Lars Nowak
Search for other papers by Lars Nowak in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Close
Images of nuclear war in US government films from the early Cold War
Abstract only
Log-in for full text

This essay investigates cinema’s contribution to the public imaginations of a global nuclear war in the United States, focusing on U.S. government films from the first two decades of the Cold War that were concerned with issues of civil defense on the one hand and the country’s atmospheric nuclear tests on the other. By carefully moulding their viewers’ emotions, both classes of movies tried to instill a willingness to fight an atomic war in the American people that could be used as a means of deterrence. In this connection, the test films played a key role because, as representations of actual atomic detonations, they possessed a higher degree of realism that gave their propagandistic rhetoric a more persuasive touch.

  • Collapse
  • Expand

All of MUP's digital content including Open Access books and journals is now available on manchesterhive.

 

Understanding the imaginary war

Culture, thought and nuclear conflict, 1945–90

Metrics

All Time Past Year Past 30 Days
Abstract Views 337 89 28
Full Text Views 62 36 1
PDF Downloads 45 21 1