The atomic bomb was always already international, even in the American case. So was the Soviet bomb — and not just because of spies in the Manhattan Project. No nation has subsequently acquired the atomic bomb without help from outside, yet histories of the atomic age are primarily told through national lenses. Though this course is not driven primarily by the challenge of writing transnational and international histories of the Cold War, it offers unusual proxies for thinking about the changing nature of geopolitics and especially East Bloc relations in the middle decades of the twentieth century. Our aim is to apply a global perspective to understanding what consequences the coming of the "atomic age" has had for historical sensibilities in the twentieth century.
- Instructor: Karl Hall