, science, and politics. He is the author of three Alaskan themed books. From 1985 to 1995 he worked for the Oral History Program at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, including doing project interviews about the Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve. These interviews formed the basis of his book A Land Gone Lonesome, which was awarded an "Editor's Choice" at The New York Times Book Review. O'Neill twice won the Alaska Library Association's "Alaskana of the Year Award" for the best book on Alaska published anywhere. He also was named Alaska Historian of the Year by the Alaska Historical Society. Derived from a Kirkus review: O'Neill, a University of Alaska oral historian, builds on his previous studies of Project Chariot, a plan by the Atomic Energy Commission in the 1950s to use a thermonuclear blast to create a major harbor on the Alaskan coast. Atomic hubris is personified by O'Neill's Faust, Edward Teller, who wanted to nuke the world's ice pack and flood the deserts in what he called ``geographic engineering.'' Teller and others from the military and scientific communities were opposed by a vocal minority of Alaskans, by the first environmental activists, and by Arctic-loving scientists. The proposed ground zero was a pristine spot called Tikiraq. O'Neill periodically breaks from the political wrangling to limn in glorious detail the richness of Arctic wildlife and Eskimo culture. For the first time, the Feds (obsessed with Reds) had to consider a people's irreplaceable loss of their ``way of life.'' Eyebrow- and consciousness-raising at its ecological best. Seller Inventory # 78705
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