Chain Reaction: Expert Debate And Public Participation In American Commercial Nuclear Power 1945-1975

Brian Balogh traces a chain reaction by examining the case of commercial nuclear power. For those interested solely in their crucial policy area, the book provides a wealth of new information and insights. The author's extensive research is the first independently to probe into the highly classified internal memoranda of the Atomic Energy Commission.

Chain Reaction seeks to explain how and why America came to depend so heavily on its experts after World War II, how those experts translated that authority into political clout, and why that authority and political discretion declined in the 1970s. Brian Balogh's pathbreaking research into the internal memoranda of the Atomic Energy Commission substantiates his arguments in impressive historical detail.