University of Sussex
Browse
Langhamer article CBH 2018.pdf (233.76 kB)

Mass observing the atom bomb: the emotional politics of August 1945

Download (233.76 kB)
journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-09, 12:13 authored by Claire Langhamer
In August 1945 the social investigative organisation, Mass-Observation, asked its panel of volunteer writers to ‘Describe in detail your own feelings and views about the atom bomb, and those of the people you meet.’ This article uses the responses to explore the emotional politics of ‘nuclearity’ in the immediate aftermath of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. First it examines the impact that the atomic explosions had upon ways of narrating, and managing, the emotional self. Second it explores the influence of nuclear knowledge on felt social relations. The article argues that first use of the atom bomb had a profound impact upon British people’s understandings of the past, the present and the political future; and that the responses of ordinary people in turn helped to shape a messy and contradictory popular nuclear culture within which feeling operated as a way of knowing, and intervening in, the world.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Accepted version

Journal

Contemporary British History

ISSN

1361-9462

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

Department affiliated with

  • History Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2018-02-19

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2020-03-21

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2018-02-19

Usage metrics

    University of Sussex (Publications)

    Categories

    No categories selected

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC