Andrew Tompkins received his DPhil from the University of Oxford in 2013 after previously studying in Paris, Berlin, Chicago, and Chapel Hill. He has also lived in Japan, Russia, Poland, and Sweden. Dr Tompkins has been associated with the Centre Marc Bloch, a Franco-German research institute, since 2010, and conducted post-doctoral research at the Humboldt-Universitat zu Berlin with funds from the German Universities' Excellence Initiative from 2013-2016. He is currently a lecturer at the University of Sheffield. He divides his time between Berlin and Sheffield.

"This book is particularly useful for specialists of post-war Europe as well as those in protest studies. At the same time, Tompkins' work provides a fascinating look at the post-1968 development of French and German society that will be informative to a much wider audience." -- Jared R. Donnelly (USAF), European History Quarterly, Vol. 47

"A significant contribution to the history of nuclear power during this pivotal decade, Better Active than Radioactive! is also a compelling model for how to think and do the transnational in a way that historicizes and complicates the approach itself..."--Roxanne Panchasi, H-France

"[E]xcellent depth and rigour of the study. Tompkins does exactly as he sets out to do: he places the focus squarely on the transnational connections between activists and activist groups, and in doing so he has made a valuable contribution not only to scholarship on the anti-nuclear movement, but also as an example of how comparative history should be undertaken."--Sinead McEneaney, Reviews in History

"This book will appeal to environmentalists, political scientists, historians, general readers, community colleges, undergraduates, and graduate students...Highly recommended."--CHOICE

"This very well-written and readable study deals with the motivations and practices of the protesters involved as they probed the national, social and cultural limits of their activities...It is a vital contribution to our historical understanding of transnational activism, a phenomenon that is likely to grow as global challenges mount."--Michael Schüring, German History