Book Review: The Rise of Nuclear Fear by Spencer Weart (2012)

Why are negative views of nuclear topics so common? Spencer Weart has spent years explaining that very question.

The Rise of Nuclear Fear by Spencer R. Weart builds upon the author’s earlier notable 1988 work Nuclear Fear: A History of Images. I have not read Weart’s earlier work and so cannot comment on it much, but I know from skimming other reviews of the 2012 book that Weart’s newer work is generally thought to be more accessible to the general reader at the expense of greater detail found in the 1988 book. All that aside, this review is focused squarely on The Rise of Nuclear Fear and its scholarship on nuclear fear, anxiety, and perception. Overall, Weart eloquently takes the reader on a ride from the early atomic sciences of the late 19th century (and even beyond) to contemporary times to argue that nuclear fear is not just a product of the spectacle and awe of the nuclear bomb-making of the Cold War. Instead, long-established views and stereotypes dating back decades, and even centuries, link fear, anxiety, and skepticism to nuclear science and its related topics, from nuclear weapons to nuclear energy. Weart’s The Rise of Nuclear Fear should be on any nuclear scholar’s reading list, as it provides thoughtful and relatively unbiased perspectives on why nuclear topics continue to pervade public consciousness.