Nuclear Nebraska

Book excerpt: This book tells the remarkable but virtually unknown story of how the quiet, conservative residents of a small, poor Nebraska community refused to be seduced by the oratory of the people than run this country, or by the offer of $3 million a year for 40 years (despite the fact that the economy of the community was extremely depressed) - and tenaciously fought the powers-that-be (i.e., the state government, the federal government, and Bechtel) against locating a low-level nuclear waste dump site in its backyard. Boyd County's right-wing farmers rose up in revolt, and eventual victory. It took them a decade of bitter struggle, but it transformed a small group of farmers from isolationist rebels to ardent environmentalists, altered the scope of the U.S.'s nuclear waste policy, and moved a fly-over state to change from Republican to Democrat.; Well researched (as the author has worked from hundreds of source documents and 10,000 pages of transcribed interviews), this engaging, witty book will undoubtedly get publicity and will catch the imagination of a large cross-section of Americans today who are, once again, inclined to trust neither our government nor the powerful multinational corporations that, once again, may not have our people's best interests at heart.