Longing for the bomb : Oak Ridge and atomic nostalgia / Lindsey A. Freeman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Freeman, Lindsey A., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Manhattan Project (U.S.).

Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

History.

Atomic bomb--Social aspects.

Atomic bomb.

Official secrets.

Oak Ridge (Tenn.)--History--20th century.

Oak Ridge (Tenn.).

Oak Ridge (Tenn.)--Social life and customs--20th century.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory--History--20th century.

Official secrets--United States--History--20th century.

Atomic bomb--Social aspects--United States--History.

Manhattan Project (U.S.)--History.

World War, 1939-1945--Tennessee--Oak Ridge.

World War, 1939-1945.

Popular culture--United States--History--20th century.

Popular culture.

United States.

Manners and customs.

Tennessee--Oak Ridge.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

xv, 234 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Chapel Hill : The University of North Carolina Press, [2015]

Summary:

"Longing for the Bomb traces the unusual story of the first atomic city and the emergence of American nuclear culture. Tucked into the folds of Appalachia and kept off all commercial maps, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, was created for the Manhattan Project by the U.S. government in the 1940s. Its workers labored at a breakneck pace, most aware only that their jobs were helping 'the war effort.' The city has experienced the entire lifespan of the Atomic Age, from the fevered wartime enrichment of the uranium that fueled Little Boy, through a brief period of atomic utopianism after World War II when it began to brand itself as 'The Atomic City,' to the anxieties of the Cold War, to the contradictory contemporary period of nuclear unease and atomic nostalgia. Oak Ridge's story deepens our understanding of the complex relationship between America and its bombs. Blending historiography and ethnography, Lindsey Freeman shows how a once-secret city is visibly caught in an uncertain present, no longer what it was historically yet still clinging to the hope of a nuclear future. It is a place where history, memory, and myth compete and conspire to tell the story of America's atomic past and to explain the nuclear present"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Prologue

Introduction

The atomic prophecy

Brahms and bombs on the atomic frontier

At work in the atomic beehive

We didn't exactly live in a democracy

From Hiroshima to normalization

Happy memories under the mushroom cloud

Manhattan Project time machine

Atomic snapshots

Longing for the bomb.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781469622378

1469622378

OCLC:

891369595