Technology in Atomic Café [released 1982]

Some questions to consider (please post on Blackboard; this will be the last chance for all of you to make a major contribution towards your course participation grade through Blackboard this term, apart from the extra-credit interview assignment).

In what ways did American political leaders describe the atomic bomb? What were their views on this technology? How did these views change through the 1950s?

How did American citizens react to the announcement of the bomb? How did they try to relate it to existing technologies?

What did Americans seems to like most about the Bomb? What least?

Who emerged as critics of the atomic bomb? How did government officials respond to their criticisms?

What do you find most surprising about the attitudes of Americans toward the Bomb in the 1940s and 1950s? (These folks – in your parent's and grandparent's generation– were not stupid: like us, they responded to the social and political environment in which they lived. Given this, what does your surprise tell you about attitudes towards military technologies or technological systems in general at this time?)