Cold War Civil Defence in Western Europe

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xv

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2. Introduction: New Paths in Civil Defence History

   • Marie Cronqvist, Rosanna Farbøl, Casper Sylvest

   Pages 1-23Open Access

3. Order on Their Home Fronts: Imagining War and Social Control in 1950s NATO

   • Iben Bjørnsson

   Pages 25-52Open Access

4. The Imagined Disastrous: West German Civil Defence Between War Preparation and Emergency Management 1950–1990

   • Jochen Molitor

   Pages 53-76Open Access

5. Normalising Nuclear War: Narrative Scenarios, Imaginative Geographies and Sites of Leisure in 1950s Britain

   • Jonathan Hogg

   Pages 77-102Open Access

6. Embedding Preparedness, Assigning Responsibility: The Role of Film in Sociotechnical Imaginaries of Civil Defence

   • Peter Bennesved, Casper Sylvest

   Pages 103-128Open Access

7. ‘The World is Her Home’: The Role of Women Volunteers in Dutch Civil Defence in the 1950s and 1960s

   • Dick van Lente

   Pages 129-156Open Access

8. Ruins of Resilience: Imaginaries and Materiality Imagineered and Embedded in Civil Defence Architecture

   • Rosanna Farbøl

   Pages 157-182Open Access

9. Framing Civil Defence Critique: Swiss Physicians’ Resistance to the Coordinated Medical Services in the 1980s

   • Sibylle Marti

   Pages 183-207Open Access

10. Remembering Desirable Futures? Civil Defence Memories and Everyday Life in Sweden and the UK

    • Marie Cronqvist, Matthew Grant

    Pages 209-231Open Access

11. Conclusion: Civil Defence Futures (Re)imagined

    • Marie Cronqvist, Rosanna Farbøl, Casper Sylvest

    Pages 233-245Open Access

12. Back Matter

    Pages 247-250

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This open access edited collection brings together established and new perspectives on Cold War civil defence in Western Europe within a common analytical framework that also facilitates comparative and transnational dimensions. The current interest in creating disaster-resilient societies demands new histories of civil defence. Historical contextualization is essential in order to understand what is at stake in preparing, devising, and implementing forms of preparedness, protection, and security that are specifically targeted at societies and citizens. Applying the concept of sociotechnical imaginaries to civil defence history, the chapters of this volume cover a range of new themes, from technology and materiality to media, memory, and everyday experience. The book underlines the social embeddedness of civil defence by detailing how it both prompted new forms of social interaction and reflected norms and visions of the ‘good society’ in an age where nuclear technology seemed to hold the key to both doom and salvation.

• Survival
• Resilience
• Disaster planning
• Terrorism
• Nuclear conflict
• Memory studies
• Materiality
• Everyday experience
• Cold War
• NATO
• Twentieth century
• open access

“Cold War Civil Defence in Western Europe is a timely, highly recommendable, conceptually, and analytically inspiring contribution to our understanding of the Cold War, emergency planning, and civilian preparedness. Readers well beyond those specializing in the history of science and technology will appreciate it.” (Victoria Harms, Technology and Culture, Vol. 64 (1), January, 2023)

“Transnational in scope and underpinned by the concept of sociotechnical imaginaries, this brilliantly conceptualized and empirically rich book not only opens up new avenues for studying civil defence and emergency preparedness in the past but also helps to inform debates on threats, resilience and safety in today’s crisis-ridden societies.” (Silvia Berger Ziauddin, University of Bern, Switzerland) 

“With its geographical focus on Western Europe and its application of the concept of sociotechnical imaginaries from science and technology studies, Cold War Civil Defence in Western Europe breaks new ground.” (Christoph Laucht, Swansea University, UK) 

“Too often, Cold War civil defence history has been limited to the two superpowers in the 1950s and early 1960s. This compelling collection demonstrates a great diversity of civil defence plans, periodizations, material interventions, and public responses across a number of NATO and neutral countries.” (David Monteyne, University of Calgary, Canada)

• Department of Communication and Media, Lund University, Lund, Sweden

  Marie Cronqvist

• Department of History, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark

  Rosanna Farbøl, Casper Sylvest

Marie Cronqvist is a Reader and Senior Lecturer in Journalism and Media History in the Department of Communication and Media at Lund University, Sweden. Her research is focused on Cold War media, civil defence culture and transnational broadcasting.

Rosanna Farbøl is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Southern Denmark. Her research is focused on Cold War civil defence, and she has specialized in the connection between materiality, imaginaries and culture, and comparative studies of urban civil defence strategies in Denmark and Europe.

Casper Sylvest is an Associate Professor in the Department of History at the University of Southern Denmark. His research is focused on nuclear politics and culture during the Cold War. He currently directs a research project on Danish Civil Defence during the Cold War.