Misrach, Richard. Bravo 20: The Bombing of the American West by Richard Misrach with Myriam Weisang Misrach.

Johns Hopkins, 1990. [Landscape photographs at atomic bomb testing sites in Nevada showing devastation, with narrative and proposal for a national park.] Fine with near fine protected dust jacket. 1st edition.  (Reflections in photo of cover.) Summary:

Bravo 20: The Bombing of the American West is a landmark photo-documentary book that exposes the environmental and cultural devastation of a public tract of land in Nevada illegally used as a military bombing range.

Key Focus Areas

• The Subject and History: The book focuses on a section of the Nevada desert's Great Basin, land sacred to the Northern Paiute Indians, which the U.S. Navy commandeered and used for high-explosive bomb testing. The military designated the area "Bravo 20."

• The Investigation: To bypass military restrictions and gain access, Richard Misrach utilized an old mining law to legally claim a tract of land at the epicenter of the bombing range. He spent eighteen months photographing the site despite the dangers of unexploded ordnance.

• The Imagery and Text: Misrach’s full-color, large-format photographs capture a jarring juxtaposition: the stark, natural beauty of the desert contrasted with severe man-made scars, including bomb craters filled with toxic liquid, abandoned school buses used as targets, and rusted military wreckage. The accompanying text by Myriam Weisang Misrach provides a scathing historical account of military expansionism and ecological indifference in the American West.

• The Radical Proposal: The book culminates in a blueprint to reclaim the area. The authors propose converting the decimated landscape into America's first environmental memorial: the "Bravo 20 National Park," designed to educate visitors on the dark history of military land destruction.