Life Under a Cloud

Life Under a Cloud PDF Author: Allan M. Winkler
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
ISBN: 9780252067730
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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Book Description
Presents an account of the impact of the atomic bomb on American political and cultural life. This title delineates how fears of nuclear disaster have become a part of our culture. Tracing the debate over military and civilian uses of atomic power, it reveals the irony, anxiety, and official insanity of the atomic age.

Life Under a Cloud

Life Under a Cloud PDF Author: Allan M. Winkler
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
ISBN: 9780252067730
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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Book Description
Presents an account of the impact of the atomic bomb on American political and cultural life. This title delineates how fears of nuclear disaster have become a part of our culture. Tracing the debate over military and civilian uses of atomic power, it reveals the irony, anxiety, and official insanity of the atomic age.

The American Atom

The American Atom PDF Author: Philip L. Cantelon
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 9780812213546
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 396

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Book Description
For this edition (first in 1984), the editors have updated the collection of primary documents which tell the story of atomic energy in the US from the discovery of fission through the development of nuclear weapons, international proliferation, and attempts at control. The book also includes a new chapter, reflects on Chernoyl, Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Atomic Americans

Atomic Americans PDF Author: Sarah E. Robey
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501762109
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 159

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Book Description
At the dawn of the Atomic Age, Americans encountered troubling new questions brought about by the nuclear revolution: In a representative democracy, who is responsible for national public safety? How do citizens imagine themselves as members of the national collective when faced with the priority of individual survival? What do nuclear weapons mean for transparency and accountability in government? What role should scientific experts occupy within a democratic government? Nuclear weapons created a new arena for debating individual and collective rights. In turn, they threatened to destabilize the very basis of American citizenship. As Sarah E. Robey shows in Atomic Americans, people negotiated the contours of nuclear citizenship through overlapping public discussions about survival. Policymakers and citizens disagreed about the scale of civil defense programs and other public safety measures. As the public learned more about the dangers of nuclear fallout, critics articulated concerns about whether the federal government was operating in its citizens' best interests. By the early 1960s, a significant antinuclear movement had emerged, which ultimately contributed to the 1963 nuclear testing ban. Atomic Americans tells the story of a thoughtful body politic engaged in rewriting the rubric of rights and responsibilities that made up American citizenship in the Atomic Age.

The Dragon's Tail

The Dragon's Tail PDF Author: Robert A. Jacobs
Publisher: Univ of Massachusetts Press
ISBN: 9781558497276
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 172

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Book Description
When President Harry Truman introduced the atomic bomb to the world in 1945, he described it as a God-given harnessing of "the basic power of the universe." Six days later a New York Times editorial framed the dilemma of the new Atomic Age for its readers: "Here the long pilgrimage of man on Earth turns towards darkness or towards light." American nuclear scientists, aware of the dangers their work involved, referred to one of their most critical experiments as "tickling the dragon's tail." Even after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, most Americans may not have been sure what an atomic bomb was or how it worked. But they did sense that it had fundamentally changed the future of the human race. In this book, Robert Jacobs analyzes the early impact of nuclear weapons on American culture and society. He does so by examining a broad range of stories, or "nuclear narratives," that sought to come to grips with the implications of the bomb's unprecedented and almost unimaginable power. Beginning with what he calls the "primary nuclear narrative," which depicted atomic power as a critical agent of social change that would either destroy the world or transform it for the better, Jacobs explores a variety of common themes and images related to the destructive power of the bomb, the effects of radiation, and ways of surviving nuclear war. He looks at civil defense pamphlets, magazines, novels, and films to recover the stories the U.S. government told its citizens and soldiers as well as those presented in popular culture. According to Jacobs, this early period of Cold War nuclear culture?from 1945 to the banning of above-ground testing in 1963?was distinctive for two reasons: not only did atmospheric testing make Americans keenly aware of the presence of nuclear weapons in their lives, but radioactive fallout from the tests also made these weapons a serious threat to public health, separate from yet directly linked to the danger of nuclear war.

The Atomic Bomb and American Society

The Atomic Bomb and American Society PDF Author: Rosemary B. Mariner
Publisher: Univ. of Tennessee Press
ISBN: 157233648X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 482

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Book Description
Drawing on the latest research on the atomic bomb and its history, the contributors to this provocative collection of eighteen essays set out to answer two key questions: First, how did the atomic bomb, a product of unprecedented technological innovation, rapid industrial-scale manufacturing, and unparalleled military deployment shape U.S. foreign policy, the communities of workers who produced it, and society as a whole? And second, how has American society's perception that the the bomb is a means of military deterrence in the Cold War era evolve under the influence of mass media, scientists, public intellectuals, and even the entertainment industry? In answering these questions, The Atomic Bomb and American Society sheds light on the collaboration of science and the military in creating the bomb; the role of women working at Los Alamos; the transformation of nuclear physicists into public intellectuals as the reality of the bomb came into widespread consciousness; the revolutionary change in military strategy following the invention of the bomb and the development of Cold War ideology; the image of the bomb that was conveyed in the popular media; and the connection of the bomb to the commemoration of World War II. As it illuminates the cultural, social, political, environmental, and historical effects of the creation of the atomic bomb, this volume contributes to our understanding of how democratic institutions can coexist with a technology that affects everyone, even if only a few are empowered to manage it. Rosemary B. Mariner is formerly Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair and Professor of Military Studies for the National War College. She is currently a lecturer in history at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. G. Kurt Piehler is associate professor of history and former director of the Center for the Study of War and Society at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, which hosted the conference that formed the basis of this volume. He is the author of Remembering War the American Way and World War II in the American Soldiers' Lives Series as well as the coeditor, with John Whiteclay Chambers II, of Major Problems in American Military History.

By the Bomb's Early Light

By the Bomb's Early Light PDF Author: Paul S. Boyer
Publisher: Pantheon Books
ISBN: 9780394528786
Category : Atomic bomb
Languages : en
Pages : 464

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Book Description
Originally published in 1985, By the Bomb's Early Light is the first book to explore the cultural "fallout" in America during the early years of the atomic age. The book is based on a wide range of sources, including cartoons, opinion polls, radio programs, movies, literature, song lyrics, slang, and interviews with leading opinion-makers of the time. Through these materials, Boyer shows the surprising and profoundly disturbing ways in which the bomb quickly and totally penetrated the fabric of American life, from the chillingly prophetic forecasts of observers like Lewis Mumford to the Hollywood starlet who launched her career as the "anatomic bomb". In a new preface, Boyer discusses recent changes in nuclear politics and attitudes toward the nuclear age.

By the Bomb's Early Light

By the Bomb's Early Light PDF Author: Paul Boyer
Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press
ISBN: 0807875708
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 465

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Book Description
Originally published in 1985, By the Bomb's Early Light is the first book to explore the cultural 'fallout' in America during the early years of the atomic age. Paul Boyer argues that the major aspects of the long-running debates about nuclear armament and disarmament developed and took shape soon after the bombing of Hiroshima. The book is based on a wide range of sources, including cartoons, opinion polls, radio programs, movies, literature, song lyrics, slang, and interviews with leading opinion-makers of the time. Through these materials, Boyer shows the surprising and profoundly disturbing ways in which the bomb quickly and totally penetrated the fabric of American life, from the chillingly prophetic forecasts of observers like Lewis Mumford to the Hollywood starlet who launched her career as the 'anatomic bomb.' In a new preface, Boyer discusses recent changes in nuclear politics and attitudes toward the nuclear age.

Atomic Narratives and American Youth

Atomic Narratives and American Youth PDF Author: Michael Scheibach
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476612668
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
Following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, numerous "atomic narratives"--books, newspapers, magazines, textbooks, movies, and television programs--addressed the implications of the bomb. Post-World War II youth encountered atomic narratives in their daily lives at school, at home and in their communities, and were profoundly affected by what they read and saw. This multidisciplinary study examines the exposure of American youth to atomic narratives during the ten years following World War II. In addition, it examines the broader "social narrative of the atom," which included educational, social, cultural, and political activities that surrounded and involved American youth. The activities ranged from school and community programs to movies and television shows to government-sponsored traveling exhibits on atomic energy. The book also presents numerous examples of writings by postwar adolescents, who clearly expressed their conflicted feelings about growing up in such a tumultuous time, and shows how many of the issues commonly associated with the sixties generation, such as peace, fellowship, free expression, and environmental concern, can be traced to this earlier generation.

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 48

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Book Description
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is the premier public resource on scientific and technological developments that impact global security. Founded by Manhattan Project Scientists, the Bulletin's iconic "Doomsday Clock" stimulates solutions for a safer world.

Killing Our Own

Killing Our Own PDF Author: Harvey Wasserman
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Ionizing radiation
Languages : en
Pages : 392

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Book Description