Understanding the Imaginary War
Culture, Thought and Nuclear Conflict, 1945-90
1st Edition
Published on 1. September 2016
328 pages
978-1-5261-0133-4 (ISBN)
Description
This collection offers a fresh interpretation of the Cold War as an imaginary war, a conflict that had imaginations of nuclear devastation as one of its main battlegrounds. The book includes survey chapters and case studies on Western Europe, the USSR, Japan and the USA. Looking at various strands of intellectual debate and at different media, from documentary film to fiction, the chapters demonstrate the difficulties to make the unthinkable and unimaginable - nuclear apocalypse - imaginable. The book will be required reading for everyone who wants to understand the cultural dynamics of the Cold War through the angle of its core ingredient, nuclear weapons. -- .
Reviews / Votes
'Understanding the Imaginary War is useful both as a historical tool, but also as a reminder that nuclear weapons still exist, and that nuclear war is still a very real possibility. If anything, the current political situation between Russia and the United States, and especially the inclusion of Article 27 in Russia's 2014 Military Doctrine relating to the possibility of using nuclear weapons to respond to a conventional attack, shows that emotions felt during the Cold War still affect contemporary relations.'April Curtis
'The book's fresh approach to the topic and wide range of perspectives will be welcomed by all with an interest in history, political science and cultural studies, and in particular by those of us interested in the Cold War and the history of nuclear weapons.'
Dr Mattias Eken, University of St Andrews, Reviews in History
'The volume succeeds in providing a deeper understanding of the cultural responses to nuclear weapons and is an important entry in Cold War historiography, bridging the gap between political, cultural, psychological, and emotional interpretations of nuclear weapons.'
Emily Gibbs, University of Liverpool, Journal of Contemporary History -- .
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More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Illustrations
Halftones, black & white
ISBN-13
978-1-5261-0133-4 (9781526101334)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Matthew Grant | Benjamin Ziemann
Understanding the Imaginary War
Culture, Thought and Nuclear Conflict, 1945-90
Book
07/2018
Manchester University Press
€33.40
Shipment within 15-20 days
Matthew Grant | Benjamin Ziemann
Understanding the Imaginary War
Culture, Thought and Nuclear Conflict, 1945-90
Book
08/2016
Manchester University Press
€134.70
Shipment within 3-4 weeks
Persons
Matthew Grant is Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Essex
Benjamin Ziemann is Professor in Modern German History at the University of Sheffield -- .
Benjamin Ziemann is Professor in Modern German History at the University of Sheffield -- .
Content
Introduction. The cold war as an imaginary war - Matthew Grant and Benjamin Ziemann
1. The apocalyptic fiction: shaping the future in the cold war - Eva Horn
2. Building peace, fearing the apocalypse: Nuclear danger in Soviet cold war culture, 1945-91 - Miriam Dobson
3. Nuclear themes in American culture, 1945 to the present - Paul Boyer
4. The imaginative landscape of nuclear war in Britain, 1945-65 - Matthew Grant
5. German angst? Debating cold war anxieties in West Germany, 1945-90 - Benjamin Ziemann
6. After Hiroshima. Guenther Anders and the history of anti-nuclear critique - Jason Dawsey
7. Hiroshima/Nagasaki, civil rights and anti-war protest in Japan's cold war - Ann Sheriff
8. Catholic anti-communism, the bomb and perceptions of apocalypse in West Germany and the USA, 1945-90 - Daniel Gerster
9. 'The nuclear arms race is psychological at its roots.' Physicians and their therapies for the Cold War - Claudia Kemper
10. Imagining the apocalypse: nuclear winter in science and the world - Paul Rubinson
11. Images of nuclear war in U.S. government films from the early cold war - Lars Nowak
Index -- .
1. The apocalyptic fiction: shaping the future in the cold war - Eva Horn
2. Building peace, fearing the apocalypse: Nuclear danger in Soviet cold war culture, 1945-91 - Miriam Dobson
3. Nuclear themes in American culture, 1945 to the present - Paul Boyer
4. The imaginative landscape of nuclear war in Britain, 1945-65 - Matthew Grant
5. German angst? Debating cold war anxieties in West Germany, 1945-90 - Benjamin Ziemann
6. After Hiroshima. Guenther Anders and the history of anti-nuclear critique - Jason Dawsey
7. Hiroshima/Nagasaki, civil rights and anti-war protest in Japan's cold war - Ann Sheriff
8. Catholic anti-communism, the bomb and perceptions of apocalypse in West Germany and the USA, 1945-90 - Daniel Gerster
9. 'The nuclear arms race is psychological at its roots.' Physicians and their therapies for the Cold War - Claudia Kemper
10. Imagining the apocalypse: nuclear winter in science and the world - Paul Rubinson
11. Images of nuclear war in U.S. government films from the early cold war - Lars Nowak
Index -- .
