Dramatists and the Bomb: American and British Playwrights Confront the Nuclear Age, 1945-1964

(Hardback)

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While the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki secured an American victory in the Pacific and hastened the end of World War II, it also ushered in an era of fear. When the Soviets developed an atomic bomb, the United States ceased to be the world's only nuclear power. Americans feared a nuclear attack by the Soviets, while the British worried about being drawn into a nuclear conflict for which they were utterly unprepared and particularly vulnerable. The threat of nuclear war left a lasting mark on the British and American imagination. Like other creative artists, playwrights began to grapple with the terrifying implications of a nuclear holocaust. This study reveals how English-speaking dramatists, both major and minor, reacted to the stunning events of the Atomic Age and the early thermonuclear era. Moving from American to British responses, the book describes more than 25 plays and quotes a variety of reflections on the bombing of Japan, the evolution of the Cold War, the development of more and more refined atomic weapons, the proliferation of fallout shelters, and the occurrence of strategic crises, such as those in Suez, Berlin, and Cuba. The American plays are generally inferior to the British, with less experienced playwrights attacking a wide range of subject matter and experimenting with several dramatic styles. British plays more frequently protest the threatened imposition of an American-Soviet conflict upon their offshore island. The book concludes with a study of how Samuel Beckett's Endgame reflects a human dilemma distinctive to the Nuclear Age.

Reviews

[T]he volume admirably lives up to its title, covering precisely what it claims to. [T]his is a valuable tool for anyone doing research in nuclear war imagery in the arts, and is appropriate for larger research collections.-Science Fiction Studies
[W]ell-researched, methodically documented, and compelling examination of this period in theater and history....The author's style is charming: he takes a potentially mundane subject and injects it with a sense of life not often found in academic prose.-Extrapolation
"The volume admirably lives up to its title, covering precisely what it claims to. This is a valuable tool for anyone doing research in nuclear war imagery in the arts, and is appropriate for larger research collections."-Science Fiction Studies
"Well-researched, methodically documented, and compelling examination of this period in theater and history....The author's style is charming: he takes a potentially mundane subject and injects it with a sense of life not often found in academic prose."-Extrapolation
"[T]he volume admirably lives up to its title, covering precisely what it claims to. [T]his is a valuable tool for anyone doing research in nuclear war imagery in the arts, and is appropriate for larger research collections."-Science Fiction Studies
"[W]ell-researched, methodically documented, and compelling examination of this period in theater and history....The author's style is charming: he takes a potentially mundane subject and injects it with a sense of life not often found in academic prose."-Extrapolation

Author Bio

CHARLES A. CARPENTER is Professor Emeritus of English at Binghamton University. He has published a book on Shaw's early plays and has contributed many articles to scholarly journals. His works include the two-volume study Modern Drama Scholarship and Criticism 1966-1990: An International Bibliography.