Janet Farrell Brodie is Professor Emerita of History at Claremont Graduate University. This interview is based on her new book, The First Atomic Bomb: The Trinity Site in New Mexico (University of Nebraska Press, 2023).
JF: What led you to write The First Atomic Bomb?
JB: A colleague invited me to write it to be part of his book series. I was mentally stuck trying to finish another book (related to WWII radiation) and wanted the break and the intellectual diversity.
JF: In 2 sentences, what is the argument of The First Atomic Bomb?
JB: It’s the focus that is new—not about the famous scientists but the drafted men and local workers who built the site and oversaw the test. It is also about the radiation from the test—the aftereffects that are so significant even today.
JF: Why do we need to read The First Atomic Bomb?
JB: Anyone interested in the development of atomic weapons and the ending of World War II will find new material and new emphases in my book. It is not a rehash of well-known accounts about the bomb.
JF: Why and when did you become an American historian?
JB: I have always loved history; I majored in it in college and graduate school and I taught history and history-related college classes for decades. It is my passion although it has encompassed women’s history, environmental history, and the historical value of photographs and material objects.
JF: What is your next project?
JB: I’m going back to the book I abandoned when I started the Trinity book: a history of U.S. involvement with (and then abandonment of) radiological warfare in the mid-20th century.
JF: Thanks, Janet!