Learn How Dagwood Splits the Atom!

“This book will reassure the fearful that the future can be made bright.” – General Leslie Groves

In late August, 1949 the Soviet Union successfully tested its first nuclear device, officially ushering in the Atomic Age and escalating the Cold War to potentially doomsday proportions. Many Americans, previously comforted by their exclusive atomic arsenal, were alarmed at these new geopolitical developments and were looking for reassurance. Who better than Dagwood, the lovable comic strip character, to convince the public that nuclear fission and, by implication, mutually assured destruction wasn’t all that big of a deal?

A serious introduction titled ‘The Beginning – or the End’ by Bob Considine is followed by about 30 pages of captioned comic panels that start with basic principles of physics (i.e. Molecules are Always in Motion) and gradually evolve into nuclear science (i.e. Why Can’t Dagwood Split the Nucleus?). Positive uses of nuclear energy are accompanied by dire warnings of its potentially devastating effects – reflective of a public relations strategy that had a direct impact on the American psyche during the formative years of the Cold War.

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