I’ll have to admit I was a bit hesitant about taking the Nuclear Age class.  The Nuclear Age may have a definitive start with the Manhattan Project but there is no ending.  This was a subject that, obviously, had no clear-cut answers, which made it scary but exciting to tackle at the same time.  Within the class we went beyond talking about the schematics of a nuclear bomb.  We talked about the conception of nuclear weapons and their influence on the past and the present.  There were discussions of how these nuclear weapons were perceived by, not just the America government but also other world governments, such as Britain and Russia.  We read books and articles, watched films, and debated the purposes of this powerful weapon.  We may not have reached any earth shattering conclusions but I did come out of this class with an understanding of how the fast the world has changed with the discovery of nuclear power. For my part in the class I also had to give three smaller presentations throughout the semester along with my final paper.

I began with Henry L. Stimson’s, reasoning as to why the atomic bomb was used in 1945.  Stimson was one of many key players in the bombing of Japan.  This was a great primary source but as we found over the weeks in class there are many sides to a complex situation.  My next two tasks were to look at a more worldly view of the nuclear bomb. I did a report on a group of British scientists, who formed the MAUD committee to discuss the “uranium problem.” It can be argued that it was this that pushed for the United States to complete the creation of a nuclear bomb.  I also took a look at the World Court Project and their mission to end any making or use of the nuclear bomb.  To this day there are organizations appealing to the United Nations and to the International Court of Justice to come to agreements concerning Nuclear weapons. 

For my final report I chose to look at the movie Good Night, Good Luck.  The movie is not a bio-pic on Edward R. Murrow but a glimpse at one important moment of his life and a high point in the United States’ history of journalism.  Ed Murrow was the first television reporter to speak out against the McCarthy hearings. In 2005 actors George Clooney and Grant Heslov wrote and directed a movie called Good Night, Good Luck.  There are two major themes of the movie that I focused on.    First it looks at the fear that infiltrated into the lives of many Americans during the 1950’s.  Fear can be seen in the characters faces as they discuss what could happen to them if they were to be labeled communist.  There is also the fear and tension that the audience experiences, knowing that the world had become a scary place for the characters in the movie and wondering if that fear would penetrate the walls of the CBS studio.  There is also the theme of guilt by association.  This idea surrounded the McCarthy hearings and Clooney never let the audience forget that.  But the end of the movie shows how the news told in its honesty can affect a nation, not necessarily an over night affect but a gradual one.  In the beginning McCarthy may have used the media, especially television, to play off the fear that embraced the American people but it could be argued that it was television that led to his eventual downfall.  George Clooney and Grant Heslov set out not to take sides but to show us that we as Americans need to be told the truth and when we think we are not hearing it, it is ok to editorialize what is happening and to question our authorities’ actions just as Ed Murrow had.