Doom Town, Nevada Test Site, and the Popular Imagination of Atomic Disaster

IF 0.2 3区 社会学 0 HUMANITIES, MULTIDISCIPLINARY Journal of American Studies Pub Date : 2023-02-17 DOI:10.1017/S0021875823000105
J. Wills
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Abstract

This article explores the effect of Doom Town, a civil defense experiment conducted at Nevada Test Site in March 1953 and May 1955, on American attitudes toward the atom. Initially conceived by the Federal Civil Defense Administration (FCDA) as a means to progress knowledge and understanding of how to survive nuclear attack, the creation and destruction of two “Survival Towns” in the Nevadan desert instead accelerated national anxieties. My article looks at how local and national media negatively framed the two experiments, and how the public responded, with two specific images of Doom Town undermining public confidence in the atom: the ruined city (or homegrown Hiroshima) and the projected death of the American nuclear family.
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末日镇,内华达试验场,以及大众对原子灾难的想象
本文探讨了1953年3月和1955年5月在内华达试验场进行的民防实验“末日镇”对美国人对原子的态度的影响。美国联邦民防管理局(Federal Civil Defense Administration,简称FCDA)最初的设想是为了提高人们对如何在核攻击中生存下来的认识和理解,但在内华达沙漠中两个“生存城镇”的建立和毁灭反而加剧了全国的焦虑。我的文章着眼于地方和国家媒体是如何负面地描述这两个实验的,以及公众是如何回应的,用毁灭小镇的两个具体形象来破坏公众对原子的信心:被摧毁的城市(或本土的广岛)和美国核心家庭的预期死亡。
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来源期刊
Journal of American Studies
Journal of American Studies HUMANITIES, MULTIDISCIPLINARY-
CiteScore
0.60
自引率
0.00%
发文量
24
期刊介绍: Journal of American Studies seeks to critique and interrogate the notion of "America", pursuing this through international perspectives on the history, literature, politics and culture of the United States. The Journal publishes original peer-reviewed research and analysis by established and emerging scholars throughout the world, considering US history, politics, literature, institutions, economics, film, popular culture, geography, sociology and related subjects in domestic, continental, hemispheric, and global contexts. Its expanded book review section offers in-depth analysis of recent American Studies scholarship to promote further discussion and debate.
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