Sheltering society: Civil defense in the United States, 1945-1963

This dissertation adds to the corpus of Atomic Age studies by tendering a more complete account of American civilian defense programs during the early years of the Cold War. It takes as its thesis the following argument: despite federal leadership and a series of elaborate publicity campaigns, civil defense never became an accepted and valued part of the Fifties society that characterized the United States from 1945 to 1963. A thorough analysis of the goals established by the federal civil defense agencies, their attempts to realize, or meet, those goals, and the public response to preparedness initiatives substantiate the thesis. No single explanation for the decline of civil defense---such as a widespread sense of doom, or ultimacy---is presented. Rather, a host of contributing factors, including politics, advances in technology, bureaucratic mistakes and inconsistencies, and social perceptions and behavior are offered.