"For Good or Evil": The Early Atomic Age in Maclean's, Saturday Night, Life and The Saturday Evening Post, 1945-1950

Abstract

This thesis explores coverage of the atomic bomb and atomic energy in the Canadian magazines, Maclean's and Saturday Night, and the American magazines, Life and The Saturday Evening Post, between 1945 and 1950. Commentaries in 1945 presented a straightforward dichotomy: either the bomb would remain in the hands of individual states, and atomic war would inevitably result, or atomic power would be brought under international control and improve society. Once the onset of the Cold War had blunted the momentum for international control, the magazines urged the United States to maintain its technological lead over the Soviet Union, while continuing to oppose excessive atomic secrecy. By 1950, faith in the positive impact of atomic energy was tempered by more measured accounts of its potential, though optimism remained about the medical uses of radioactive isotopes. The thesis finds a broad similarity in the four magazines' views of the early atomic age.