Amazon.com: A Nuclear Family Vacation: Travels in the World of Atomic Weaponry: Sharon Weinberger, Nathan Hodge: Books

Review

“[Hodge and Weinberger] succeed admirably in reminding us that nuclear weapons have "never really gone away" and in calling attention to the crucial public debates that are not taking place. The questions they pose are significant and overdue; the answers they receive unsettling…They remind us that the purpose and future of our nuclear arsenal are too important to be left to those whose jobs remain dependent upon its perpetuation.” —Chicago Tribune

“A Nuclear Family Vacation is an eye-opening read for anyone who thinks that nuclear weapons are a thing of the past.” —Nerve

“How are you spending your next holiday? Tired of the same old thing? You might want to pick a different destination from A Nuclear Family Vacation, a new book and travel guide by veteran defence reporters Nathan Hodge and Sharon Weinberger. This husband-and-wife team take the reader on a rapid, darkly comic tour of nuclear weapons sites across the world. A rare achievement in a nuclear policy book, their narrative demystifies an intimidating topic for a broad audience without sacrificing substance. Instead of pontificating on thermonuclear war, Hodge and Weinberger give us an eye-level view, often through their car window…the book sparkles with anecdotes and insights. It is well worth the trip.” —Nature

“Some people trek to Machu Picchu, some dive on the Great Barrier Reef. Those of us interested in nuclear issues visit the monuments and precincts of the Bomb. Such are husband-and-wife journalists Nathan Hodge and Sharon Weinberger.” —New Scientist

“In A Nuclear Family Vacation, a husband-and-wife duo of Washington, DC-based defense reporters takes a journey deep into the nation's nuclear weapons complex. But wait—this turns out to be a surprisingly fun road trip.” —Mother Jones

“In this off-the-uncontaminated-path adventure, Sharon Weinberger and Nathan Hodge make nuclear vacationing seem fun, in a weirdly exhilarating way. They are the slightly obsessed tour guides holding the microphones at the front of the security-cleared bus. Together, the experts lead us across a neglected, mismanaged, and forgotten past, pointing out the history of doomsday weaponry along the way. A Nuclear Family Vacation is a shocking reminder that the Cold War isn’t over; it’s just transformed into something else that we don’t have a name for yet.”—Robert Sullivan, author of Cross Country and Rats

“A vacation for some, a nightmare for others. Either way, well worth reading.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Exhibiting dark humor, defense journalists Hodge and Weinberger take a tour of America’s nuclear-weapons infrastructure, visiting labs, plants, bunkers, missile silos, and ground zeros of nuclear explosions.”—Booklist

“In this adventure in ‘nuclear tourism,’ the husband-and-wife authors…convey an acute sense of the incoherence of latter-day nuclear strategizing.”—Publishers Weekly

“Nuclear tourism is an effective and interesting way of canvassing issues we face today. Reading A Nuclear Family Vacation is a good way to learn more about the history of nuclear weapons and become conversant with our current situation. Hodge and Weinberger have done the legwork to back up their common-sense conclusions.”—Defense Technology International

“Underlying their journey into our nuclear past is an earnest and thoughtful discussion of our nuclear present—and future…They identify a troubling lack of a cohesive national nuclear policy and remark that “much of the infrastructure supporting nuclear weapons continues to exist merely because no one has come up with a compelling reason to shut it down.” One can imagine an updated version of A Nuclear Family Vacation in which the two visit sites in Pakistan, India, China, North Korea, Israel, Russia, France, Great Britain, and heaven knows where else. The itinerary is not as finite as one would like; in fact, it seems to be growing. But there would be some comfort in having these sober and subtle observers as our guides.”—Bookforum

Product Description

Two Washington, D.C., defense reporters do for nukes what Sarah Vowell did for presidential assassinations in this fascinating, kaleidoscopic portrait of nuclear weaponry.
In A Nuclear Family Vacation, husband-and-wife journalists Sharon Weinberger and Nathan Hodge hit the open road to explore the secretive world of nuclear weaponry. Along the way, they answer the questions most nuclear tourists don’t get to ask: Are nuclear weapons still on hair-trigger alert? Is there such a thing as a suitcase nuke? Is Iran really building the bomb? Together, Weinberger and Hodge visit top-secret locations like the Isfahan Uranium Conversion Facility in Iran, the United States’ Kwajalein military outpost in the Marshall Islands, the Y-12 facility in Tennessee, and “Site R,” a bunker known as the “Underground Pentagon,” rumored to be Vice President Cheney’s personal “undisclosed location” of choice. Their atomic road trip reveals plans to revitalize the U.S. nuclear arsenal, even as the United States pushes other countries to disarm. Weaving together travel writing with world-changing events, A Nuclear Family Vacation unearths unknown—and often quite entertaining—stories about the nuclear world.

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Product Details

Hardcover: 336 pages
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA; 1st edition (June 10, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1596913789
ISBN-13: 978-1596913783
Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #158,911 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
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#18 in Books > Professional & Technical > Engineering > Nuclear
#33 in Books > History > Military > Weapons & Warfare > Nuclear

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4.5 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews)

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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars At times fascinating but not perfect, June 25, 2008

By	maskirovka (Alexandria, Virginia) - See all my reviews

As the whimsical title indicates, this is sort of a radioactive version of P.J. O'Rourke's "Holidays in Hell." The authors, a husband and wife team of journalists, spent several years touring the nuclear weapons archipelago of the United States and made side trips to Kazakhstan, Russia, and Iran.

In my opinion, the best parts of the book by far are the ones that deal with the facilities in the US such as Los Alamos, the Nevada Test Site, "Site R," and the Congressional Doomsday Bunker at Greenbrier, West Virginia. The authors interviewed a fair number of people at each place and that makes their destinations come alive (as someone who has been to Los Alamos and the Nevada Test Site, I can attest to the accuracy). I also thought the chapter about the men and women who man the ICBM silos shed light on a world and career field that I knew little about.

The book does have some weak parts. The authors pretty much got the run around while in Russia (which is to say no admission to any sites that are involved in Russia's ongoing nuclear weapons programs). Given that fact, I would have ditched that chapter and added more about American sites (perhaps the Pantex Plant in Texas). I feel the same about the trip to Esfahan, Iran (where the authors are smart enough to realize that the Iranians were putting on a propaganda display). I also think the authors gave the Iranians too much of a benefit of a doubt about their nuclear program's peaceful intentions (if you build and operate nuclear facilities that you don't declare to the IAEA as required by the Nonproliferation Treaty, it's hard to come up with an innocent explanation).

I also think that the book would have benefited from a complete chapter talking about the various hair-raising accidents that have taken place with nuclear weapons (such as the recent one involving the B-52 that flew across America with no one realizing it was carrying nuclear-tipped cruise missiles).

Finally, I think the conclusions of the book aren't very strong. The authors make a pretty good case for the idea that the raison d'etre for our nuclear weapons complex has partially evaporated with the end of the Cold War. And I give them kudos for not demanding that we relinquish nuclear weapons. But they didn't seem to be very concerned with the fact that we might still need a fair number of nuclear weapons on alert in order to deter a Russia that seems to be resembling the Evil Empire of yore more and more every day and a China whose leaders have casually talked about how the threat of them incinerating Los Angeles might deter us from going to the aid of Taiwan.

I particularly believe that this is the case with the "Reliable Replacement Warhead." The authors aren't overtly hostile to the idea of fielding such a new weapon. But they don't really seem to realize that if we are going to be able to preserve a credible nuclear deterrent force, we better have weapons that we can count on to perform exactly as they were designed, instead of the aging ones we currently have.

But in the end, the light that the authors shed on this little known in the post-Cold War era topic make book well worth reading.

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2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Does not quite live up to the comparisons made, July 20, 2008

By	Jeremy E. Schultz "JeremyES" (Harrisburg PA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

My interest in this book was piqued by the favorable comparisons made between this and Assassination Vacation. While this title was a good (if a little dry) read, the writing lacked Ms. Vowell's ease. Because of the scattered nature of the trips required for this book, a smooth narrative flow does not exists, since months, if not years, separate the chapters.

This is a good library candidate, but nothing I would keep in my permanent collection.

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0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Read, December 22, 2008

By	Joshua D. (Washington, DC, USA) - See all my reviews

I've never been interested in nukes (actually I consider myself an opponent of them), but this book was interesting delving into the science, history, and politics behind the worlds most powerful weapons. It is written in a clean manner that gets the point across within being spartan or overly chatty.

Reading this book on a cruise I did get some interesting questions, and customs had a couple of questions about the book too...

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5.0 out of 5 stars A great read if you are interested in Nukes!
For those of you that enjoy reading about esoteric yet important topics
such as Nuclear Community this is a great read! Similar in many ways to the works of J. Read more

Published 12 months ago by Philip S. Levine

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