Doomsday Machines

"The Most Awful Responsibility"

My new book on Truman and the bomb will be released on December 9!

16 hrs ago • 

Alex Wellerstein

36

3

6

November 2025

“Mars is signaling a dark star”

A vision of "The End of the World" from the beginning of the 20th century

Nov 28 • 

Alex Wellerstein

36

7

2

"Nuclear weapons repel all thought, perhaps because they can end all thought"

Martin Amis on the difficulties of writing about nuclear war

Nov 14 • 

Alex Wellerstein

52

5

5

Bolt out of the blue

Kathryn Bigelow's "A House of Dynamite"

Nov 7 • 

Alex Wellerstein

47

17

5

October 2025

"I have sought to slaughter as few civilians as possible."

The rabid, apocalyptic Beat poetry that is "Mission with LeMay"

Oct 16 • 

Alex Wellerstein

52

18

5

September 2025

Inventing the Doomsday Machine

It is not a thing a sane man would do

Sep 26 • 

Alex Wellerstein

33

5

2

"Understanding nuclear weapons"

Techno-political nuclear graphic design in the 21st century

Sep 19 • 

Alex Wellerstein

42

6

2

Critical mastery

The sublime art of nuclear posters

Sep 12 • 

Alex Wellerstein

43

7

2

Irradiating the planet

Los Alamos scientists calculate the limits of radioactivity, 1947-1949

Sep 5 • 

Alex Wellerstein

48

3

3

July 2025

Trinity goes to Hollywood

Which movie did the first atomic bomb test best?

Jul 16 • 

Alex Wellerstein

43

11

5

June 2025

The Retreaters

A brief history of Preppers, part 2

Jun 13 • 

Alex Wellerstein

40

6

4

April 2025

Nuclear families

The imagery of the "family" in fallout shelter pamphlets, 1959-1961

Apr 11 • 

Alex Wellerstein

35

11

4