In early 1943, the U.S. government’s Manhattan Project built a secret laboratory at Los Alamos, New Mexico, for a single military purpose—to develop the world’s first atomic weapons. Today, the remaining places and spaces of the bomb at Los Alamos are being preserved for future generations through their inclusion in the Manhattan Project National Historical Park, a unique partnership between the Department of Energy, which will continue to own and manage its wartime properties located “behind the fence,” and the Department of Interior’s National Park Service, which will take the lead on interpreting the complex history and continuing legacy of nuclear weapons. This study, a blend of social, architectural, and scientific history, examines the historical contexts of the remaining World War II buildings and structures at Los Alamos National Laboratory that are listed in the park legislation. Arguing that the decision to use atomic weapons against the people of Japan is the polarizing master narrative of the Manhattan Project, this dissertation focuses instead on the narratives of people, places, and institutions that have been overshadowed by controversy. Using primary, secondary, and oral history sources, along with historical photographs and architectural drawings, this research project explores the Manhattan Project through the lens of place. This study examines the voices of women and the military, documents lost technologies and places, and discovers connections between Los Alamos and other institutions that supported the development and deployment of the first atomic bombs, including the underappreciated contributions of the U.S. Navy and the University of New Mexico, which have been obscured by past government secrecy practices. As national sites of memory—Pierre Nora’s lieux de mémoire—the meaning of these atomic places and landscapes will change through time, ever responding to the dynamics of collective memory and experience. The goal of this study is to look beyond the controversy of atomic weapons to reveal hidden narratives and historical associations that will provide the intellectual stage for continued public dialogue about the memory and meaning of the development and use of nuclear weapons.
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Lindsey A. Freeman;
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Longing for the Bomb: Oak Ridge and Atomic Nostalgia
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Reed, Bruce Cameron;
(2014)
The History and Science of the Manhattan Project
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Don A. Farrell;
(2018)
Tinian and the Bomb: Project Alberta and Operation Centerboard
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Gino Segrè;
Bettina Hoerlin;
(2017)
Il Papa della fisica: Enrico Fermi e la nascita dell’era atomica
(/isis/citation/CBB512699130/)
Article
Malloy, Sean L.;
(2012)
“A Very Pleasant Way to Die”: Radiation Effects and the Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb against Japan
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Article
Joseph, Timothy;
(Fall 2009)
The Manhattan Project
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Thesis
Roger Meade;
(2015)
Discoveries and Collisions The Atom, Los Alamos, and the Marshall Islands
(/isis/citation/CBB916791960/)
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James L. Nolan;
(2021)
Atomic Doctors: Conscience and Complicity at the Dawn of the Nuclear Age
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Thesis
Canaday, John T.;
(1995)
The uses of literature in the construction of the first atomic bombs
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Book
Mason, Katrina R.;
(1995)
Children of Los Alamos: An oral history of the town where the Atomic Age began
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Bailey, Janet;
(1995)
The good servant: Making peace with the bomb at Los Alamos
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Book
Fermi, Rachel;
Samra, Esther;
(1995)
Picturing the bomb: Photographs from the secret world of the Manhattan Project. Introduction by Richard Rhodes
(/isis/citation/CBB000067079/)
Book
Truslow, Edith C.;
(1991)
Manhattan District history: Nonscientific aspects of Los Alamos Project, 1942 through 1946. Edited by Thayer, Kasha V.
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Article
Goldberg, Stanley;
(1995)
Groves and the scientists: Compartmentalization and the building of the bomb
(/isis/citation/CBB000059990/)
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Linda Carrick Thomas;
(2017)
Polonium in the Playhouse: The Manhattan Project's Secret Chemistry Work in Dayton, Ohio
(/isis/citation/CBB310148077/)
Article
Mark Walker;
(2022)
Did Werner Heisenberg Understand How Atomic Bombs Worked?
(/isis/citation/CBB854967266/)
Thesis
MacMahon, Sandra Varney;
(2003)
Tuberculosis, the Navajos, and Western Healthcare Providers, 1920--1960
(/isis/citation/CBB001562285/)
Book
David H. 1927-(David Hodges) Stratton;
(2022)
Tucumcari tonite!: a story of railroads, Route 66, and the waning of a western town
(/isis/citation/CBB967373381/)
Book
Monk, Ray;
(2013)
Robert Oppenheimer: A Life inside the Center
(/isis/citation/CBB001213233/)
Thesis
McNamara, Laura Agnes;
(2001)
Ways of knowing about weapons: The Cold War's end at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (New Mexico)
(/isis/citation/CBB001562623/)
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