August 14, 2000
Nuclear Nostalgia
Tidbit ArchiveLast Week's Tidbit -- Black (and Feminist, Gay, Hindu, etc.) Science Fiction
| The Atomic Age was over even before the Cold War ended officially
in 1989. For years, Americans had lived with the bomb. Not
only was it central to U.S. politics and foreign policy, but its influence
on popular culture--from comic books to jazz--was enormous. By the
1970s, however, the threat of nuclear war seemed to wane in the minds of
most Americans. People began to look on nuclear weapons, fallout
shelters, and school air raid drills as objects of satire rather than the
symbols of constant fear that they had been for many years. More
recently, a kind of nostalgia has developed for the artifacts of the Atomic
Age.
Perhaps it's the simplicity of the threat of instant incineration or the apparent naiveté with which people accepted apparently futile preparations for a nuclear attack (e.g., schoolchildren practicing ducking under their desks, etc.) that we find so interesting today. Whatever the reasons, there's a fascination that has found expression in films, TV, books, and the web. Beyond the "campiness" and nostalgic aspects, however, artifacts of the Atomic Age are also the subject of scholarly study. They provide ample fuel for cultural historians and other social scientists, and help us understand and interpret the meaning of those times and their influence on our present and future. |
Links:Conelrad: All Things Atomic. "An eerie, creepy look at Cold War culture." Conelrad, in case you have forgotten, was the emergency radio broadcast system that was supposed to provide civil defense instructions in case of a nuclear attack, just tune to 640 or 1240 on your AM radio dial.
Nuke Pop. An illustrated cultural history of the Cold War including comic books, magazines, record album jackets, and more. Very cool site.
The Bureau of Atomic Tourism -- "dedicated to the promotion of tourist locations around the world that have either been the site of atomic explosions, display exhibits on the development of atomic devices, or contain vehicles that were designed to deliver atomic weapons." A bizarre idea, perhaps, but interesting.
Atomic Archive. "Explore the history, science and consequences of the atomic bomb." A companion site to a CD-ROM with the same title.
Jayne Loader's Public Shelter. Together with her partners Kevin and Pierce Rafferty, Jayne Loader researched, produced, directed, and edited "Atomic Cafe," a highly-acclaimed 1982 film about the atomic bomb and the Cold War. This nicely-designed site contains information about Loader, the film, and its subject matter, including a variety of links.
Review of Margot A. Henrikson, Dr. Strangelove's America: Society and Culture in the Atomic Age (Berkeley: U. of California Press, 1997), by Mark D. Van Ells. "Henrikson argues that the atomic bomb had a revolutionary impact on American culture." Buy the book from Amazon.com. ($34.95)
Review of Dr. Strangelove by Tim Dirks on Filmsite. (More than a review, this is a long essay with interpretation, comment, and background on Stanley Kubrick's 1964 satirical film masterpiece.)
"The Atomic Age at 50." Excerpts from a 1995 special issue of Technology Review.
Dewey Webb, "Blasts From the Past," The Phoenix New Times (April 17, 1997). "Yesterday's nuclear family rooms [i.e., fallout shelters] are today's underground sensations."
"The Atomic Age," It Seems Like Yesterday (Winter 1999). (An online quarterly journal about the history of the baby boom generation associated with a series on History Television.) A Canadian perspective on this era.
Pop Culture and Counter Culture of the Atomic Age. Site associated with a course taught by Prof. Dennis Pearson at Columbia Basin College in Pasco, Washington (which happens to be where one of the major nuclear weapons plants of the Manhattan Project was located). Pearson has also collected lots of other neat stuff on his site (e.g., links to archives of song lyrics, lists of cambots, and more).
