Elementary Secondary Higher Ed Common Reads
0 0
Download high-resolution image Look inside

Nordenholt's Million

Part of MIT Press / Radium Age

Author J. J. Connington
Introduction by Matthew Battles
Afterword by Evan Hepler-Smith
Look inside
Paperback
$19.95 US
The MIT Press
On sale Aug 02, 2022 | 394 Pages | 9780262544283
Add to cart Add to list Exam Copies

See Additional Formats
As a bacteria threatens to wipe out humankind, a plutocrat sets himself up as the benignant dictator of a survivalist colony.

In this novel originally published in 1923, as denitrifying bacteria inimical to plant growth spreads around the world, toppling civilizations and threatening to wipe out humankind, the British plutocrat Nordenholt sets himself up as the benignant dictator of a ruthlessly efficient, entirely undemocratic, survivalist colony established in Scotland’s Clyde Valley. Discovering just how far their employer is willing to go in his effort to spare one million lives, Jack Flint, the colony’s director of operations, and Elsa Huntingtower, Nordenholt’s personal assistant, are forced to grapple with the question of whether a noble end justifies dastardly means.
Series Foreword vii
Introduction: Benignant Fascism xiii
Matthew Battles
I Genesis 1
II The Coming of "The Blight" 19
III B. Diazotans 31
IV Panic 41
V Nordenholt 49
VI The Psychology of the Breaking-strain 75
VII Nordenholt's Million 103
VIII The Clyde Valley 121
IX Intermezzo 147
X The Death of the Leviathan 165
XI Fata Morgana 175
XII Nuit Blanche 183
XIII Reconstruction 221
XIV Winter in the Outer World 243
XV Document B. 53. X. 15 263
XVI In the Nitrogen Area 281
XVII Per Iter Tenebricosum 301
XVIII The Eleventh Hour 319
XIX The Breaking-strain 339
XX Asgard 349
Afterword: Alfred Walter Stewart 357
Evan Hepler-Smith
Under the pseudonym J. J. Connington, Alfred Walter Stewart (1880–1947)  wrote seventeen well-received detective novels; Nordenholt’s Million is his only science fiction novel. Stewart was a distinguished British chemist and author of the popular textbooks Recent Advances in Organic Chemistry (1908) and Recent Advances in Physical and Inorganic Chemistry (1909). Via a 1918 theory of the physical chemistry of radioactivity, he contributed the term isobar—as complementary to the term isotope—to science. 
 
Matthew Battles is the author of Library: An Unquiet History, Palimpsest, and Tree, as well as the story collection The Sovereignties of Invention. His writing on the cultural dimensions of science, technology, and the natural world have appeared in the Atlantic, the Boston Globe, and Orion. For Harvard's metaLAB, he develops research into the dark abundance of collections, cultural and technology, and conditions of experience in the context of deep time.
 
Evan Hepler-Smith teaches the history of science and technology and environmental history at Duke University. He has a special interest in the history of chemicals and chemistry, information technology, and environmental regulation. His book in progress is entitled Compound Words: Chemical Information and the Molecular World. His writing has been published in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Time.com, and Public Books.
J. J. Connington View titles by J. J. Connington

About

As a bacteria threatens to wipe out humankind, a plutocrat sets himself up as the benignant dictator of a survivalist colony.

In this novel originally published in 1923, as denitrifying bacteria inimical to plant growth spreads around the world, toppling civilizations and threatening to wipe out humankind, the British plutocrat Nordenholt sets himself up as the benignant dictator of a ruthlessly efficient, entirely undemocratic, survivalist colony established in Scotland’s Clyde Valley. Discovering just how far their employer is willing to go in his effort to spare one million lives, Jack Flint, the colony’s director of operations, and Elsa Huntingtower, Nordenholt’s personal assistant, are forced to grapple with the question of whether a noble end justifies dastardly means.

Table of Contents

Series Foreword vii
Introduction: Benignant Fascism xiii
Matthew Battles
I Genesis 1
II The Coming of "The Blight" 19
III B. Diazotans 31
IV Panic 41
V Nordenholt 49
VI The Psychology of the Breaking-strain 75
VII Nordenholt's Million 103
VIII The Clyde Valley 121
IX Intermezzo 147
X The Death of the Leviathan 165
XI Fata Morgana 175
XII Nuit Blanche 183
XIII Reconstruction 221
XIV Winter in the Outer World 243
XV Document B. 53. X. 15 263
XVI In the Nitrogen Area 281
XVII Per Iter Tenebricosum 301
XVIII The Eleventh Hour 319
XIX The Breaking-strain 339
XX Asgard 349
Afterword: Alfred Walter Stewart 357
Evan Hepler-Smith

Author

Under the pseudonym J. J. Connington, Alfred Walter Stewart (1880–1947)  wrote seventeen well-received detective novels; Nordenholt’s Million is his only science fiction novel. Stewart was a distinguished British chemist and author of the popular textbooks Recent Advances in Organic Chemistry (1908) and Recent Advances in Physical and Inorganic Chemistry (1909). Via a 1918 theory of the physical chemistry of radioactivity, he contributed the term isobar—as complementary to the term isotope—to science. 
 
Matthew Battles is the author of Library: An Unquiet History, Palimpsest, and Tree, as well as the story collection The Sovereignties of Invention. His writing on the cultural dimensions of science, technology, and the natural world have appeared in the Atlantic, the Boston Globe, and Orion. For Harvard's metaLAB, he develops research into the dark abundance of collections, cultural and technology, and conditions of experience in the context of deep time.
 
Evan Hepler-Smith teaches the history of science and technology and environmental history at Duke University. He has a special interest in the history of chemicals and chemistry, information technology, and environmental regulation. His book in progress is entitled Compound Words: Chemical Information and the Molecular World. His writing has been published in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Time.com, and Public Books.
J. J. Connington View titles by J. J. Connington

Additional formats

Other books in this series

Related Articles

Literature

Three Penguin Random House Authors Win Pulitzer Prizes

On Monday, May 5, three Penguin Random House authors were honored with a Pulitzer Prize. Established in 1917, the Pulitzer Prizes are the most prestigious awards in American letters. To date, PRH has 143 Pulitzer Prize winners, including William Faulkner, Eudora Welty, Josh Steinbeck, Ron Chernow, Anne Applebaum, Colson Whitehead, and many more. Take a look at our 2025 Pulitzer Prize

Read more

Three Penguin Random House Authors Win Pulitzer Prizes

Literature
Gender and Sexuality Studies Literature Sociology

Books for LGBTQIA+ Pride Month

In June we celebrate Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, and Asexual + (LGBTQIA+) Pride Month, which honors the 1969 Stonewall riots in Manhattan. Pride Month is a time to both celebrate the accomplishments of those in the LGBTQ+ community and recognize the ongoing struggles faced by many across the world who wish to live

Read more

Books for LGBTQIA+ Pride Month

Gender and Sexuality Studies Literature Sociology
Literature

The MIT Press Radium Age Series: A Science Fiction Primer for Students

In these forgotten classics in MIT Press’ Radium Age series, students will discover the origins of enduring tropes like tyrannical supermen, dystopian wastelands, sinister telepaths, and eco-catastrophes. According to the Los Angeles Review of Books, the series “challenges readers to reconsider the science fiction of the early 20th century… By returning to an international tradition of

Read more

The MIT Press Radium Age Series: A Science Fiction Primer for Students

Literature
Subscribe

Penguin Random House Higher Education

© 2025 Penguin Random House

Back to Top
0
    • 0
    Wish List (0)