Documentary filmmaker Jon Else will discuss and sign “Frenchman Flat: The Rise and Fall of Atomic Bombs,” his new history of the American nuclear enterprise, at 7 p.m. Monday, Sept. 28, 2026, at Vroman’s Bookstore, 695 E. Colorado Blvd., in conversation with Caltech historian Diana Kormos Buchwald.
Else made “The Day After Trinity: J. Robert Oppenheimer and the Atomic Bomb” in 1980. Kormos Buchwald, the Robert M. Abbey Professor of History at Caltech, has directed and served as general editor of the Einstein Papers Project since 2000.
The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press published the book Sept. 8. Its throughline is a 37-kiloton bomb dubbed “Priscilla” that was exploded above a custom-built mini-civilization at Frenchman Flat, Nevada, in 1957, and its narrative runs from wartime Los Alamos to the suspension of U.S. and Soviet nuclear testing in 1992, according to the publisher.
Else, a MacArthur Fellow, is professor emeritus at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and was series producer and cinematographer for “Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Years.” “No one is better qualified to write this story than Jon Else,” author Adam Hochschild wrote in a promotional endorsement of the book.
The program is a book signing and an adult event, and Vroman’s sells the hardcover for $29.95. Vroman’s says book purchases from the store make events like this possible.
Event: Jon Else, in conversation with Diana Kormos Buchwald, discusses and signs “Frenchman Flat: The Rise and Fall of Atomic Bombs.” When: Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. Time: 7 p.m. Cost: Admission is free, according to the Playhouse Village Association. Where: Vroman’s Bookstore, 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena. For more, call (626) 449-5320 or visit vromansbookstore.com.
