by John O’Brian
Philadelphia: Pennsylvania State University Press
2010
In a very smart essay, John O’Brian launches from a postcard in a familiar photograph by Robert Frank (“Hoover Damn, Nevada, 1955”) to a discussion of atomic explosion imagery on American postcards from the Cold War era. Like the other essays in the book, O’Brian’s offering has implications for our understanding of topics far beyond postcards. Indeed, I can think of no writing we have on the subject of atomic explosion imagery that more succinctly and captivatingly argues for the disturbing ways that American culture has assimilated and suppressed the unthinkable.
— Robin Kelsey, caa. reviews
