ACLS Humanities E-Book: By the bomb's early light: American thought and culture at the dawn of the atomic age

By the bomb's early light: American thought and culture at the dawn of the atomic age

Boyer, Paul S.

Year: 1994.

Publisher: University of North Carolina Press.

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table of contents

Frontmatter

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Part One First Reactions

1. "The Whole World Gasped"

Part Two Overture: The World-Government Movement

2. The Summons to Action

3. Atomic-Bomb Nightmares and World-Government Dreams

Part Three The Atomic Scientists: From Bomb-Makers to Political Sages

4. The Political Agenda of the Scientists' Movement

5. "To the Village Square": The Public Agenda of the Scientists' Movement

6. The Uses of Fear

7. Representative Text: One World or None

8. The Mixed Message of Bikini

9. The Scientists' Movement in Eclipse

Part Four Anodyne to Terror: Fantasies of a Techno-Atomic Utopia

10. Atomic Cars, Artificial Suns, Cancer-Curing Isotopes: The Search for a Silver Lining

11. Bright Dreams and Disturbing Realities: The Psychological Function of the Atomic-Utopia Visions

Part Five The Social Implications of Atomic Energy: Prophecies and Prescriptions

12. Optimistic Forecasts

13. Darker Social Visions

14. Experts and Ideologues Offer Their Prescriptions

15. Social Science into the Breach

Part Six The Crisis of Morals and Values

16. Justifications, Rationalizations, Evasions: Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and the American Conscience

17. "Victory for What?" — The Voice of the Minority

18. Atomic Weapons and Judeo-Christian Ethics: The Discourse Begins

19. Human Nature, Technological Man, the Apocalyptic Tradition

Part Seven Culture and Consciousness in the Early Atomic Era

20. Words Fail: The Bomb and the Literary Imagination

21. Visions of the Atomic Future in Science Fiction and Speculative Fantasy

22. Second Thoughts about Prometheus: The Atomic Bomb and Attitudes Toward Science

23. Psychological Fallout: Consciousness and the Bomb

Part Eight The End of the Beginning: Settling in for the Long Haul

24. Dagwood to the Rescue: The Campaign to Promote the "Peaceful Atom"

25. Secrecy and Soft Soap: Soothing Fears of the Bomb

26. The Reassuring Message of Civil Defense

27. 1949-1950: Embracing the Bomb

Epilogue: From the H-Bomb to Star Wars: The Continuing Cycles of Activism and Apathy

Notes

Index

reviews

catalog record

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

Extent:

600dpi TIFF G4 page images

E-Distribution Information:

University of Michigan Library, Scholarly Publishing Office
Ann Arbor, Michigan
2008
Permission must be received for any subsequent distribution in print or electronically. Please contact info@hebook.org for more information.

Source Version:

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.
Boyer, Paul S
Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1994.

URL:

http://hdl.handle.net/2027/heb.01617

Subject Headings:

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

Notes:

• Originally published: New York : Pantheon, 1985. With new pref.
• Electronic access restricted; authentication may be required

Encoding Description:

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