January 18 / Thu
INTRODUCTION: THE COLD WAR
January 22 / Mon
THE MANHATTAN PROJECT
1/ Fehner and Gosling, The Manhattan Project
2/ WATCH FILM: Modern Marvels: The Manhattan Project
January 25 / Thu
THE DECISION TO USE THE BOMB
1/ Wellerstein, "The Decision to Use the Bomb: A Consensus View?"
2/ Tucker and Alvarez, "Trinity: 'The Most significant hazard of the entire Manhattan Project" '
3/ Gordin, Red Cloud at Dawn, Introduction + Chapters 1 and 2
RESPONSE # 1 DUE
January 29 / Mon
SCIENCE: THE ENDLESS FRONTIER
1/ Wolfe, Competing with the Soviets, Chapters 1 and 2 (pp. 23-33, sections on "The Political Economy of Postwar Science" and "Hybrid Institutions")
2/ Bush, The Endless Frontier [excerpt]
February 1 / Thu
SOVIET SCIENCE AND THE ATOMIC BOMB
1/ Gordin, "Lysenkoism"
2/ Holloway, "How the Bomb Saved Soviet Physics"
3/ Gordin, Red Cloud at Dawn, Chapters 3 and 4
RESPONSE # 2 DUE
February 5 / Mon
1/ Gordin, Red Cloud at Dawn, Introduction + Chapters 5, 6, 7, Epilogue
February 8 / Thu
SCIENCE AND MCCARTHYISM
1/ Wolfe, Competing with the Soviets, Chapter 2 (pp. 33-39, start with section on "Secrecy and Security" and finish chapter)
2/ Kaiser, "The Atomic Secret in Red Hands?: American Suspicions of Theoretical Physicists During the Early Cold War"
3/ Qi, "Qian Xuesen - Under the Shadow of McCarthyism"
RESPONSE # 3 DUE
February 12 / Mon
BIG SCIENCE
1/ Wolfe, Competing with the Soviets, Chapter 3
2/ Weinberg, "The Impact of Large-Scale Science on the United States"
3/ Bedwell, “Going Nowhere Fast: The Supersonic Transport was Both Inevitable and Beneficial—Until it Turned out to Be Neither."
February 15 / Thu
SPUTNIK
1/ Siddiqi, "Sputnik 50 Years Later: New Evidence on Its Origins"
2/ Boyle, "Red Moon Over the Mall: The Sputnik Panic and Domestic America"
3/ WATCH FILM: Sputnik Mania
RESPONSE # 4 DUE
February 20 / Mon
MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL-UNIVERSITY COMPLEX
1/ Geiger, “Science, Universities, and National Defense, 1945-1970."
2/ Oreskes, "Science in the Origins of the Cold War"
February 22 / Thu
POPULAR CULTURE
1/ Zeman, “ ‘To See … Things Dangerous to Come By’: Life Magazine and the Atomic Age in the United States, 1945-1965.”
2/ Genter, “ ‘With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility’: Cold War Culture and the Birth of Marvel Comics.”
3/ Fantastic Four issue 1 (1961)
RESPONSE # 5 DUE
February 26 / Mon
COLD WAR DEVELOPMENT
1/ Wolfe, Competing with the Soviets, Chapter 4
2/ Flachs, "Green Revolution"
February 29 / Thu
NUCLEAR WORLDS
1/ Abraham, "The Ambivalence of Nuclear Histories."
2/ Hecht, “On the Fallacies of Cold War Nostalgia: Capitalism, Colonialism, and African Nuclear Geographies.”
3/ Schofield, "Israel and South Africa - Nuclear Collaboration"
RESPONSE # 6 DUE
March 4 / Mon
FINAL PAPER DISCUSSION
PAPER TOPICS DUE BY EMAIL
March 7 / Thu
THE WRETCHED ATOM
1/ Hamblin, The Wretched Atom (whole book)
BOOK ANALYSIS DUE
March 11 / Mon
COLD WAR SCIENCE AND EMPIRE
1/ Oldenziel, "Islands: United States as a Networked Empire"
2/ Parks, "Global Networking and the Contrapuntal Node: The Project Mercury Earth Station in Zanzibar, 1959-64"
March 14 / Thu
APOLLO AND THE RACE TO THE MOON
1/ Wolfe, Competing with the Soviets, Chapter 6
2/ Smith, “Selling the Moon: The U.S. Manned Space Program and the Triumph of Commodity Scientism."
3/ Siddiqi, "Why the Soviets Lost the Moon Race"
RESPONSE # 7 DUE
March 18 / Mon
SPIES
1/ Macrakis, "Technophilic Hubris and Espionage Styles during the Cold War"
March 21 / Thu
NO CLASS
March 25-29: SPRING BREAK
April 1 / Mon
NO CLASS
April 4 / Thu
THE COLD WAR AT HOME
1/ Tone, "Medicalizing Reproduction: The Pill and Home Pregnancy Tests"
2/ Cowan, "More Work for Mother: The Ironies of Household Technology from the Open Hearth to the Microwave"
3/ Hammack, "The Greatest Discovery Since Fire: the Microwave Oven"
RESPONSE # 8 DUE
April 8 / Mon
DISSENT
1/ Wolfe, Competing with the Soviets, Chapter 7
2/ Launius, "Opposing Apollo: Political Resistance to the Moon Landings"
April 11 / Thu
NO CLASS
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR FINAL PAPER DUE
April 15 / Mon
NETWORKS: ARPANET and iPHONES
1/ Lukasik, "Why the Arpanet was Built"
2/ Mazzucato, The Entrepreneurial State, Chapter 5
RESPONSE # 9 DUE
April 18 / Thu
PRESENTATIONS
Sam Ashbrook
Abby Guilfoyle
Vanessa Hernandez Minaya
John McDermott
April 22 / Mon
PRESENTATIONS
Milo Quinn
Veronica Riga
Eleanor Smith
Michael Zorc
April 25 / Thu
PRESENTATIONS
Blendon Gashi
John Hanus
Ellie Kozinski
Brittany Mota
April 29 / Mon
PRESENTATIONS
Alexandra Rapp
Alexandra Sanchez
Brian Yeom
+
READINGS
1/ Wolfe, Competing with the Soviets, Chapter 8 and Conclusion
FINAL PAPER DUE by 5 pm on Friday, May 10