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Hebatalla Taha, photo.

Hebatalla Taha

Researcher

Hebatalla Taha, photo.

The Atomic Future : Technology, Labor and World Peace in the Thought of ʿAli Rashid Shaʿath

Author

  • Hebatalla Taha
  • Pelle Valentin Olsen

Summary, in English

In 1946, one year after the atomic bombings of Japan, Palestinian thinker ʿAli Rashid Shaʿath (1908–1967) published a book entitled Min al-binsilin ila al-qunbula al-zarriya (From Penicillin to the Atomic Bomb). An accessible work of popular science, it con- tains highly optimistic reflections on the future and predicts the following two events as a result of nuclear technology and energy: a workers’ utopia and world peace. This article situates Shaʿath’s voice within a global conversation about the atomic age, which led to new forms of futuristic and utopian thinking. Analyzing broader Arab articulations of the future through Shaʿath’s writing, we critically engage his embrace of atomic technology as a mode of emancipation.

Department/s

  • Department of Political Science
  • Centre for Advanced Middle Eastern Studies (CMES)
  • MECW: The Middle East in the Contemporary World
  • Department of Human Geography

Publishing year

2024

Language

English

Pages

29-46

Publication/Series

Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication

Volume

17

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Brill

Topic

  • Political Science

Keywords

  • atomic age
  • future
  • nuclear politics
  • technology
  • war
  • peace

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1873-9857