Atomic Disenchantment
A Global History of Nuclear Energy
$195.52
- Paperback
304 pages
- Release Date
8 December 2026
Summary
A global history of nuclear energy from 1945 to today—and why the atom has failed to become a dominant, cheap, and safe energy source.
Nuclear energy is once again being promoted as the means to phase out fossil fuels and solve environmental problems. Yet nuclear energy has rarely delivered on its past promises. Instead, attempts to harness the atom have led to some of the most severe tensions and political struggles in modern history.
In Atomic Disenchantment, Per Hå…
Book Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780262056892 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10: | 0262056895 |
| Author: | Per Högselius |
| Publisher: | MIT Press Ltd |
| Imprint: | MIT Press |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Number of Pages: | 304 |
| Release Date: | 8 December 2026 |
| Weight: | 369g |
| Dimensions: | 152mm x 229mm |
| Series: | Critical Energy Studies |
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Critics Review
ENDORSEMENTS
“A brilliant reversal of what we thought we knew about nuclear power. Högselius shows that the atomic age was, at heart, a new age of steam: Reactors succeeded or failed through their symbiosis with old technologies—boilers, turbines, dikes, and canals. Splitting the atom was the easy part; boiling water proved the hard one. A landmark in the history of energy.”
—Jean-Baptiste Fressoz, author of More and More and More and Happy Apocalypse
“Per Högselius shows how the past failures of civilian nuclear energy had little to do with designing state-of-the-art nuclear reactors, but with failures to wed long-existing energy infrastructures—dams, turbines, plumbing—to nuclear energy. A truly international and innovative rendering of civilian nuclear history.”
—Kate Brown, author of Tiny Gardens Everywhere and Manual for Survival
Per Högselius
Per H. Gselius is Professor of History of Technology at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm. He is the author of Death on the Beach, Energy and Geopolitics, and Red Gas, and the coeditor of The Nuclear-Water Nexus (MIT Press).
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