Amherst : University of Massachusetts Press, 2008.
Holdings
Details
Description
xii, 280 p., [22] p. of plates : ill.; 24 cm.
Summary
In this new and expanded edition of an already classic work, H. Bruce Franklin brings the epic story of the superweapon and the American imagination into the ominous twenty-first century, demonstrating its continuing importance both to comprehending our current predicament and to finding ways to escape from it. Sweeping through two centuries of American culture and military history, Franklin traces the evolution of superweapons from Robert Fulton's eighteenth-century submarine through the strategic bomber, atomic bomb, and Star Wars to a twenty-first century dominated by "weapons of mass destruction," real and imagined. Interweaving culture, science, technology, and history, he shows how and why the American pursuit of the ultimate defensive weapon - guaranteed to end all war and bring universal triumph to American ideals - has led out nation and the world into an epoch of terror and endless war.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 233-257) and index.
Contents
Robert Fulton and the weapons of progress -- Fantasies of war : 1880-1917 -- Thomas Edison and the industrialization of war -- Peace is our profession -- Billy Mitchell and the romance of the bomber -- The triumph of the bombers -- The final catch -- Don't worry, it's science fiction -- Atomic decision -- The rise of nuclear culture -- The Baruch plan : American science fiction -- Nuclear scenarios -- Early warnings -- Triumphs of nuclear culture -- Exit strategies -- Star wars -- The age of the automatons -- The end! -- The science-fiction project for the new American century -- Mushroom cloud over Cincinatti; or, the terrorized empire -- The new American century; or, the age of terror -- The unimaginable.