One Nation Underground: The Fallout Shelter in American Culture

325 Pages·2001·3.62 MB·English

by  Kenneth D. Rose

One Nation Underground
American History and Culture
Neil Foley,Kevin Gaines,Martha Hodes,and Scott Sandage
general editors
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner Now? Multicultural Conservatism in America
Angela D.Dillard
One Nation Underground:The Fallout Shelter in American Culture
Kenneth D.Rose
One Nation Underground
The Fallout Shelter in American Culture
kenneth d. rose
a
New York University Press
new york and london
new york university press
New York and London
©2001byNew York University
All rights reserved.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rose,Kenneth D.(Kenneth David),1946–
One nation underground :a history of the fallout shelter /
Kenneth D.Rose.
p. cm.— (American history and culture)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN0-8147-7522-5(acid-free paper)
1.Fallout shelters—Social aspects—United States. 2.Nuclear
warfare—Social aspects—United States. 3.Cold War—Social
aspects—United States. 4.United States—Social conditions—1945–
5.Popular culture—United States—History—20th century. I.Title.
II.American history and culture (New York University Press)
UA927.R67 2001
303.6'6—dc21 20010004000
New York University Press books are printed on acid-free paper,
and their binding materials are chosen for strength and durability.
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To my father,whose selfless devotion to a very dangerous profession
continues to inspire me,and to Jeanne,whose encouragement,
patience,and good humor made this project possible.

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
1 A New Age Dawning 14
2 The Nuclear Apocalyptic 38
3 Morality and National Identity at the Shelter Door 78
4 Taking Government,Business,and Schools Underground 113
5 The Theory and Practice of Armageddon 150
6 The Shelters That Were Not Built,the Nuclear War That
Did Not Start 186
Postscript 214
Notes 225
Index 301
About the Author 313
vii

Acknowledgments
Niko Pfund at New York University Press
believed in this project from the very beginning,and I owe him a great
debt for his stewardship of One Nation.Also much thanks to Niko’s suc-
cessor at NYU Press, Eric Zinner, and to Cecilia Feilla, with whom I
worked closely on the final manuscript.As always, Despina Gimbel was
diligent in her duties as managing editor,and Rosalie Morales Kearns did
a superb job as copy editor.
Bob Harris proved to be an inexhaustible font of knowledge on this
subject.Without his guidance and suggestions this book would have been
much less than it is.Scott Sandage and Jeanne Lawrence gave my manu-
script a close reading,and I am very grateful for their suggestions.Fellow
Cold War traveler Laura McEnaney also had a number of observations that
helped me a great deal.
Thanks to California State University,Chico Interlibrary Loan staff,es-
pecially George Thompson and Jo Ann Bradley.The Summer Scholar
Award I received from CSU, Chico enabled me to gather most of the
photographs in this book. Early on in this project Gray Fitzsimons di-
rected me to some valuable sources,which I greatly appreciate.My col-
leagues in the CSU,Chico history department,including Mike Magliari,
Mike Gillis, Cliff Minor, Lisa Emmerich, and Joanna Cowden, provided
ix