"When the atomic bomb exploded over Hiroshima on 6 August 1945, it not only signalled the final phase of the Second World War, it also precipitated a nuclear age that shaped the Cold War and post-Cold War periods. States of Suspense is about the representation of this nuclear age in United States literature from 1945-2005. The book will be of interest to students and scholars of American literature, and postmodern and technological culture. It will also be of interest to those more generally intrigued by the cultural fallout of the nuclear age."--Jacket.