Skip to content

Booksellers & Trade Customers: Sign up for online bulk buying at trade.atlanticbooks.com for wholesale discounts

Booksellers: Create Account on our B2B Portal for wholesale discounts

The Atomic Archipelago: Us Nuclear Submarines and Technopolitics of Risk in Cold War Italy

by Davide Orsini
Save 17% Save 17%
Current price ₹7,252.00
Original price ₹8,703.00
Original price ₹8,703.00
Original price ₹8,703.00
(-17%)
₹7,252.00
Current price ₹7,252.00

Imported Edition - Ships in 18-21 Days

Free Shipping in India on orders above Rs. 500

Request Bulk Quantity Quote
+91
Book cover type: Hardcover
  • ISBN13: 9780822947189
  • Binding: Hardcover
  • Subject: N/A
  • Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
  • Publisher Imprint: University of Pittsburgh Press
  • Publication Date:
  • Pages: 332
  • Original Price: USD 70.0
  • Language: English
  • Edition: N/A
  • Item Weight: 522 grams
  • BISAC Subject(s): Europe / Italy

Finalist, 2023 Turku Book Award

In 1972, the US Navy installed a base for nuclear submarines in the Archipelago of La Maddalena off the northeastern shore of Sardinia, Italy. In response, Italy established a radiation surveillance program to monitor the impact of the base on the environment and public health. In the first systematic study of nuclear expertise in Italy, Davide Orsini focuses on the ensuing technopolitical disputes concerning the role and safety of US nuclear submarines in the Mediterranean Sea from the Cold War period to the closure of the naval base in 2008. His book follows the struggles of different groups--including local residents of the archipelago, US Navy personnel, local administrators, Italian experts, and politicians--to define nuclear submarines as either imperceptible threats, much like radiocontamination, or efficient machines at the service of liberty and freedom.
Unlike inland nuclear power plants, vividly present and visible with their tall cooling towers and reactor containers, the mobility and invisibility of submarines contributed to an ambivalence about their nature, perpetuating the idea of nuclear exceptionalism. In Italy, they symbolized objects in constant motion, easily removable at the first sign of potential harm. Orsini demonstrates how these mobile sources of hazard posed special challenges for both expert assessments and public understandings of risk, and in contexts outside the Anglo-Saxon world, where unique social power dynamics held sway over the outcome of technopolitical controversies.

Davide Orsini is a science and technologies studies scholar studying the social, political, and ecological implications of nuclear power applications after the Second World War. He is currently a Marie Sklodowska Curie Fellow at the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society in Munich, where he is conducting a comparative research project on the history and socioecological aspects of nuclear power plant decommissioning.

Trusted for over 49 years

Family Owned Company

Secure Payment

All Major Credit Cards/Debit Cards/UPI & More Accepted

New & Authentic Products

India's Largest Distributor

Need Support?

Whatsapp Us