Atomic Narratives and American Youth: Coming of Age With the Atom, 1945 - 1955

Rating:
Summary: Learning From the Past
Review: Although this book appears to be intended for college research and study, it also has appeal for anyone interested in social history and the atomic age.

Scheibach looks at the decade after Hiroshima and the beginning of the Cold War through the eyes of those who were teens at the time. He explores the movies, television, comic books, school newspapers and the school curriculum, literature, and the works of the students themselves. It's a compelling look back at a time when teens had to face the the prospect of oblivion at the very time when they were looking toward their own futures. How did they handle it?

Atomic Narratives and American Youth never mentions the obvious parallel of teens then and youth now during a new era of War on Terrorism. The analogy isn't perfect, but it's similar enough so that a book about the decade 1945-1955 is particularly timely today.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting new angle on atomic age
Review: Fascinating account of how atomic themes permeated popular culture and influenced postwar youth. It's rare to find a historian who can so acutely demonstrate that history does not merely encompass timelines and facts and events, but includes how those living a given 'history' think, what they yearn for, and what they fear.