Nuclear War: The History of Fighting, Filming, Surviving, or Preventing One

Catalog description

This course examines the ethical implications of nuclear weapons; the history of the scientific, technological, social, political, and military circumstances surrounding their invention; the consequences of their use by the United States against Japan; and the ongoing ways in which their presence shapes film and literature, religion, politics, foreign affairs, ethics, and scientific research. It places particular emphasis on the United States' decision and ability to create and use the bomb, and subsequent efforts to make sense of the unfathomable power of these weapons through film, music, television, moral philosophy, and religion. The course examines how scientists, artists, and lay persons envision nuclear power as both the ultimate source of liberation and of doom, and the ethical implications of atomic diplomacy.