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

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Boyer, Paul S.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

United States--Civilization--1945-.

United States.

Atomic bomb.

Atomic bomb--Moral and ethical aspects.

Local Subjects:

United States--Civilization--1945-.

Physical Description:

xxii, 440 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Chapel Hill, NC : University of North Carolina Press, 1994.

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.

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.

Notes:

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

Includes bibliographical references (pages 369-422) and index.

ISBN:

0807844802

9780807844809

OCLC:

29877257

Online:

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