Nuclear Redux
December 10, 2008 9:41 PM 
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Photographer Paul Shambroom has spent the last sixteen years documenting a much-discussed but little seen aspect of American foreign policy -- our
nuclear arsenal.
"More than ten years after the end of the Cold War, the U.S. maintains 10,000 active warheads. Concerns about nuclear aspirations in Iraq and North Korea dominate foreign policy, and in the wake of September 11, the possibility that terrorists might obtain and use weapons of mass destruction has become frighteningly real. Paul has documented the nuclear reality we have created in a series of striking and eerily beautiful images that offer an inside look at America's nuclear arsenal."
Portfolio includes detailed images of
missiles,
warheads,
bombers,
submarines, and
command centers, as well as
new warhead designs and missile defense prototypes that may be deployed well into the twenty-first century. Also worth checking out Shambroom's
website for more
pretty pictures. (
nukes,
meetings,
factories, and
first responders)
Related links for Cold War junkies:
Press the little red
button!
Truck driver
John Coster-Mullen spends a decade researching and constructing a full-scale replica of the Little Boy atomic bomb. “Coster-Mullen sees his project as a diverting mental challenge—not unlike a crossword puzzle—whose goal is simply to present readers with accurate information about the past." (New Yorker slide show essay)
Studio 360 goes
atomic: Oppenheimer, Strangelove, and Richard Rhodes (PRI link)
Complete back issues of the
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, now available (along with EVERYTHING ELSE!) via Google Books
(courtesy of Design Observer)
Try out also the Library of Congress, in particular the Built in America collection of photographs and documents. Though there are no easy permalinks, search under "missile", "nuclear", "cold war" and other such categories.
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 10:11 PM on December 10, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]