The Firecracker Boys

I cannot help but notcice how the reviewers which seem to have been deeply disgusted by this book prefer to remain anonymous. Even if their opinion is that nuclear testing should continue, it disturbs me that these reviewers were not taken aback by the colossal mountain of half-truths, misrepresentations, and downright lies that the AEC (Atomic Energy Comission) used to lobby this project to Alaskans. And remember, these are the same guys who concluded that it would be acceptable to conduct underground nuclear tests near one of the most active fault lines in the world, on Amchitka Island out on the Aleutian chain.I can only say that never again will I be able to look at a map of my state without imagining a "polar bear shaped harbor" etched in to the wind battered coast somewhere between Barrow and Kotzebue.

This book is excellent! It's just mind-boggling to imagine that Teller and his boys (hence the title) almost got away with exploding a nuclear "device" near Kotzebue under the guise of creating a deep-water harbor... The absolute apathy and ignorance of many Interior Alaskans and the lap-dog behavior of many at the Univ. of Alaska Fairbanks and local media is really disappointing... A excellent read about a near disaster of our times (many of the characters are still alive and some still are involved at UAF, my alma mater)... Think Alaska is pristine and still pure? Think again... The heroes of this book, while many of them paying a great price, are given the attention they deserve in this piece of wonderful writing...

Deep and serious scholarship is rarely this readable! Dan O'Neill transforms the little-known drama of arctic whale-hunting Eskimos into a global issue, tracing their struggle against becoming a nuclear proving ground through the years 1957-1966. If you start to read this book as a thriller, you won't be disappointed. When you have finished reading it, you will have absorbed some significant historical insights.

This book chronicles an early battle in the environmental movement. It also gives a fascinating view of life in Alaska, including life in a remote eskimo village. Anyone planning a trip to Alaska should read this book. Many of the people in the book still live in America's last frontier and you might just bump into some of them on your visit.

Classic cold war government decision making at it's best. Full of good guys, bad guys, PR fools, and the standard cast of characters found in any project where money, power, self interest and secrecy is involved. O'Neill's notes on his interview with Edward Teller was a fitting end to the book. I do wish O'Neill would have tried a bit harder to get some justification of the project from anyone who worked on the AEC or Labs side.