| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 107.2

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| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 107.2 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Canada and the United States

Kenneth D. Rose. One Nation Underground: The Fallout Shelter in American Culture. (American History and Culture.) New York: New York University Press. 2001. Pp. x, 313. $28.95.

In Stanley Kubrick's classic film Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), the occupants of the War Room salivate at the prospect of a postapocalyptic world where deep mine shafts become sexual playgrounds. They are eager to help repopulate the planet—even if it means prodigious sexual labor and abandoning monogamy. This book demonstrates that most Americans were considerably less enthused at the thought of life in fallout shelters. With clear prose, wonderful illustrations, and wide-ranging evidence, Kenneth D. Rose examines the intense national debate about the morality and efficacy of fallout shelters during the early Cold War. 1

These heated discussions were sparked by John F. Kennedy's response to the Berlin crisis in mid-1961. Determined to protect West Berlin and to prove his mettle against Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, Kennedy called for a $3.24 billion increase in defense spending and a $207 million civil defense initiative that would identify public and private spaces that could serve as fallout shelters in the event of nuclear war. Kennedy's remarks prompted impassioned deliberations not only "about how best to protect the home, but also about whether the home could be protected against nuclear weapons, or even should be protected against nuclear weapons" (p. 9). In six chapters, Rose places these questions into social, cultural, political, and scientific contexts and challenges Cold War verities. . . .

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