This Is Only a Test: How Washington D.C. Prepared for Nuclear War

ISBN-13: 9781349528974 / Angielski / Miękka / 2007 / 248 str.

David F. Krugler; D. Krugler

Opis

The history of nuclear age urban planning, civil defense, and continuity of goverment programs in one of the nation's most critical Cold War targets: Washington, D.C. This book shows how the Cold War affected Washington and its racially divided population.

Recenzje

"Long before 9/11, Washington, D.C., served as both symbol and target. David Krugler shows how Cold War fears of nuclear attack shaped the mind-set of national policymakers and remade the landscape of the national capital. The worst never happened but the civil defense efforts he documents offer sobering lessons for anyone concerned about the future continuity of our government." - Donald A. Ritchie, author of Reporting from Washington: The History of the Washington Press Corps

"Krugler's dissection of the inadequacies of America's early plans to assure continuity of government in the nation's capital against the eventuality of nuclear attack is not just good history. It reveals, in the aftermath of the attacks of 2001, how ill-prepared America remains in case of a significant threat to the homeland. Lively and deeply informed, Krugler's book is both compelling reading and a wake up call to the American public and its elected representatives." - Howard F. Gillette, Jr., author of Between Justice and Beauty: Race, Planning, and the Failure of Urban Policy in Washington, D.C.

"This Is Only a Test underscores the confusion, wishful thinking, political infighting, and ultimate futility of civil-defense planning in Washington, D.C. during the scariest years of the Cold War. Deeply researched and engagingly written, this book offers imagined - but firmly grounded - scenarios of the chaos an actual nuclear attack would surely have unleashed. Sensitive to the clash of personalities and conflicting interests, David Krugler shows how race, urban-suburban tensions, and the political pecking order in the nation's capital all shaped the debate. This timely study highlights issues that still confront us in this post-9/11 age." - Paul Boyer, author of By the Bomb's Early Light: American Thought

and Culture at the Dawn of the Atomic Age

Spis treści

Introduction A Nuclear Weapons Primer By the Bomb's Imaginary Light The Promise and Politics of Dispersal The District Defends Itself Downtown, Out of Town, or Underground? Apathy and the Atom The Eisenhower Way Practice Makes Perfect Capital Confusion Land of the Blind The Satchel Has Been Passed . . . Postscript Source Abbreviations Acknowledgments

O autorze

David F. Krugler is Associate Professor of History, University of Wisconsin, Platteville.