Team Map Presentation: The Nuclear Club

In his map “The Nuclear Club” Michael Kidron makes a strong argument against the stockpiling of nuclear weapons. At the time that he made this map, the United States and Russia were in the middle of the Cold War, each trying to develop more powerful nuclear weapons than the other and create a larger reserve of the same weapons. However, the author centered the map with the European Land. With even just a cursory glance, the coloring of the map makes a statement; only using red and gray. The vivid red evoke a sense of blood and suffering ,which is apparent that the countries in red are involved in something probably related to blood and violence. The countries such as African countries in gray are being largely left out of the conflict. After the red gets his reader’s attention, he presents the large number of weapons that each of the countries already has, the power of the weapons tied in to Hiroshima, and the fact that each of the countries has enough power to kill most of the people on the planet. The map legend in the corner of the map contend that the escalating power of the nuclear weapons threats the countries all over the world.  Using oversized icons to represent the number of a given type of weapon, the weapons are apparently taking over the country. By boldly showing the danger of a single weapon and the huge number of these weapons that are already in existence, Kidron makes a firm argument against the excessive stockpiling of nuclear weapons. During the cold war period , the map protests the endangered world and upholds the peace instead of simply rendering the militaristic power of each state.

Shuyi Chen, Jack Worstell and Christopher Bowles