Gateway to the Atomic Age: St. Louis and Nuclear Legacies of the Cold War

3 units

This course studies radioactive waste sites and illness in the vicinity of St. Louis arising from the region's contribution to nuclear weapons production in the twentieth century. We will examine the context of Cold War nuclear production and subsequent attempts to address its consequences for environment and health, with attention to political pressures, public understanding, and scientific knowledge, together with the universe of federal regulation and compensation emerging around the atom since 1945. Source material will include federal reports and correspondence produced by state agencies, journalistic and scholarly accounts, and mass media evidence generated from the early twentieth century to the present. Includes field trips to local sites.