List and explain the many ways that critics and historians have characterized the decision to use the atomic bomb (orthodox, revisionist, synthesis, etc.). In your last ~250 words, choose the explanation that you find most plausible and explain why it is persuasive to you.

Science, Technology, and War
“The Decision”

Requirements
Use only attached readings as source base (see below). Use Chicago style formatting for citations. Target length of 800–900 words, with 900 a hard limit.

Prompt
List and explain the many ways that critics and historians have characterized the decision to use the atomic bomb (orthodox, revisionist, synthesis, etc.). In your last ~250 words, choose the explanation that you find most plausible and explain why it is persuasive to you.

Guidelines and Recommendations
Your introductory paragraph should briefly explain the topic for this paper. Be clear about the context and the stakes (nothing about “the dawn of time” or “throughout history”).
Present your central thesis and provide a roadmap for the paper in your introductory paragraph. Where you ultimately come down on “the decision” should not surprise your reader. Neither should the way that you sort and order various characterizations of these events by other historians.
Craft three concise body paragraphs, each with a topic sentence. Make sure that you explain each historiographical intervention and its importance. Do not forget to discuss key primary sources and their reliability! Try to describe the debate in your own words and keep quotations short.
Given the importance of the concluding paragraph for this assignment, leave yourself plenty of room. Situate your take on “the decision” within the historiographical debate. Give empirical reasons for your conclusion and consider counter-evidence (i.e., reasons to conclude otherwise).

The three body paragraphs should be about
1. The “Orthodoxy”
2. The “Rvisionists”
3. The “Synthesis”
All listed below.

Required Sources

The “Orthodoxy”
*Walker, JA 1996. The decision to use the bomb: A historiographical update. In MJ Hogan, ed. Hiroshima in History and Memory Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 11-37
*Stimson, HL. 1947. v. In K Bird and L Lifschultz, eds. Hiroshima’s Shadow: Writings on the denial of history and the Smithsonian controversy. Stoney Creek Ct: The Pamphleteers Press. Pp. 197-210

The “Revisionists”
*Alperovitz, G 2001. Historians reassess: Did we need to drop the bomb. pp. 5-21 in Bird and Lifschultz, eds.
*Blackett, P.M.S. 1949. Fear, war and the bomb. New York: McGraw Hill. Pp. 127-143.

The “Synthesis”
*Malloy, SL. 2008. Atomic Tragedy: Henry L. Stimson and the Decision to use the Bomb Against Japan. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. Pp. 120-180.

Link to download sources is below:

https://mega.nz/#F!mf4zwa7B!FidO_K7WLyaEwssGduVc_g