The atomic bomb explosion over Nagasaki, Japan, seen here, helped to end World War II, but the invention of the nuclear bomb shortly thereafter ushered in the Cold War and all the paranoia of "The Nuclear Age."

Democracy's timeline runs roughly from 1952 through 1975, from the first nuclear bomb tests through the "fall" of Saigon and the end of the Vietnam War, a conflict waged largely to prevent "The Domino Effect" of small nations falling under Communist control.

What does Democracy say about the historical era in which it takes place? What comments on that history are implied by the novel's title? What are Didion's attitude towards American history and democracy as conveyed through the novel?

See other weapons of the era that Didion mentions in the novel.