Lookout America!: The Secret Hollywood Studio at the Heart of the Cold War (Interfaces: Studies in Visual Culture)

Having actually been stationed at Lookout Mountain for 3+ years until its closing, I have been amazed at how much I actually learned about the unit that I hadn't known before. As I later also was assigned to the Air Force Special Weapons Center/Nuclear Field Operations, and years later worked at the Nevada Test Site for a number of years as a contractor, it was quite interesting to see pieces fit together. Of course, while portions of the book look like a Masters/Doctoral thesis, it slowly paints why often boring sections have relevance. I gave a copy of this book to a friend who actually witnessed a number of actual tests in the Pacific, and he was fascinated with the detail.

A deeply unsatisfying book on multiple levels. It reads like the first draft of a master’s thesis in need of a professional editor. It is disorganized, and hard to follow, making the reader work to associate unlabeled photographs and illustrations with the writing.What book on a unique, photographic service that existed in the 1950s and 1960s would not be complete without a short diatribe about Donald Trump? The authors took an exceptional subject in the field of photography and managed to make it a near-total failure.Perhaps the most disingenuous trait of someone purporting to write the history of a subject is to interject their personal bias instead of simply providing facts. In the case of this book, the subject of Lookout Mountain is merely a façade for the authors to continually confront and beat the reader with the authors’ personal political prejudices.The book is a waste of research and the reader’s time. There is a dearth of information on Lookout Mountain and for all the posturing presented in the writing, the facts on Lookout Mountain occupy less than fifty pages. The remainder of the book is the authors’ personal political philosophy on nuclear weapons and the perceived failings of the United States in any number of areas the authors choose to examine.There is no attempt at balance or putting the U.S. policies into the context of the political realities of the time frame covered.In summary, the authors have attempted to furrow new ground and instead have manured it thoroughly.

Good book, lot of work by people who produced this book. I collect atomic history books, this as good as any I own. Worth the price.