My article about how survival narratives in #ColdWar America used stories of personal survival to justify the genocidal choice of nuclear war fighting by the national government.
>Survival of self rather than of sustainable community<
“'There Are No Civilians; We Are All at War': Nuclear War Shelter and Survival Narratives during the Early Cold War"
2 Comments
SFRuminations@wandering.shop · 0 pts · 1y
@bojacobs @sts @histodons From what I've read of your article, it seems to be an underlying pillar to some later formulations -- like Thomas Bishop's fascinating Every Home a Fortress: Cold War Fatherhood and the Family Fallout Shelter (2020).
bojacobs@hcommons.social · 0 pts · 1y
@SFRuminations @sts @histodons I appreciate the framing. I'd be proud to have contirbuted in any way to those important works.
We tend to focus on the civil defense materials of that time in terms of their "camp" value. I read them as much more sinister. Perhaps you would be interested in this article about "Duck and Cover" and "Atomic Alert." For me the CD materials aimed at children had a profound and existential effect.
"Atomic Kids: Duck and Cover and Atomic Alert Teach American Children How to Survive Atomic Attack"
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/236749496_Atomic_Kids_Duck_and_Cover_and_Atomic_Alert_Teach_American_Children_How_to_Survive_Atomic_Attack