Book Note

Pap A. Ndiaye. Nylon and Bombs: DuPont and the March of Modern America, translated by Elborg Forster. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007. 304 pp. $45.00.

Reviewed by Audra J. Wolfe

The juggernaut that was the postwar American economy was built on the twin pillars of consumerism and militarism, topics usually studied separately. In Nylon and Bombs the French historian of science and technology Pap Ndiaye attempts to integrate the two halves of this story by following the fortunes of chemical engineers at DuPont. As the book's title suggests, DuPont's engineers were involved in the mass production of two of the most iconic products of the 20th century: nylon and plutonium. While nylon found its way into both consumer and military goods, the plutonium produced at the DuPont-built plants in Oak Ridge, Tennessee; in Hanford, Washington; and at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina was destined almost exclusively for military use. Nylon's story is by now a familiar one, but the role of such corporations as DuPont, Union Carbide, and Eastman Kodak in the production of nuclear weapons has largely been forgotten. Chemical engineers in particular will enjoy Ndiaye's attempt to put technological know-how squarely at the center of American dominance in World War II.