Book Review: Kopin on Swedin, ed. Survive the Bomb: The Radioactive Citizen's Guide to Nuclear Survival
Eric Gottfrid Swedin, ed. Survive the Bomb: The Radioactive
Citizen's Guide to Nuclear Survival. Minneapolis MBI Pub. Co. and
Zenith Press, 2011. 186 pp. $17.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-7603-4031-8.
Reviewed by Zach Kopin (American University)
Published on H-War (August, 2014)
Commissioned by Margaret Sankey
Published on H-War (August, 2014)
Commissioned by Margaret Sankey
After the initial dropping of the bomb on Japan, the American public
came to terms with the nuclear genie it let out of the bottle. While
the period of soul searching would largely end alongside America's
nuclear monopoly on August 29, 1949, when the Soviets successfully
tested their first atomic weapon, the American government, at various
levels, had to devise a way to survive what it perceived as the
coming nuclear conflict with the USSR. It is this world into which
Eric G. Swedin transports his reader. Swedin's book _Survive the
Bomb: The Radioactive Citizen's Guide to Nuclear Survival_ utilizes
primary source material, mostly government-issued reports and
educational material, to give the reader a glimpse of the culture of
American civil defense in the nightmare of the nuclear age.
Ultimately, Swedin believes that nuclear culture, a piece of the
1950s that, he believes, is far too often underassessed in cultural
studies of the decade, is as critical to understanding the decade as
anything else.
came to terms with the nuclear genie it let out of the bottle. While
the period of soul searching would largely end alongside America's
nuclear monopoly on August 29, 1949, when the Soviets successfully
tested their first atomic weapon, the American government, at various
levels, had to devise a way to survive what it perceived as the
coming nuclear conflict with the USSR. It is this world into which
Eric G. Swedin transports his reader. Swedin's book _Survive the
Bomb: The Radioactive Citizen's Guide to Nuclear Survival_ utilizes
primary source material, mostly government-issued reports and
educational material, to give the reader a glimpse of the culture of
American civil defense in the nightmare of the nuclear age.
Ultimately, Swedin believes that nuclear culture, a piece of the
1950s that, he believes, is far too often underassessed in cultural
studies of the decade, is as critical to understanding the decade as
anything else.