The Plutonium Files

America's Secret Medical Experiments in the Cold War

Eileen Welsome

$92.95 $79.01

Paperback

Not in-store but you can order this
How long will it take?

Availability Information

We source books from suppliers in Australia and overseas. For books we don't currently have in stock, the time it takes to get them from our suppliers can vary widely - from a few days to a few months - so we check each book with each supplier to determine the expected time it will take to be supplied to us.

We then advise you accordingly. If the time taken to get any book is too long for you, you can let us know and we will cancel or adjust your order, and refund as required.

To find out the anticipated arrival time for specific items prior to ordering, please contact us by phone or email:

Phone +61 2 9264 3111, or 1800 4 BOOKS (1800 4 26657) if outside Sydney:
option 1 Abbey's Bookshop (Crime, History, Science, Kids & more) • info@abbeys.com.au
option 2 Language Book Centre (ESL & Foreign Languages) • language@abbeys.com.au
option 3 Galaxy Bookshop (Sci-fi, Fantasy, Romance, Graphic Novels) • sf@galaxybooks.com.au

QTY:

English

FriesenPress
18 November 2024

History of the Americas; 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000; Military history; Nuclear weapons

The Plutonium Files is the shocking exposé of the US government's medical experiments on unwitting citizens during the Cold War. Americans recoiled when they learned of the brutal experiments conducted by Nazi doctors. But as the world was learning about those horrors, US scientists were injecting eighteen patients in hospital wards with plutonium, a deadly substance used to make the atomic bomb. The patients were given code numbers and went to their graves without knowing what had been done to them. In The Plutonium Files, Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist Eileen Welsome describes how she uncovered the identities of these patients and goes on to chronicle the web of deceit that enabled the experiment to remain largely unknown for fifty years. It's a searing, cautionary tale about what can happen behind the cloak of secrecy In this new edition, the book returns to the July 16, 1945, Trinity Test in southern New Mexico. Trinity was not only the world's first atomic bomb, but the world's first dirty bomb. Survivors and their descendants in the path of the fallout experienced a huge increase in radiation-linked cancers and are still fighting for reparations. The Plutonium Files also traces the murky origins of other radiation experiments. Like the plutonium injectees, the subjects were surreptitiously followed for years. They included children in Massachusetts, pregnant women in Tennessee, and prisoners in Oregon and Washington.

""A fierce expose of governmental duplicity and dangerous science ...

The literature on the official crimes of the Cold War is large and growing. Welsome's stunning book adds much to that literature, and it makes for sobering reading.""

Kirkus Reviews

By: Eileen Welsome
Imprint: FriesenPress
Edition: 2nd ed.
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 39mm
Weight: 1.021kg
ISBN: 9781038326911
ISBN 10: 1038326915
Pages: 708
Publication Date: 18 November 2024
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Eileen Welsome is an investigative reporter and author who has received many awards for her work, including the Pulitzer Prize for national reporting. She is also author of The General and the Jaguar: Pershing's Hunt for Pancho Villa, and Cold War Secrets: A Vanished Professor, a Suspected Killer, and Hoover's FBI. She received a journalism degree from the University of Texas and a master's degree in oral history in from Columbia University. She currently lives in Denver, Colorado.