ArchiveOctober 2017

The mythology of Rickover presents dark and light sides, an instance of the latter fascinating me in this pithy aside from biographers Norman Polmar and Thomas Allen: Rickover even put on a uniform for Time. Refreshingly, the Admiral hated kitting up (he hated much about the Navy he served). Of course his alternative dress was standard fifties suit and tie, but his dislike of pomp endears him to. . .

On December 2 falls the 75th anniversary of the very first nuclear reactor, CP-1 at the University of Chicago. A couple of days ago, the university posted a write-up of the momentous event by Michael Drapa. This event is close to my heart and I greatly enjoyed revisiting the drama, both in the post and in an embedded four-and-a-half-minute video narrated with great verve by Rachel Bronson. . .

“What’s your book about?” I’m asked. “The history of nuclear power reactors,” I answer, or at least I used to answer. These days I might not even admit to being a writer. I enjoy debating the history I explore but the trouble is, nearly everyone ignores the word “history” and responds in one of two ways. Pro-nuclear advocates clamour for this. . .

Mikhail Gorbachev features only briefly in my narrative but he looms as large across the canvas of the Cold War as any other human being. Just released, William Taubman’s biography, Gorbachev: His Life and Times, is a tour de force. Taubman is the go-to biographer of Nikita Khrushchev, now I have no hesitation in recommending his Gorbachev rendering. Not only is it comprehensive and. . .