{"product_id":"the-dragons-tail-americans-face-the-atomic-age-culture-and-politics-in-the-cold-war-and-beyond","title":"The Dragon's Tail: Americans Face the Atomic Age (Culture and Politics in the Cold War and Beyond)","description":"\u003cp\u003eWhen President Harry Truman introduced the atomic bomb to the world in 1945  he described it as a God-given harnessing of the basic power of the universe. Six days later a New York Times editorial framed the dilemma of the new Atomic Age for its readers: Here the long pilgrimage of man on Earth turns towards darkness or towards light. American nuclear scientists  aware of the dangers their work involved  referred to one of their most critical experiments as tickling the dragons tail.  Even after Hiroshima and Nagasaki  most Americans may not have been sure what an atomic bomb was or how it worked. But they did sense that it had fundamentally changed the future of the human race. In this book  Robert Jacobs analyzes the early impact of nuclear weapons on American culture and society. He does so by examining a broad range of stories  or nuclear narratives  that sought to come to grips with the implications of the bombs unprecedented and almost unimaginable power.  Beginning with what he calls the primary nuclear narrative  which depicted atomic power as a critical agent of social change that would either destroy the world or transform it for the better  Jacobs explores a variety of common themes and images related to the destructive power of the bomb  the effects of radiation  and ways of surviving nuclear war. He looks at civil defense pamphlets  magazines  novels  and films to recover the stories the U.S. government told its citizens and soldiers as well as those presented in popular culture.  According to Jacobs  this early period of Cold War nuclear culturefrom 1945 to the banning of above-ground testing in 1963was distinctive for two reasons: not only did atmospheric testing make Americans keenly aware of the presence of nuclear weapons in their lives  but radioactive fallout from the tests also made these weapons a serious threat to public health  separate from yet directly linked to the danger of nuclear war.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44987191590965,"sku":"ByrdShop_1558497277","price":21.86,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9781558497276.jpg?v=1770928547","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/the-dragons-tail-americans-face-the-atomic-age-culture-and-politics-in-the-cold-war-and-beyond","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}