I would strongly recommend Under the Cloud- the decades of nuclear testing by Richard Lee Miller. A review reads: "a chilling documentary history of America's above-ground nuclear tests conducted during the 1950s and early 1960s..." For the decade and one-half spanning 1950 - 1964, the U.S. military-industrial complex used more than one-third of this country's population as unwitting guinea pigs to test the effect of wind dispersed radioactive particulates. The American Midwest was particularly hard hit. A lengthy book at 547 pages, it is well-researched and a fascinating read. It compares well with The Making of the Atomic Bomb, a Pulitzer prize winner by Richard Rhodes.
- Ed