Sarah E. Robey, PhD
History in the Atomic Age
Sarah E. Robey is an Associate Professor of History at Idaho State University
Dr. Robey specializes in nuclear history and American cultural history. Her first book, Atomic Americans (Cornell University Press, 2022), explores civic life in the early years of the Atomic Age.
Her current book project explores the history of Idaho National Laboratory in the context of the Nuclear West.
At Idaho State University, Dr. Robey teaches courses in the history of energy, the history of science and technology, and American history.
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Atomic Americans: Citizens in a Nuclear State
2022, Cornell University Press
Atomic Americans tells the story of how Americans adjusted to a world transformed by nuclear weapons. Faced with the constant specter of nuclear attack, Americans did so much more than duck and cover under elementary school desks in the decades after World War II. Instead, the dawn of the Atomic Age sparked a new wave of civic involvement centering around the twin goals of national and individual survival. By examining a range of sources from everyday citizens, Robey shows us how nuclear weapons ushered in a complex era of not only activism and action, but also debate and dissent.
Praise for Atomic Americans
"Beautifully researched and engagingly written, Atomic Americans gives readers an illuminating history of the atomic age, one that captures how the rise of new energy forms can transform politics, culture, and society."
Natasha Zaretsky
University of Alabama at Birmingham, author of Radiation Nation
"Atomic Americans makes the intriguing claim that Americans' relationship to the federal government during the Cold War became increasingly about survival. An admirable inquiry into how living under the shadow of potential nuclear war shaped ideas of American citizenship."
Jacob Darwin Hamblin
Oregon State University, author of The Wretched Atom
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Available now with Cornell University Press.
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