Publisher's Synopsis
Sociologist Kai Erikson visited seven man-made disasters around America including a mercury spill which displaced a Native American tribe from its homeland; Three-Mile Island, where nearby residents feared exposure to radiation; and Yucca Mountain, Nevada, where the American government proposes to build a vast nuclear waste dump. He discovered that all these communities had in common a chronic dread and helplessness caused by radiation and other toxic substances. The author argues that this is a new and insidious type of trauma and this book is his plea that we do more to protect people from it.
