The Rise of Nuclear Fear-How We Learned to Fear the Radiation

This is a blog from Scientific American that details the history of social fear of nuclear radiation. Writing directly after World War 2 and the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Golding tapped into a common society-wide fear over nuclear war.

William Golding - Lord of the Flies (BBC Radio 4)

This is a radio dramatization of Lord of the Flies, made for BBC Radio in 2013. Adaptations of novels can shine light on hitherto unnoticed aspects of a narrative.

War, Peace and the Role of Power in Sherif’s Robbers Cave Experiment

This is a post from PsyBlog, a psychology website, that outlines and discusses the Robber’s Cave Experiment: a sociology experiment that took place in 1954 which put boys into groups on a campsite and studied the effect of competition on their ability to work as a group.

The Real Lesson of the Stanford Prison Experiment

This is an article from the New Yorker that analyzes the Stanford Prison Experiment: a sociology experiment that took place in 1971 that recreated prison conditions and revealed that the participants were quicker to cruelty than the experimenters expected.

Scientists Probe Human Nature--and Discover We Are Good, After All

This is an article from Scientific American about a contemporary experiment that set out to determine if human nature was good or evil.

Robinsonade (Britannica)

This is an encyclopedia entry on the Robinsonade, a genre of survivalist and adventure fiction that derives its name from Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe. Golding was influenced by this genre in writing Lord of the Flies.