Manual for Survival, by MIT historian Kate Brown is a finalist for 2019 National Book Critics Circle Award in Nonfiction
 


Kate Brown, MIT Professor of Science, Technology, and Society; photo by Jon Sachs

"Manual for Survival: A Chernobyl Guide to the Future is "a magisterial blend of historical research, investigative journalism and poetic reportage.”

— The Economist



Kate Brown’s Manual for Survival: A Chernobyl Guide to the Future has been named a finalist for the 2019 National Book Critics Circle Awards in Nonfiction. Published by W.W. Norton, Manual for Survival is a chilling exposé of the international effort to minimize the health and environmental consequences of nuclear radiation in the wake of Chernobyl. Called “a magisterial blend of historical research, investigative journalism and poetic reportage” by The Economist, the book draws on a decade of archival research and on-the-ground interviews in Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus. 

Kate teaches environmental history and Cold War history at MIT’s Program on Science, Technology and Society. She has recently written about Chernobyl in The Washington Postand The Los Angeles Times.

The NBCC awards ceremony will be held Thursday, March 12 at the New School’s Tishman Auditorium, 63 Fifth Avenue, New York.

 

Suggested links

Kate Brown's MIT webpage

MIT Program in Science, Technology, and Society

Brown discusses her book on Tech Nation Podcast

Profile at MIT News: Historian of the hinterlands