By April 1952, New York City had issued two and a half million metal dogtags to all public, private, and parochial school children; the primary reason: to help identify the dead after a sneak nuclear attack. It was just another part of making Americans feel safer while living at ground zero.
In Life Under a Cloud, Allan Winkler presents a fascinating history of the irony, anxiety, and official insanity of the atomic age. He begins with the prewar...