ID306  The Sky Is Burning: The Advent of the Nuclear Age 

Hiram Weekend College 

Spring Semester 3 week 1999

Tues. Apr. 20 A. The Science Behind the Bomb

1. Discovery of Radioactivity

2. Discovery of the Nucleus (Rutherford's Gold Foil)

3. Fission: Changing Mass to Energy

4. Current Views of the Atom

B. World War II

1. The Nazi Threat in Europe

2. A Nuclear Race with the Germans

3. Norwegian Heavy Water

C. Ethics and Uses of Scientific Knowledge

Readings from Rhodes "The Making of the Atomic Bomb": pp. 13-15 (¶3), 23 (¶2 )-52, 81 (last ¶) -95 (middle of the page), 100 (1st full ¶) -103, 134-141 (the break), ch. 7, 168-197, ch. 9, 233-275, 303-317, 321 (¶2) -327, 346 (¶2 - ¶4), 355-356

Video from CBS on Norwegian Interference with Germans

Sat. Apr. 24 The Players: Scientists and Politicians

1. Churchill

2. Truman

3. Stalin

4. Hirohito

5. Stimpson

1. Oppenheimer

2. General Groves

3. Albert Einstein

4. Leo Szilard

5. Edward Teller

Paper 1: Two pages per player outlining your understanding of his personality and background and how these played a role in the decision making process.

Role play the decision making process. Questions: whether to drop the bomb or invade; whether to make the bomb

Readings from Rhodes: pp. 357-383, 383-389, 389-393, 401-407, 423-428, 443-455, 457-459, 459-468, 481-485, 505-512, 512-517, 522-538, 605-610. Also read the handout, Chapter 8, The Burdens of Power: The Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb

Video: "The Day After Trinity" - J. Robert Oppenheimer story

Tues. Apr. 27 The Development, Testing and Dropping of the Bomb

1. Procurement and Useable Uranium

2. Secret Cities--Los Alamos, Oak Ridge

3. The Scientific Process-Openness vs Secrecy

4. Nevada Test Sites and Military Guinea Pigs

5. The Enola Gay and Bock's Car, The Crews, The Cargo

6. Hiroshima, Nagasaki--the chosen targets

Readings from Rhodes: pp. 407 (¶2)-415 (¶1), 468 (¶3)-476 (¶1), 500 (¶2)-top 505, 517 (¶4)-521, 554 (¶2)-bot 556, 561-564, 564-573 (¶1), 580 (¶3)-582 (¶2), 592 (¶3)-593 (¶2), bot 593-600 (¶1), 610 (¶3)-614, 617-624, 624-651, 651-678

Video: "Fat Man and Little Boy"

Due: Paper 2a on some aspect of the development of the bomb (may choose paper 2b instead)

Tues. May 4 Japan

1. Japan's View of the War

2. Pearl Harbor

3. Hiroshima and Nagasaki--the after effects

4. The Bombs' Influence on Japanese Society

Readings from Rhodes: Part Three, chs 18, 19, Epilogue

Video: "Black Rain"

Music: Fred Small "Cranes over Hiroshima"

Due: Paper 2b on some aspect of Japan in WWII (if you did paper 2a, you do not need to complete this assignment)

Sat. May 8 The Bombs' Reverberations

1. Environmental

2. Political--The Cold War

3. Social

4. Scientific

Readings: Newspaper and Magazine Articles

Interview with Joe Denham - a Trinity eyewitness

Video: "Nuclear War: A Guide to Armageddon", "Atom: Year of Purpose"

Music: Fred Small--"Dig a Hole in the Ground", Pete Seeger "Old Man Atom", Kate Wolf or Simon and Garfunkel "The Sky is Burning"

Due: Paper 3 on life since the bomb

Tues. May 11 Fiction and the Future

Reading: A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr.

Due: Course Journals