{"product_id":"9781612776545","title":"Under the Shadow: The Atomic Bomb and Cold War Narratives","description":"\u003cstrong\u003eAn engrossing analysis of the fiction of nuclear war\u003c\/strong\u003e  \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn Pat Frank’s 1959 novel \u003cem\u003eAlas, Babylon, \u003c\/em\u003ethe character Helen says of her children: “All their lives, ever since they’ve known anything, they’ve lived under the shadow of war—atomic war. For them the abnormal has become normal.” The threat of nuclear annihilation was a constant source of dread during the Cold War, and in \u003cem\u003eUnder the Shadow,\u003c\/em\u003e author David Seed examines how authors and filmmakers made repeated efforts in their work to imagine the unimaginable.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSeed discusses classics of the period like Nevil Shute’s \u003cem\u003eOn the Beach,\u003c\/em\u003e but he also argues for recognition of less-known works such as Walter M. Miller’s depiction of historical cycles in \u003cem\u003eA Canticle for Leibowitz,\u003c\/em\u003e Bernard Wolfe’s black comedy of aggression in \u003cem\u003eLimbo,\u003c\/em\u003e or Mordecai Roshwald’s satirical depiction of technology running out of human control in \u003cem\u003eLevel 7.\u003c\/em\u003e Seed relates these literary works to their historical contexts and to their adaptations in film. Two prime examples of this interaction between media are the motion pictures \u003cem\u003eFail-Safe \u003c\/em\u003eand \u003cem\u003eDr. Strangelove, \u003c\/em\u003ewhich dramatize the threat posed by the arms race to rationality and ultimate human survival.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSeed addresses the attempts made by characters to remap America as a central part of their efforts to understand the horrors of the war. A particular subset of future histories is also examined: accounts of a Third World War, which draw on the conventions of military history and reportage to depict probable war scenarios. \u003cem\u003eUnder the Shadow\u003c\/em\u003e concludes with a discussion of the recent fiction of nuclear terrorism.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Kent State University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47135389712624,"sku":"9781612776545","price":29.49,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781612776545_p0.jpg?v=1763846711","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781612776545","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}