Product Description: It was a time of civil war and economic shift from an agrarian to an industrial society for the 1,390 speakers of state houses of representatives profiled in this unique biographical dictionary. The political climate and characteristics of the politicians as a group are surveyed in introductory material...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: More than fifty years later, the decision that brought prompt and utter destruction to the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki continues to generate enormous interest and controversy. In this concise and balanced account, J. Samuel Walker offers a new look at the events and circumstances that lay behind President Truman's use of atomic bombs against Japan...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

How much radiation is too much? J. Samuel Walker examines the evolution, over more than a hundred years, of radiation protection standards and efforts to ensure radiation safety for nuclear workers and for the general public. The risks of radiation—caused by fallout from nuclear bomb testing, exposure from medical or manufacturing procedures, effluents from nuclear power, or radioactivity from other sources—have aroused more sustained controversy and public fear than any other comparable industrial or environmental hazard. Walker clarifies the entire radiation debate, showing that permissible dose levels are a key to the principles and practices that have prevailed in the field of radiation protection since the 1930s, and to their highly charged political and scientific history as well. (view table of contents)

Misconceptions about the Three Mile Island crisis are cleared up in a study that reveals the causes, contexts, and consequences of the worst accident in the history of nuclear power in the United States.

Product Description: Since the inception of the Atlantic Coast Conference, intense rivalries, legendary coaches, gifted players, and fervent fans have come to define the league's basketball history. In ACC Basketball, J. Samuel Walker traces the traditions and the dramatic changes that occurred both on and off the court during the conference's rise to a preeminent position in college basketball between 1953 and 1972...read more

Product Description: Harry S. Truman s nuclear policies and programs are probably the most significant and controversial aspects of his presidency. The essays in this volume examine Truman s decision to use atomic weapons against Japan in 1945, one of the most contentious issues in all of American history, and the use of atomic energy after the war, both as an important weapon in the arms race of the cold war era, and as a subject for research into its applications to medicine, industry, agriculture, and power production...read more

A study of the events and circumstances that lay behind President Truman's use of atomic bombs against Japan. It examines the popular mythology about how the decision was made and evaluates the role of US-Soviet relations and American domestic politics.