From The Atom To Afghanistan: Science And Technology In The Cold War

Module description

The modules offered in each academic year are subject to change in line with staff availability and student demand: there is no guarantee every module will run. Module descriptions and information may vary between years.

This module will consider the history of the Cold War from the perspective of the scientific and technological forces that both shaped and were shaped by it. It will consider the well-known battles for supremacy in spaceflight and nuclear fission, and the fallout - political, chemical, cultural - these produced. But it will also look deeper, at supercomputers and cybernetics, at large-scale development projects, at the napalm and Agent Orange at the centre of the environmental movement, and at the more abstracted technologies of empire and of the 'open mind' among other things. At issue here will be not only gaining purchase on the history of the Cold War as a contested, fractured global event knitted together here anew by the technological awakening of the period, but also understanding how the political and social contexts of the Cold War created and shaped the technologies that make up the infrastructures of our daily lives now. As much a history of science and technology as a history of a period, this module offers students the opportunity to reconsider the canonical relationships, events, technologies, politics, players and periodisation of the Cold War. Indeed, in questioning the periodisation of this era, we will explore not only whether we are yet out of the Cold War's grasp, but also how, to what end and in what way it has served our historical consciousness in the first place.

Assessment details

Coursework (100%)

1 x 1,500-word formative essay;  1 x 3,000-word essay (100%)

Teaching pattern

10 x 2-hour seminar (weekly)

Module description disclaimer

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Please note that modules with a practical component will be capped due to educational requirements, which may mean that we cannot guarantee a place to all students who elect to study this module.

Please note that the module descriptions above are related to the current academic year and are subject to change.