At Work in the Fields of the Bomb

by Robert Del Tredici

A book about the US nuclear weapons program.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1987

About the author

Robert Del Tredici is a Canadian photographer, artist, and activist, who documented the impact of the 1979 Three Mile Island accident on the community. His first book of photographs and interviews, The People of Three Mile Island (Sierra Club Books, 1980), was a social critique of nuclear power. His second book, Slaves At Work in the Fields (Harper & Row, 1987), discussed the US nuclear weapons industry and won the 1987 Olive Branch Book Award for its contribution to world peace.
He founded the Atomic Photographers Guild in 1987 along with photographers Carole Gallagher and Harris Fogel.
Del Tredici has a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy, and a Master of Arts in Comparative Literature. For many years he taught Photography and the History of Animated Film at Concordia University in Montreal, and he previously taught at Vanier College.

Reviews

[Nick Black · Rating 4 out of 5]

WOW, what a great find for $5 used! Far more interesting than the similarly-themed coffee table book 100 Suns (which largely reproduces widely-available photos released by the DOE etc, and known to all nuke fans -- hell, I've got a poster of one of them (Shot Upshot-Knothole Badger)), Tredici has 100 great images, some shocking, some stunning, some sublime:

- Amazing pictures of the Nevada Test Site's line-of-sight "first light" tunnels
- A shot of the Trestle EMP testbed
- NORAD blast door pictures and silo internals (yes, it looks just like WarGames)

The introduction has this great quote:
A note of blankness is present also in the photograph of, and interview with, two Minuteman missileers. Asked to rehearse a launch, they perform in perfect clockwork, but when asked what they would do after the missiles had been released, they falter: "Well, um, we have, um, other procedures to go through....We'd remain on alert until, um, basically until we were told not to be." Belgianrofls!

Anyway, I highly recommend this to all nuclear weaponeers, all those retired from the game, and anyone interested in getting into defense of an unstable peace. Remember: whatever you say about uncontrolled thermonuclear burn, we have had the longest period of major-power stability in quite some time, and nuclear weapons are IMHO to thank for it. Onward, atomic soldiers!

[Mario Mesilio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Facinating photo documentary of the US nuclear weapons industry. I liked this so much that I re purchased this in 2005 to replace my original copy which I lost sometime in mid 90's. The images may appear mundane (factory workers, buildings, portraits of scientists all in B&W) however the context and the captions can startle you. Gives an non sensational workaday look at how society can stumble towards Armageddon. Recalls the chill of the cold war.