Reviewed by:

• Radiation Nation: Three Mile Island and the Political Transformation of the 1970s by Natasha Zaretsky
• Dolores L. Augustine (bio)

Natasha Zaretsky’s approach to the 1979 nuclear power plant accident at Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania, is deeply rooted in cultural history, yet also draws on political economy. The big question looming over Radiation Nation, as well as her earlier work, No Direction Home, is “how the New Left revolutions of the 1960s and 1970s transformed American culture and society but failed to halt the nation’s rightward political march” (p. xix). She makes an original contribution to the literature, centered on gender and family. She contends that the upsurge of local protest over this disaster led to a profound realignment of American conservative politics, drawing [End Page 981] on various strands of leftist movements in the 1960s and 1970s such as environmentalism and feminism, while also tapping into religious beliefs and the anti-abortion movement.

Zaretsky’s central thesis is that this catastrophic failure of technology brought about what she calls “biotic nationalism,” rooted in the body, specifically an “aggrieved nationalism” based on the idea that “the nation has callously turned its back on the bodies of its own citizens” (p. xvii). White, working-class Americans saw themselves as the nation’s most loyal citizens, she argues, and felt that their government had treated them as disposable in the Vietnam War. According to the author, in 1979, this sense of betrayal initially centered on the callous disregard of how men’s bodies were treated in that conflict. In the wake of Three Mile Island, the female body and its reproductive capacity took center stage. Orders to evacuate pregnant women and preschoolers living within a 5-mile range of the nuclear power plant only added to residents’ anxiety and distrust in the government. Women argued that the release of radioactively contaminated water and gases from the nuclear power plant turned them, the unborn children in their wombs, their children, and their descendants into “guinea pigs” (p. 100). The scientific background was an ongoing debate about the somatic effects of low-level radiation exposure (notably cancer), as well as older concerns about radioactivity’s genetic impact (associated with eugenics). According to the author, it was the associated image of the wounded nation and the wounded fetus that created such a powerful narrative, making abortion a central issue for the burgeoning conservative movement. However, this preoccupation with the body did not carry over into concerns over gun ownership, healthcare, or food insecurity among American conservatives. The Three Mile Island crisis strengthened anti-statist conservatism in the United States, unlike in West Germany, where anti-nuclear power activism ushered in the rise of the leftist Green Party. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission came to be considered a “hostile, distant authority, callous toward residents’ physical suffering and psychological distress” (p. 142).

In the final chapter the author moves on to the Second Cold War and the nuclear freeze movement of the 1980s. She points to parallels with the Three Mile Island protests: the importance of the “imperiled body” as a theme in the movement, concern about genetic damage, the significance of women and maternalist arguments, and appeals to Middle America. The concept of “Nuclear Winter”—a devastation of the planet caused by nuclear war and leading to mass extinction, also of the human race—placed reproduction and the “unborn” at the heart of the anti-nuclear narrative. She is critical of what she sees as the nuclear freeze movement’s failure to embrace the ideals of the New Left, asserting that freeze activists “unwittingly aligned themselves with the new nationalism of the 1980s” (p. 171). Thus, in her reading, the nuclear freeze movement failed to block the rightward [End Page 982] turn in American politics due to the lack of political commitment and apolitical anti-nuke stance. It is worth remembering, however, that some scholars believe that overcoming political divides was key to ending the Cold War.

Those who wish to learn more about the Three Mile Island accident...

审核人：

• 辐射国家：三哩岛与1970年代的政治转型（作者Natasha Zaretsky）
• 多洛雷斯·奥古斯丁（生物）

娜塔莎·扎列茨基（Natasha Zaretsky）处理1979年宾夕法尼亚州三哩岛（Mile Island）核电站事故的方法，深深植根于文化历史，但同时也借鉴了政治经济学。辐射国家以及她早期的作品《无方向的家》笼罩着一个大问题，那就是“ 1960年代和1970年代的新左派革命如何改变了美国的文化和社会，但未能阻止美国向右的政治前进”（第x页） ）。她以性别和家庭为中心，对文学做出了原创性贡献。她认为，当地人对这场灾难的抗议热潮导致美国保守派政治发生了深刻的调整，引来了[End Page 981]在1960年代和1970年代的各种左派运动中，例如环境保护主义和女权主义，同时也涉入宗教信仰和反堕胎运动。

Zaretsky的中心论点是，这种灾难性的技术失败导致了她所谓的“生物民族主义”，植根于身体，特别是一种“悲痛的民族主义”，其依据是“国家无情地将自己的身体转向自己的身体”公民”（第xvii页）。她认为，白人，工人阶级的美国人将自己视为美国最忠实的公民，并认为他们的政府在越南战争中将他们视为可抛弃者。根据作者的说法，在1979年，这种背叛感最初集中于对在冲突中如何对待人体的冷漠漠视。在三哩岛之后，女性的身体及其生殖能力成为了焦点。撤离居住在核电站5英里范围内的孕妇和学龄前儿童的命令只会加剧居民的焦虑和对政府的不信任。妇女争辩说，核电站释放出的被放射性污染的水和气体使她们，子宫中未出生的婴儿，她们的子女及其后代变成了“豚鼠”（第100页）。科学背景是关于低水平辐射暴露（特别是癌症）的体细胞效应的持续辩论，以及对放射性的遗传影响（与优生有关）的较早关注。根据作者的说法，正是这样一个与受伤的国家和受伤的胎儿相关的形象创造了如此有力的叙事，使堕胎成为迅速发展的保守运动的中心问题。然而，对身体的这种关注并没有引起美国保守派对枪支拥有权，医疗保健或食品不安全的担忧。三英里岛危机在美国加强了反国家主义的保守主义，而在西德，反核力量激进主义引发了左翼绿党的崛起。美国核监管委员会被认为是“敌对的，遥远的权威，对居民的身体痛苦和心理困扰无情”（第142页）。

在最后一章中，作者继续进行第二次冷战和1980年代的核冻结运动。她指出了与“三哩岛”抗议活动的相似之处：“受害身体”作为运动主题的重要性，对遗传损害的关注，妇女和母权主义者争论的重要性以及对中美洲的吸引力。“核冬天”的概念是核战争造成的地球毁灭，并导致人类大规模灭绝，将繁殖和“未出生的”置于反核叙述的核心。她批评自己认为核冻结运动未能接受新左派的理想，并称冻结活动家“不自觉地与1980年代的新民族主义保持一致”（第171页）。因此，在她的阅读中[完982页]由于缺乏政治承诺和非政治性的反核立场，美国政治发生了变化。但是，值得记住的是，一些学者认为克服政治分歧是结束冷战的关键。

那些希望更多地了解三英里岛事故的人...