List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations and Acronyms/Glossary

Introduction

Chapter 1. Nuclear Dreams and Radioactive Nightmares: Popular Culture and the Quest for Nuclear Consensus in East and West Germany, 1945-1970
Chapter 2. On the Brink of Disaster?: Safety Regimes and Nuclear Accidents in the Two Germanys
Chapter 3. Dissenting Voices: The Emergence of Counter-Experts in West Germany
Chapter 4. From Local Roots to National Prominence: The Struggle over Wyhl
Chapter 5. Environmentalism as Civil War: Brokdorf-and the Consequences
Chapter 6. The Shock of Chernobyl and the Environmentalist Breakthrough in West Germany
Chapter 7. Not Immune to Error: Chernobyl's Impact in the GDR
Chapter 8. Abandoning Nuclear Power-Or Not?

Conclusion

Bibliography
Index

The German abandonment of nuclear power represents one of the most successful popular revolts against technocratic thinking in modern times-the triumph of a dynamic social movement, encompassing a broad swath of West Germans as well as East German dissident circles, over political, economic, and scientific elites. Taking on Technocracy gives a brisk account of this dramatic historical moment, showing how the popularization of scientific knowledge fostered new understandings of technological risk. Combining analyses of social history, popular culture, social movement theory, and histories of science and technology, it offers a compelling narrative of a key episode in the recent history of popular resistance.

Dolores L. Augustine was until her retirement a Professor of History at St. John's University, New York. She received her doctorate from the Free University of Berlin. Her publications include Patricians and Parvenus: Wealth and High Society in Wilhelmine Germany and Red Prometheus: Engineering and Dictatorship in East Germany, 1945-1990.