Alex Wellerstein is a historian of science and nuclear weapons and a professor at the Stevens Institute of Technology. He is also the creator of the NUKEMAP. This blog began in 2011. Follow him @wellerstein.bsky.social.
Want more nuclear secrecy content? Check out my book:
Restricted Data: The History of Nuclear Secrecy in the United States (University of Chicago Press, 2021).I have a NEW book from HarperCollins (2025) — a brand-new take on Truman and the bomb:
THE MOST AWFUL RESPONSIBILITY:
Truman and the Secret Struggle for Control of the Atomic Age
I also have a NEW blog/newsletter which updates much more regularly:
Doomsday Machines
Post-Apocalyptic Road Trips, End of the World-Building, and Interesting Times. A blog about how we think and have thought about end of the world, in both fact and fiction.Search
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- Henry Stimson didn’t go to Kyoto on his honeymoon
- Deconstructing “The Doomsday Machine” – Part 1: The Question of Memory
- Oppenheimer: Vacated but not Vindicated
- Did the Japanese offer to surrender before Hiroshima? (Part 2)
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Recent posts from DOOMSDAY MACHINES
- After the fires, seeds Octavia Butler’s “Parable of the Sower” (1993) as third-wave feminist Survivalism (30 Oct 2026)
- Apocalypses in miniature The end of the world as rendered by Lori Nix and Kathleen Gerber (21 Oct 2026)
- The great equalizer? Margaret Atwood’s “The Year of the Flood” (2009) as feminist survivalism (14 Oct 2026)
- The speed of war The short times of nuclear warning and attack (1971) (8 Oct 2026)
- “Do you know what to do in a radiation emergency?” New Jersey’s strangely-decontextualized nuclear terrorism PSAs (1 Oct 2026)
- The Way Nukes Work (*Sort of) Nuclear weapons and war in David Macaulay’s “The Way Things Work” (1988) (24 Sep 2026)
- Une apocalypse française A modern graphic novel adaptation of René Barjavel’s “Ravage” (1943) (18 Sep 2026)
- The secret to avoiding dirty bombs The surreality of cleaning nuclear weapons (15 Sep 2026)
- Doomsday Puppers Man’s best friend at the end of the world (4 Sep 2026)
- Running on empty How much gasoline would be available after a full-scale nuclear war? (28 Aug 2026)
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I have a NEW book from HarperCollins (2025) — a brand-new take on Truman and the bomb:
THE MOST AWFUL RESPONSIBILITY:
Truman and the Secret Struggle for Control of the Atomic Age
I also have a NEW blog/newsletter which updates much more regularly:
Doomsday Machines
Post-Apocalyptic Road Trips, End of the World-Building, and Interesting Times. A blog about how we think and have thought about end of the world, in both fact and fiction.