Ever since the first mushroom cloud rose over the New Mexico desert, Americans have had a love-hate relationship with the atom. Nuclear weapons bestowed upon the United States a degree of military and political supremacy that it had never enjoyed before, but also bequeathed a heavy burden of moral and cultural tensions that caused two generations of Americans to fear and loathe all things nuclear.
In this seminar, we examined the history of Atomic America from several perspectives. Our discussions of the origins of the period centered on the World War II era, and focused primarily on scientific, political, and diplomatic issues – why the bomb began to look technically feasible in the late 1930s and early 1940s, how the Manhattan Engineer District developed, and recent historical analyses of the use of the bombs against Japan at the end of the war. Readings for this section included Lawrence Badash’s Scientists and the Development of Nuclear Weapons, Frank Gosling’s The Manhattan Project, and J. Samuel Walker’s Prompt and Utter Destruction.
We continued by surveying the political, social, and cultural fall-out of the advent of nuclear weapons, especially as they emerged as a central element of the Cold War competition with the Soviet Union. Our topics ranged from the bomb’s effect on political dynamics and religious beliefs to its impact on comic books, movies, and television. Materials here included Paul Boyer’s Fallout, Walter Miller’s novel A Canticle for Liebowitz, and a viewing of the classic Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.
We concluded with an examination of how Atomic America is being treated historically now that the Cold War is over. Our discussions here focused on the controversy over the Smithsonian’s aborted Enola Gay exhibit from 1995 and on literature describing how America’s nuclear complex transformed the American West in the 20th century. These readings included Linenthal and Engelhardt’s History Wars and Bartimus and McCartney’s Trinity’s Children.
We will explore these issues through reading (see below) and media, especially films like Fat Man and Little Boy, Dr. Strangelove, The China Syndrome, and several classic episodes of The Twilight Zone.
Readings:
Badash, Lawrence, Scientists and the Development of Nuclear Weapons: From Fission to
the Limited Test Ban Treaty, 1939-1963.
Bartimus, Tad and Scott McCarney, Trinity’s Children: Living Along America’s
Nuclear Highway.
Boyer, Paul, Fallout: A Historian Reflects on America's Half-Century Encounter with
Nuclear Weapons.
Linenthal, Edward T. and Tom Engelhardt, History Wars: The Enola Gay and Other
Battles for the American Past.
Miller, Walter M. A Canticle for Liebowitz (1959; reprint New York: Bantam, 1997).
There may also be a short collection of readings supplied at the seminar meetings.
Tentative schedule of topics and assignments
| Week 1 The New World: Fat Man, Little Boy, and Hiroshima | |
| Reading: | Badash, Scientists and the Development of Nuclear Weapons |
| Walker, Prompt and Utter Destruction | |
| Film: | The Day after Trinity or Fat Man and Little Boy |
| Week 2 Fallout | |
| Reading: | Boyer, Fallout |
| Film: | Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb |
| Week 3 Armageddon and Political Controversy | |
| Reading: | Miller, A Canticle for Liebowitz |
| Linenthal and Engelhardt, History Wars | |
| Film: | Collection of Twilight Zone and Star Trek episodes |
| Week 4 The Atomic West | |
| Reading: | Bartimus and McCartney, Trinity’s Children |
| Film: | War Games or The Day After or White Sands |