NicMaclellan. Grappling with the Bomb: Britain's Pacific H‐Bomb Tests. Canberra, Australia: ANU Press, 2017.

Abstract

Nic Maclellan’s Grappling with the Bomb is a thorough examination of British nuclear weapons policy as it played out in the Pacific Ocean. The history of Operation Grapple, the first British hydrogen bomb tests conducted in 1957 and 1958 in several of its Pacific colonial possessions, has been told before. This book, however, brings the residents of these islands, the veterans of the military operations, and others involved in or affected by these tests, into the foreground. In doing so, it highlights a history of victimhood that spans the Pacific region. The research that underpins this book, including British Colonial Office files, oral histories, legal records, and much more, adds an abundance of valuable data to an already rich—and tragic—history of exploitation, resistance, and human and environmental catastrophe that lingers into the present