Meanings of a Disaster

Karena Kalmbach is Assistant Professor in History at Eindhoven University of Technology. She received her doctorate from the European University Institute in Florence for a dissertation that subsequently was awarded the 2015 Book Prize for Young Scholars from the International Committee for the History of Technology.

• List of AbbreviationsIntroductionChapter 1. 1986–88: Direct Reactions and Early NarrativesChapter 2. 1989–2005: Chernobyl Memory in the MakingChapter 3. 2006: The Chernobyl ‘Renaissance’ within the ‘Nuclear Renaissance’ConclusionEpilogueBibliographyIndex

“Readers will find Kalmbach’s book a good companion for the Chernobyl history literature... Kalmbach’s work also sits on a shelf of the new disaster studies scholarship that explores the politics of disaster as contingent, urgent, and slow moving.” • Technology and Culture“…an engaging tale chronicling the construction of narratives comprising the discursive legacy of Chernobyl outside of Eastern Europe…A reminder that the Chernobyl debates are not over.” • Isis“Through wide-ranging and careful research, Karena Kalmbach elaborates the many ways in which the Chernobyl accident became a European historical event closely turning around national politics in Great Britain and France. Kalmbach shows the irony of transnational nuclear technologies and nuclear fallout confined in national discourse.” • Kate Brown, MIT“The Meanings of a Disaster is a meticulously researched, readable, and intelligently argued analysis of over two decades’ worth of Chernobyl discourse in France and Britain.” • Sonja Schmid, Virginia Tech“As a follow-up to her skillful study of discourses around nuclear power and radiation protection in France following the Chernobyl disaster, Karena Kalmbach has provided a fresh look at the problem in transnational and comparative perspective. Her argument is well-grounded, based on broad evidence, and embedded within a clear and effective conceptual framework.” • Anna Veronika Wendland, Herder Institute for Historical Research on East Central Europe