DOWNWIND: A People's History of the Nuclear West   

"Bringing home the truth that all wars--- no matter how conceptual they may seem---occur in actual places, where actual people live, grow food, and raise children."

Downwind is an unflinching tale of the atomic West that reveals the high price American citizens paid in the Cold War pursuit of America's nuclear weapons arsenal.

Sarah Alisabeth Fox explores the human and environmental cost of nuclear testing and uranium extraction in the American West through the stories of “downwinders,” the residents of the Great Basin region affected by radiological pollution. These citizens tell of insidious food and water contamination, communities ravaged by cancer epidemics, farmers and ranchers economically ruined by crop failures and massive livestock die-offs, and miners working in dangerous conditions without proper safety equipment while the government surreptitiously studied the effects of radiation on humans.