“Genay has clearly listened carefully to locals and endeavored to understand the place and its nuclear legacy as residents do. Her book will help put lesser-known sources and figures alongside the popular biographies and histories that draw public audiences to the topic of nuclear development.”—Flannery Burke, Journal of Arizona History
“Genay’s book is certain to inspire some and outrage others. It provides a portrait of a US state drawn with racial divisions and social inequality firmly in mind. It may be that some American readers will bristle at her conclusions, accustomed to thinking of the Bomb as the double-edged sword of achievement and destruction. For Genay, it is another history of colonialism, and the Bomb’s story was there among the people, in the place of its making.”—Jacob Darwin Hamblin, Pacific Historical Review
“Genay’s work provides a contemporary and complicated perspective on New Mexico’s history.”—Julie A. Cohn, Southwestern Historical Quarterly
“American-studies scholar Lucie Genay has penned an engaging examination of the history of the nation’s ‘nuclear weapons complex’ in the land of enchantment.”—Leisl Carr Childers, Western Historical Quarterly
“Libraries interested in the history of New Mexico as well as the nuclear industry should add this well-researched book to their collections.”—E. M. Bosman, Choice
“The history of nuclear energy in New Mexico is filled with dangers, secrets, ironies, and both positive and terrible consequences to the state and its native population. While several observers have focused on key parts of this complex story, historian Lucie Genay has synthesized their work and created a sweeping new analysis of the impact of ‘nuclearism’ on New Mexico. This is a groundbreaking book of vital importance to both students of the past and policy makers of today.”—Richard Melzer, coauthor of A History of New Mexico Since Statehood