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Historical Trauma: Literary And Testimonial Responses To Hiroshima, Mariam Ghonim

Theses and Dissertations

The concept of trauma is controversial in literature. While one may be able to come up with ways to describe trauma in fiction, representing historical trauma is a hard task for writers. Some argue that trauma can not be described through those who did not experience it, while others claim that, provided some elements are added, one can represent trauma to the reader. This thesis focuses on twentieth-century historical traumas related to a nuclear catastrophe and explores the different literary and testimonial responses to the catastrophic man-made event of Hiroshima (1945). In this thesis, Kathleen Burkinshaw’s historical fiction The Last …

'An Explosive Of Quite Unimaginable Force': Did Werner Heisenberg Obstruct German Atomic Bomb Research?, Aaron G. Noll

Graduate History Conference, UMass Boston

Why was Nazi Germany unable to acquire an atomic bomb during World War II? An answer to this question necessarily involves an analysis of the wartime conduct of Werner Heisenberg. As the undisputed leader of German nuclear research, Heisenberg was integral to the successful production of a bomb. Heisenberg claimed after the war that the Nazis lacked the economic resources for this project. Moreover, Nazi military strategy ruled out such a sustained long-term commitment in armaments development. Heisenberg explained that he personally felt fortunate that these circumstances prevented Hitler from having a bomb. He argued that he merely “pretended” to …

The Power Of Fission: How The Discovery Of Fission Adversely Affected Us/Soviet Relations, Kathy Shinnick

Graduate History Conference, UMass Boston

In 1940 FDR told the leading Western scientists that they were not responsible for the way science was being used to perpetuate oppressive world domination. He went on to convince them that while they could not trust Hitler to use their knowledge towards positive means, they could trust the United States to forward the values of world peace.

In light of the events that followed from that speech in 1940 to the dropping of the atomic bomb in 1945, without informing the Soviet Union, this pivotal moment insights a series of questions concerning the ways in which the United States’ …

1953-11-28, Albert To Joan, Albert J. Sedlacek

Albert J. Sedlacek Korean War correspondence

No abstract provided.