Introduction: British nuclear culture

• Published in: The British journal for the history of science Vol. 45; no. 4; pp. 479 - 493
• Main Authors: HOGG, JONATHAN, LAUCHT, CHRISTOPH
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge, UK Cambridge University Press 01.12.2012
• Subjects: 20th century; Atomic bombs; Atoms; British culture; Citizens; Cold War; Cold wars; Committees; Cultural diversity; Cultural factors; Cultural studies; Culture; Formal organization; Historiography; History of science; Intellectuals; Media; Military culture; Narratives; Nuclear power; Nuclear power plants; Nuclear weapons; Popular culture; Scientists; State; Transnationalism; United Kingdom; United Kingdom > UK; Canada; United States > US
• ISSN: 0007-0874; 1474-001X
• DOI: 10.1017/S0007087412001008

In the extended introduction to this special issue on British nuclear culture, the guest editors outline the main historiographical and conceptual contours of British nuclear scholarship, and explore whether we can begin to define ‘British nuclear culture’ before introducing the contributors to this special issue, whose work we have organized into three broad areas. The first part is devoted to three articles that offer explicit and extended attempts to reconceptualize British nuclear culture, illuminating the complex links between nuclear science, the state and the individual citizen. The second part of this issue is devoted to three articles that concentrate on aspects of the history of nuclear science – focusing particularly on intellectuals, nuclear scientists and enthusiasts – alongside analysis of the popularization of nuclear science as well as the relationship between the state and nuclear science and its practitioners. In the third part, four articles examine the diverse ways in which ‘official’ narratives of the atomic age can be questioned, disrupted or enhanced by analysing the significance of journalistic, anti-nuclear and fictional narratives to the development of nuclear culture in Britain.