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National Insecurity in the Nuclear Age: Cold War Manhood and the Gendered Discourse of U.S. Survival, 1945-1960

Steinmetz, Melissa A.

Abstract Details

2014, PHD, Kent State University, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of History.
The use of atomic weapons against Japan in August 1945 ushered in a new age—not only in the context of international relations, but within U.S. popular culture as well. While Americans rejoiced that World War II had at last come to an end, the technological innovations that secured Allied victory also laid the groundwork for unprecedented anxiety. Suddenly, the destruction of the world through nuclear annihilation became a practical possibility rather than simply fodder for science fiction novels. Negotiating this unfamiliar terrain, American policymakers, military leaders, and ordinary citizens debated strategies surrounding civil defense and national security, often utilizing gendered language and reproductive metaphors that reflected concerns about American masculinity. Popular films and novels of the era also imagined a variety of post-apocalyptic American societies if a worst-case scenario should ever be realized. In both political discourse and popular culture, Americans asked similar questions: Would it be possible to survive a nuclear war? What should men and women do to protect themselves—if anything? Would federal attempts to prepare the nation for nuclear attack serve as a public acknowledgment of U.S. vulnerability? And in the event of nuclear annihilation, who might be left to repopulate America? This dissertation examines how the discourse of American survival reflected gendered constructions of Cold War national identity. Examining civil defense discourse in the context of Cold War anxieties surrounding masculinity and male fertility illuminates areas in which political and science fiction narratives overlap, challenge, and reinforce each other. For example, civil defense planners recognized the importance of image in the 1950s and in many ways attempted to construct civil defense in the nuclear age as a reflection of strong, white, middle-class masculinity that was just as significant as military programs for the nation’s defense. In the context of popular anxieties over American masculinity, however, and gendered nuclear narratives in print, television, and film, civil defense planners tried to use language and imagery to mobilize white, middle-class men into “service” for the nation during the 1950s—and ultimately failed. This dissertation analyzes newspaper and magazine articles, self-help books, federal civil defense documents from the National Archives in College Park, Maryland, and finally, post-apocalyptic films and novels to highlight how gender functions, explicitly and implicitly, within national narratives of survival.
Mary Ann Heiss (Advisor)
Elizabeth Smith-Pryor (Committee Member)
Walter Hixson (Committee Member)
David Trebing (Committee Member)
Patricia Dunmire (Committee Member)
320 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Steinmetz, M. A. (2014). National Insecurity in the Nuclear Age: Cold War Manhood and the Gendered Discourse of U.S. Survival, 1945-1960 [Doctoral dissertation, Kent State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1406582200

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Steinmetz, Melissa. National Insecurity in the Nuclear Age: Cold War Manhood and the Gendered Discourse of U.S. Survival, 1945-1960. 2014. Kent State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1406582200.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Steinmetz, Melissa. "National Insecurity in the Nuclear Age: Cold War Manhood and the Gendered Discourse of U.S. Survival, 1945-1960." Doctoral dissertation, Kent State University, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1406582200

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)