HIS 2247 - The Nuclear Age

Credits: 4
During the second half of the twentieth century, a new techno scientific phenomenon—the advent of nuclear energy and weapons—marked the geopolitics, environment, and culture of the United States and the world. This course examines the history of today’s nuclear infrastructure, including its origins, its geopolitical and commercial configurations, its environmental consequences, and its global social and cultural significance. It considers how historical analysis of these developments has changed dramatically over time, as new sources become available and new perspectives emerge. Subjects of particular attention include the discovery of nuclear fission, the Manhattan Project, and the origins of the nuclear world, the Cold War nuclear arms race, the commercialization of nuclear power plants, the international competition to sell them, and the national and transnational movements to stop them, the nature and environmental consequences of the nuclear fuel cycle, the causes and effects of nuclear accidents and the evaluation and management of nuclear risk, and post-Cold War nuclear proliferation as well as the international non-proliferation regime.
The course is offered at the Budapest campus.