{"product_id":"the-beginning-or-the-end-how-hollywood-and-america-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-the-bomb-hardcover","title":"The Beginning or the End: How Hollywood--And America--Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb - Hardcover","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eGreg Mitchell\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eOne of \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cb\u003eVanity Fair\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cb\u003e's 21 Best Books of 2020\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWinner, 2020 Richard Wall Memorial Award Special Jury Prize, Theatre Library Association\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe shocking and significant story of how the White House and Pentagon scuttled an epic Hollywood production.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eSoon after atomic bombs exploded over Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, MGM set out to make a movie studio chief Louis B. Mayer called \"the most important story\" he would ever film: a big budget dramatization of the Manhattan Project and the invention and use of the revolutionary new weapon.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eOver at Paramount, Hal B. Wallis was ramping up his own film version. His screenwriter: the novelist Ayn Rand, who saw in physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer the model for a character she was sketching for \u003cem\u003eAtlas Shrugged\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eGreg Mitchell's \u003cem\u003eThe Beginning or the End\u003c\/em\u003e chronicles the first efforts of American media and culture to process the Atomic Age. A movie that began as a cautionary tale inspired by atomic scientists aiming to warn the world against a nuclear arms race would be drained of all impact due to revisions and retakes ordered by President Truman and the military--for reasons of propaganda, politics, and petty human vanity (this \u003cem\u003ewas\u003c\/em\u003e Hollywood).\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eMitchell has found his way into the lofty rooms, from Washington to California, where it happened, unearthing hundreds of letters and dozens of scripts that show how wise intentions were compromised in favor of defending the use of the bomb and the imperatives of postwar politics. As in his acclaimed Cold War true-life thriller \u003cem\u003eThe Tunnels\u003c\/em\u003e, he exposes how our implacable American myth-making mechanisms distort our history.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGreg Mitchell's\u003c\/strong\u003e books include \u003cem\u003eThe Beginning or the End: How Hollywood Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb\u003c\/em\u003e (The New Press) as well as \u003cem\u003eThe Tunnels\u003c\/em\u003e; \u003cem\u003eThe Campaign of the Century\u003c\/em\u003e, winner of the Goldsmith Book Prize and finalist for the \u003cem\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/em\u003e Book Prize; \u003cem\u003eTricky Dick and the Pink Lady\u003c\/em\u003e, a \u003cem\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/em\u003e Notable Book; \u003cem\u003eSo Wrong for So Long\u003c\/em\u003e; and, with Robert Jay Lifton, \u003cem\u003eHiroshima in America\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eWho Owns Death?\u003c\/em\u003e He lives in the New York City area.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 272\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 1 x 8.6 x 5.7 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eIllustrated:\u003c\/strong\u003e Yes\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e July 07, 2020\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51760321069344,"sku":"9781620975732","price":27.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0974\/9764\/5344\/files\/bdd76f8adf05227095b4b285ab5d57a5.webp?v=1780177535","url":"https:\/\/ebocreations.com\/products\/the-beginning-or-the-end-how-hollywood-and-america-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-the-bomb-hardcover","provider":"The E-Book Oasis LLC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}