On the sixth episode of American
History Too! we leave the tawdry goings-on of the Gilded Age far behind and
for this cheery Christmas special we examine the subject of Nuclear Fallout in
the context of the early Cold War (1945-1960).
Malcolm, who specialises in this area, guides us through the
history of the nuclear bomb: How was it
first conceived and why was it deployed? How close were the Nazis to securing the
bomb? What’s so special about a hydrogen
(or ‘super’) bomb? Is it conceivable
that a bomb could be constructed that would destroy the entire world? In what ways have governments chosen to
educate (or not) their citizenry about what would happen in the case of nuclear
war? Duck and cover as Malcolm takes us
on this tour de force of nuclear
history.
We hope all of our listeners have a great holiday season and
we’ll be back with the force of nature that was Teddy Roosevelt early next year. As usual, we would love to hear feedback on
the podcasts as we are very receptive to making improvements for future episodes.
Thanks again for listening this year, we really appreciate
it!
Cheers,
Mark & Malcolm
Reading List
- Hennessey, Peter, The Secret State: Preparing for the Worst, 1945-2010, 2nd
edition (London: Penguin, 2010)
- Hughes, Jeff, ‘The
Strath Report: Britain Confronts the H-Bomb, 1954–1955,’ History
and Technology: An International Journal, 19:3 (2003), 257-275
-
Jones,
Matthew, After Hiroshima: The United
States, Race, and Nuclear Weapons in Asia, 1945-1965 (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2010)
-
Winkler,
Allan M., Life Under A Cloud: American
Anxiety About the Atom (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1993)
-
Shapiro, Jerome F., Atomic Bomb Cinema: The Apocalyptic Imagination on Film (London:
Routledge, 2002)
-
http://www.civildefensemuseum.com/index.html
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