Full Body Burden: Growing Up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats
Full Body Burden is Kristen Iversen's story of growing up in a small Colorado town close to Rocky Flats, a secret nuclear weapons plant. It's also a book about the destructive power of secrets—both family secrets and government secrets. Her father's hidden liquor bottles, the strange cancers in...
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Full Body Burden is Kristen Iversen's story of growing up in a small Colorado town close to Rocky Flats, a secret nuclear weapons plant. It's also a book about the destructive power of secrets—both family secrets and government secrets. Her father's hidden liquor bottles, the strange cancers in children in the neighborhood, the truth about what they made at Rocky Flats—best not to inquire too deeply into any of it. But as Iversen grew older, she began to ask questions and discovered some disturbing realities. As this memoir unfolds, it reveals itself as a brilliant work of investigative journalism—a shocking account of the government's sustained attempt to conceal the effects of the toxic and radioactive waste released by Rocky Flats, and of local residents' vain attempts to seek justice in court. Based on extensive interviews, FBI and EPA documents, and class-action testimony, this taut, beautifully written book promises to have a very long half-life.Now with Extra Libris material, including a reader’s guide and bonus content
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Format: paperback
ISBN:
9780307955654 (0307955656)
ASIN: 307955656
Publish date: June 4th 2013
Publisher: Broadway Books
Pages no: 432
Edition language: English
Category:
Non Fiction,
Autobiography,
Memoir,
Biography,
History,
Book Club,
Science,
Environment,
Health,
Politics,
Biography Memoir
Debated about whether to give this book a 2.5 or 3 star rating. This book is structured to tell two intertwining stories: the first, Iverson's memoirs of grouping up in the 1960s and 1970s, her college years, and all her bad decisions and dysfunctional family; the second, the Rocky Flats nuclear man...
A terrifying, true American horror story about growing up next to America's plutonium bomb factory, and bearing witness to the suffering caused by radioactive contamination always denied or downplayed government agencies and the corporate contractors.
A good account of a complex environmental issue. I would have liked more technical discussion and information.