Research Catalog

Title

By the bomb's early light : American thought and culture at the dawn of the atomic age / Paul Boyer ; with a new preface by the author.

Author

Boyer, Paul S.

Publication

Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, 1994.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xxii, 440 p. : ill.; 24 cm.

Summary

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

Subject

• Since 1945
• Atomic bomb
• Atomic bomb > Moral and ethical aspects
• United States > Civilization > 1945-

Note

• Originally published: New York : Pantheon, 1985. With new pref.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 369-422) and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

1. First reactions. "The whole world gasped" -- 2. Overture: the world-government movement. The summons to action -- Atomic-bomb nightmares and world-government dreams -- 3. The atomic scientists: from bomb-makers to political sages. The political agenda of the scientists' movement -- "To the village square": the public agenda of the scientists' movement -- The uses of fear -- Representative text: One world or none -- The mixed message of Bikini -- The scientists' movement in eclipse -- 4. Anodyne to terror: fantasies of a techno-atomic Utopia. Atomic cars, artificial suns, cancer-curing isotopes: the search for a silver lining -- Bright dreams and disturbing realities: the psychological function of the atomic-Utopia visions -- 5. The social implications of atomic energy" prophecies and prescriptions. Optimistic forecasts -- Darker social visions -- Experts and ideologues offer their prescriptions -- Social science into the breach -- 6. The crisis of morals and values. Justifications, rationalizations, evasions: Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and the American conscience -- "Victory for what?": the voice of the minority -- Atomic weapons and Judeo-Christian ethics: the discourse begins -- Human nature, technological man, the Apocalyptic tradition -- 7. Culture and consciousness in the early atomic era. Worlds fail: the bomb and the literary imagination -- Visions of the atomic future in science fiction and speculative fantasy -- Second thoughts about Prometheus: the atomic bomb and attitudes toward science -- Psychological fallout: consciousness and the bomb -- 8. The end of the beginning: settling in for the long haul. Dagwood to the rescue: the campaign to promote the "peaceful atom" -- Secrecy and soft soap: soothing fears of the bomb -- The reassuring message of civil defense -- 1949-1950: embracing the bomb -- Epilogue : From the H-bomb to star wars: the continuing cycles of activism and apathy.

ISBN

0807844802 (pbk. : alk. paper)

LCCN

^^^94004241^

OCLC

• 29877257
• SCSB-12051229

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library