Download or read book Deconstructing Dr Strangelove written by Sean M. Maloney and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2020-07-01 with total page 615 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: King of the Cold War crisis film, Dr. Strangelove became a cultural touchstone from the moment of its release in 1964. The duck-and-cover generation saw it as a satire on nuclear issues and Cold War thinking. Subsequent generations, removed from the film's historical moment, came to view it as a quasi-documentary about an unfathomable secret world. Sean M. Maloney uses Dr. Strangelove and other genre classics like Fail Safe and The Bedford Incident to investigate a curious pop cultural contradiction. Nuclear crisis films repeatedly portrayed the failures of the Cold War's deterrent system. Yet the system worked. What does this inconsistency tell us about the genre? What does it tell us about the deterrent system, for that matter? Blending film analysis with Cold War history, Maloney looks at how the celluloid crises stack up against reality--or at least as much of reality as we can reconstruct from these films with confidence. The result is a daring intellectual foray that casts new light on Dr. Strangelove, one of the Cold War era's defining films.
Download or read book Deconstructing Dr Strangelove written by Sean M. Maloney and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2020-07-01 with total page 496 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: King of the Cold War crisis film, Dr. Strangelove became a cultural touchstone from the moment of its release in 1964. The duck-and-cover generation saw it as a satire on nuclear issues and Cold War thinking. Subsequent generations, removed from the film’s historical moment, came to view it as a quasi-documentary about an unfathomable secret world. Sean M. Maloney uses Dr. Strangelove and other genre classics like Fail Safe and The Bedford Incident to investigate a curious pop cultural contradiction. Nuclear crisis films repeatedly portrayed the failures of the Cold War’s deterrent system. Yet the system worked. What does this inconsistency tell us about the genre? What does it tell us about the deterrent system, for that matter? Blending film analysis with Cold War history, Maloney looks at how the celluloid crises stack up against reality—or at least as much of reality as we can reconstruct from these films with confidence. The result is a daring intellectual foray that casts new light on Dr. Strangelove, one of the Cold War era’s defining films.
Download or read book Cold War Europe written by Tobias Nanz and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2024-10-07 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Cold War is often stereotypically depicted as a period of complete separation between Eastern and Western Europe, a time of little communication and exchange between what is often called the "Eastern bloc" and the capitalist West . European integration, it is thought, was a Western project based on exclusively Western ideas. This edited volume aims to debunk this stereotype. It provides evidence for the numerous media and individuals that contributed to the circulation and exchange of ideas across the ideological divide of the Iron Curtain. The essays in this volume discuss the official and unofficial channels of communication between the Eastern bloc and the West as well as the complex networks of transmission and reception that enabled the exchange of ideas between the two. The first part of the volume examines the communication infrastructure of the Cold War and the role of then available communication technologies. The second hones in on how different media channels, and the radio in particular, were used to form and transmit ideas between East and West, whereas the third and final part looks at how individual artists and literary authors made their voices heard across the Iron Curtain.
Download or read book Emergency War Plan written by Sean M. Maloney and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2021-02 with total page 446 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Emergency War Plan examines the theory and practice of American nuclear deterrence and its evolution during the Cold War. Previous examinations of nuclear strategy during this time have, for the most part, categorized American efforts as "massive retaliation" and "mutually assured destruction," blunt instruments to be casually dismissed in favor of more flexible approaches or summed up in inflammatory and judgmental terms like "MAD." These descriptors evolved into slogans, and any nuanced discussion of the efficacy of the actual strategies withered due to a variety of political and social factors. Drawing on newly released weapons effects information along with new information about Soviet capabilities as well as risky and covert espionage missions, Emergency War Plan provides a completely new examination of American nuclear deterrence strategy during the first fifteen years of the Cold War, the first such study since the 1980s. Ultimately what emerges is a picture of a gargantuan and potentially devastating enterprise that was understood at the time by the public in only the vaguest terms but that was not as out of control as has been alleged and was more nuanced than previously understood.
Download or read book The Politics of Media Scarcity written by Greg Elmer and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-01-31 with total page 107 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book questions the predominance of “media abundance” as a guiding concept for contemporary mediated politics. The authors argue that media abundance is not a universal condition, and that certain individuals, communities, and even nations can more accurately be referred to as media scarce – where access to media technologies and content is limited, highly controlled, or surveilled. Through case studies that focus on guerilla militants, incarcerated Indigenous people, and cold war‐era infrastructure, including Soviet “closed” or “secret” cities and Canadian nuclear bunkers, the book’s chapters interrogate how the once media scarce later “speak” to – and can be heard by – the predominant, abundant media culture. Drawing from several art projects and diverse cultural sites, the book highlights how media scarce communities negotiate and otherwise narrate their place in the world, their past experiences and lives, and escape from subjugation. To better understand media scarce politics, the book asks how and when communities become – by accident or force, by choice or necessity – media scarce. This innovative and insightful text will appeal to students and scholars around the world working in the areas of media and politics, art and politics, visual studies, surveillance studies, and communication studies.
Download or read book The Disaster Film as Social Practice written by Joseph Zornado and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-07-26 with total page 178 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Surveying disaster films from a Lacanian psychoanalytic perspective, this book explores the disaster film genre from its initial appearance in 1933 (The Grapes of Wrath, 1933) to its present-day form (Don’t Look Up!, 2021), laying bare the ideological unconscious at work within the genre. The Disaster Film as Social Practice examines environmental science, history, film and literature in its interdisciplinary analysis of the disaster film genre. It explores the interplay, and the dichotomy, of “restorative” and “reflective” disaster narratives. An analysis of cinema's role in symbolizing and managing collective anxiety around disaster and death narratives examines how disaster films, through their narrative structures and symbolic elements, contribute to the public's understanding and emotional processing of real-world threats, and how cinematic narratives shape and are shaped by public and private ideological discourses, reflecting deeper psychological and environmental truths. Finally, the book offers an overview of how the transformation of the disaster film genre over time tells a history through imagining the worst. Providing a nuanced understanding of the disaster film genre and its significance in contemporary culture and thought, this book will be of interest to scholars and students of film studies, cultural studies, media studies, and environmental studies.
Download or read book Learning to Love the Bomb written by Sean M. Maloney and published by Potomac Books, Inc.. This book was released on 2011-07 with total page 611 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Learning to Love the Bomb, Sean M. Maloney explores the controversial subject of Canada's acquisition of nuclear weapons during the Cold War. Based on newly declassified Canadian and U.S. documents, it examines policy, strategy, operational, and technical matters and weaves these seemingly disparate elements into a compelling story that finally unlocks several Cold War mysteries. For example, while U.S. military forces during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis were focused on the Caribbean Sea and the southeastern United States, Canadian forces assumed responsibility for defending the northern United States, with aircraft armed with nuclear depth charges flying patrols and guarding against missile attack by Soviet submarines. This defensive strategy was a closely guarded secret because it conflicted with Canada's image as a peacekeeper and therefore a more passive member of NATO than its ally to the south. It is revealed here for the first time. The place of nuclear weapons in Canadian history has, until now, been a highly secret and misunderstood field subject to rumor, rhetoric, half-truths, and propaganda. Learning to Love the Bomb reveals the truth about Canada's role as a nuclear power.
Download or read book Gospel Thrillers written by Andrew S. Jacobs and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2023-11-30 with total page 275 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Accessible to general and academic readers, Gospel Thrillers interweaves close readings of key themes in a little studied fiction genre with 'real world' tensions over biblical vulnerability, evident in political and cultural debates over the Bible and in popular literature about the Bible and Christian origins.
Download or read book Science and Apocalypse in Bertrand Russell written by Javier Pérez-Jara and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2022-08-01 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) was a logician, a philosopher, and one of the twentieth century’s most visible public intellectuals. Science and Apocalypse in Bertrand Russell: A Cultural Sociology brings those three aspects together to trace Russell’s changing views on the role of science and technology in society throughout his long intellectual career. Drawing from cultural sociology, history of science, and philosophy, Javier Pérez-Jara and Lino Camprubí provide a fresh multidimensional analysis of the general themes of science, technology, utopia, and apocalypse. The book critically examines Russell’s influential interpretations of the turn-of-the-century mathematical logic, World War I, the metaphysics and epistemology of mind and matter, World War II, nuclear holocaust, and the Vietnam War. In Russell’s compelling narratives, humanity was a powder keg and the match was represented by different and successive meta-adversaries, such as religion, communism, and American imperialism. And the only way to avoid a coming global Holocaust was to follow his own salvific recipes. In working around Russell’s role in the cultural perception of the final destiny of humanity, Science and Apocalypse in Bertrand Russell invites the reader to think about the place of the techno-scientific sphere in human progress and decadence in both our current epoch and the distant future.
Download or read book You Talkin to Me written by Brian Abrams and published by Workman Publishing Company. This book was released on 2023-09-26 with total page 597 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This deep dive into hundreds of Hollywood’s most iconic and beloved lines is a must-have for every film buff. "You Talkin’ to Me?" is a fun, fascinating, and exhaustively reported look at all the iconic Hollywood movie quotes we know and love, from Casablanca to Dirty Harry and The Godfather to Mean Girls. Drawing on interviews, archival sleuthing, and behind-the-scenes details, the book examines the origins and deeper meanings of hundreds of film lines: how they’ve impacted, shaped, and reverberated through the culture, defined eras in Hollywood, and become cemented in the modern lexicon. Packed with film stills, sidebars, lists, and other fun detours throughout movie history, the book covers all genres and a diverse range of directors, writers, and audiences.
Download or read book Cold War Europe written by Tobias Nanz, Hedwig Wagner and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2024-06-10 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Watching the World Die written by Mike Bogue and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2023-10-26 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the 1980s, popular fear of World War III spurred moviemakers to produce dozens of nuclear threat films. Categories ranged from monster movies to post-apocalyptic adventures to realistic depictions of nuclear war and its immediate aftermath. Coverage of atomic angst films isn't new, but this is the first book to solely analyze 1980s nuclear threat movies as a group. Entries range from classics such as The Day After and WarGames to obscurities such as Desert Warrior and Massive Retaliation. Chronological coverage of the 121 films released between 1980 and 1990 includes production details, chapter notes, and critical commentaries.
Download or read book Calling Dr Strangelove written by George Case and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2014-08-23 with total page 213 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb is one of the most celebrated and significant films ever made. This book traces the movie's origins as a thriller novel through its evolution into a devastating black comedy, to its ultimate reception as an undisputed cinema classic. A wealth of fresh detail is provided on Dr. Strangelove's production, its initial reception and its lasting influence. The book also examines the film within the context of the real-life superpower standoff it satirized and evaluates its place alongside director Kubrick's entire catalog of famous works. Drawn from interviews, biographical research and extensive cultural analysis, this work is an indispensable resource for Kubrick fans, movie buffs and students of Cold War history.
Download or read book Emergency War Plan written by Sean M. Maloney and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2021-02 with total page 544 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Emergency War Plan examines the theory and practice of American nuclear deterrence and its evolution during the Cold War. Previous examinations of nuclear strategy during this time have, for the most part, categorized American efforts as “massive retaliation” and “mutually assured destruction,” blunt instruments to be casually dismissed in favor of more flexible approaches or summed up in inflammatory and judgmental terms like “MAD.” These descriptors evolved into slogans, and any nuanced discussion of the efficacy of the actual strategies withered due to a variety of political and social factors. Drawing on newly released weapons effects information along with new information about Soviet capabilities as well as risky and covert espionage missions, Emergency War Plan provides a completely new examination of American nuclear deterrence strategy during the first fifteen years of the Cold War, the first such study since the 1980s. Ultimately what emerges is a picture of a gargantuan and potentially devastating enterprise that was understood at the time by the public in only the vaguest terms but that was not as out of control as has been alleged and was more nuanced than previously understood.
Download or read book Restricted Data written by Alex Wellerstein and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2021-04-09 with total page 558 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Nuclear weapons, since their conception, have been the subject of secrecy. In the months after the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the American scientific establishment, the American government, and the American public all wrestled with what was called the "problem of secrecy," wondering not only whether secrecy was appropriate and effective as a means of controlling this new technology but also whether it was compatible with the country's core values. Out of a messy context of propaganda, confusion, spy scares, and the grave counsel of competing groups of scientists, what historian Alex Wellerstein calls a "new regime of secrecy" was put into place. It was unlike any other previous or since. Nuclear secrets were given their own unique legal designation in American law ("restricted data"), one that operates differently than all other forms of national security classification and exists to this day. Drawing on massive amounts of declassified files, including records released by the government for the first time at the author's request, Restricted Data is a narrative account of nuclear secrecy and the tensions and uncertainty that built as the Cold War continued. In the US, both science and democracy are pitted against nuclear secrecy, and this makes its history uniquely compelling and timely"--
Download or read book Enduring the Freedom written by Sean M. Maloney and published by Potomac Books, Inc.. This book was released on 2014-05-14 with total page 598 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Within hours of the September 11 attacks, Sean M. Maloney deciphered that Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda were the aggressors behind the despicable act. A war in Afghanistan then was inevitable. As a military historian, Maloney was determined to go there to study and record the events for posterity, if for no other reason than the education of his future students at Canada's Royal Military College. What resulted is an in-depth and up-close look at the planning stages, deployment, and aftermath of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. In Enduring the Freedom, Maloney presents a rare on-the-spot view from such important locations as Kabul, Bagram, and Kandahar. He describes the American-led intervention in Afghanistan and the conduct of the war through early 2003, then discusses the events of 2003 from the three locales in detail. Some critics contend that the war in Afghanistan is another Vietnam. Maloney rebuts that appraisal, pointing out that as opposed to the vague language of the Vietnam era, American objectives were clearly stated for Afghanistan. Those objectives were: to destroy al Qaeda's networks, training camps, resources, and communication systems; to destroy any governmental entity providing support or sanctuary to al Qaeda; and to undertake reconstruction efforts to ensure international terrorists can never again use the country as a base. The first objective has more or less been achieved. How to accomplish the last two is still widely debated, and Maloney offers some insightful thoughts and opinions. Finally, he offers educated advice going forward in the hopeful completion of Operation Enduring Freedom.
Download or read book The Future of War written by Lawrence Freedman and published by PublicAffairs. This book was released on 2017-10-10 with total page 466 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An award-winning military historian, professor, and political adviser delivers the definitive story of warfare in all its guises and applications, showing what has driven and continues to drive this uniquely human form of political violence. Questions about the future of war are a regular feature of political debate, strategic analysis, and popular fiction. Where should we look for new dangers? What cunning plans might an aggressor have in mind? What are the best forms of defense? How might peace be preserved or conflict resolved? From the French rout at Sedan in 1870 to the relentless contemporary insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan, Lawrence Freedman, a world-renowned military thinker, reveals how most claims from the military futurists are wrong. But they remain influential nonetheless. Freedman shows how those who have imagined future war have often had an idealized notion of it as confined, brief, and decisive, and have regularly taken insufficient account of the possibility of long wars-hence the stubborn persistence of the idea of a knockout blow, whether through a dashing land offensive, nuclear first strike, or cyberattack. He also notes the lack of attention paid to civil wars until the West began to intervene in them during the 1990s, and how the boundaries between peace and war, between the military, the civilian, and the criminal are becoming increasingly blurred. Freedman's account of a century and a half of warfare and the (often misconceived) thinking that precedes war is a challenge to hawks and doves alike, and puts current strategic thinking into a bracing historical perspective.
