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The Gas Mask in Interwar Germany: Visions of Chemical Modernity

Hardback

Main Details

Title The Gas Mask in Interwar Germany: Visions of Chemical Modernity
Authors and Contributors      By (author) Peter Thompson
SeriesScience in History
Physical Properties
Format:Hardback
Pages:320
ISBN/Barcode 9781009314824
ClassificationsDewey:623.4592
Audience
General
Illustrations Worked examples or Exercises

Publishing Details

Publisher Cambridge University Press
Imprint Cambridge University Press
NZ Release Date 31 May 2023
Publication Country United Kingdom

Description

Exploring the history of the gas mask in Germany from 1915 to the eve of the Second World War, Peter Thompson traces how chemical weapons and protective technologies like the gas mask produced new relationships to danger, risk, management and mastery in the modern age of mass destruction. Recounting the apocalyptic visions of chemical death that circulated in interwar Germany, he argues that while everyday encounters with the gas mask tended to exacerbate fears, the gas mask also came to symbolize debates about the development of military and chemical technologies in the Weimar Republic and the Third Reich. He underscores how the gas mask was tied into the creation of an exclusionary national community under the Nazis and the altered perception of environmental danger in the second half of the twentieth century. As this innovative new history shows, chemical warfare and protection technologies came to represent poignant visions of the German future.

Author Biography

Peter Thompson is Assistant Professor of History, Philosophy, and Sociology of Science at Lyman Briggs College, Michigan State University.