新书评论

Not to toot my own horn, but I think I would’ve been pretty good at code-naming nuclear tests. Between 1946 and 1992, in places such as the lush Marshall Islands and the barrens of Nevada, the United States organized atomic test “shots,” as they’re called, under such preposterous banners as Buster-Jangle Baker, Upshot-Knothole Grable, Grommet Frijoles-Espuela, and Nougat Des Moines. These names were non sequi- turs by design. As the journalist Jon Else explains in FRENCHMAN FLAT: THE RISE AND FALL OF ATOMIC BOMBS (Belknap Press, $29.95), “The language of shot naming was antilanguage, delib- erately without meaning . . . to break any connection to the purpose of the test.” …