New Travel Book: ‘A Nuclear Family Vacation’
Travel Blog • Eva Holland • 07.17.08 | 11:38 AM ET
Full title: “A Nuclear Family Vacation: Travels in the World of Atomic Weaponry”
Released: June 10, 2008
Travel genre: Science travel, WMD travel
Territory covered: United States, Russia, Iran, Kazakhstan
Promo copy: “Two Washington, D.C., defense reporters do for nukes what Sarah Vowell did for presidential assassinations in this fascinating, kaleidoscopic portrait of nuclear weaponry. In A Nuclear Family Vacation, husband-and-wife journalists Sharon Weinberger and Nathan Hodge hit the open road to explore the secretive world of nuclear weaponry. Along the way, they answer the questions most nuclear tourists don’t get to ask: Are nuclear weapons still on hair-trigger alert? Is there such a thing as a suitcase nuke? Is Iran really building the bomb? ... Weaving together travel writing with world-changing events, A Nuclear Family Vacation unearths unknown—and often quite entertaining—stories about the nuclear world.”
Critical verdict, Zagat-style: “”[T]his turns out to be a surprisingly fun road trip, even though it’s led by a pair of Beltway policy wonks.” (Mother Jones) “If it’s hard to remember how hot the Cold War felt, it’s similarly hard to forget that the U.S. is barreling through the fifth year of a war it started under the false premise of finding weapons of mass destruction, and that a military confrontation with Iran over its nuclear program seems perilously closer every day. Though it fails to cohere into an engaging narrative, A Nuclear Family Vacation asks the reader to pay close attention to the American government’s lack of consistent leadership on nuclear policy. It couldn’t come at a better time.” (Independent Weekly)
Read: Q&As with the authors at Nerve, Wired and the Toronto Star; read the 2005 Slate series
Find it: Amazon, Powell’s, author
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