'The Age of Radiance: The Epic Rise and Dramatic Fall of the Atomic Era'

The Age of Radiance is the first full history of the Atomic Age, from x-rays to Marie Curie to Los Alamos, Hiroshima, Mutual Assured Destruction, Dr. Strangelove, the Nevada Test Site, and the 2011 meltdown in Japan.

The Atomic Age began with a past-his-prime German physicist working in a Frankenstein-style lab. Nelson describes the history of the Atomic Age, starting from the discovery of the secrets of the nucleus by Marie Curie, Enrico Fermi, and Edward Teller, and he walks readers through the science of radiation-in which staggering amounts of energy flow from seemingly inert rock-so that even the most unscientific among us will understand radioactivity and be amazed by its mind-blowing power, magic, and danger.

Craig Nelson is the author of the New York Times bestseller, Rocket Men, as well as Thomas Paine: Enlightenment, Revolution, and the Birth of Modern Nations (winner of the Henry Adams Prize), The First Heroes, and Let's Get Lost (shortlisted for W.H. Smith's Book of the Year). He lives in Greenwich Village, New York.