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Give Me Shelter by Andrew Burtch
$32.95
Give Me Shelter : The Failure of Canada’s Cold War Civil Defence by Andrew Burtch
This book explores Canada’s Cold War civil defence program (1945-63), revealing government efforts to prepare citizens for nuclear war through initiatives like building fallout shelters. Authored by Andrew Burtch, the book unveils challenges faced, including public skepticism, funding issues, and bureaucratic hurdles. Despite attempts, the program proved insufficient during the Cuban Missile Crisis, highlighting the difficulty of readying the populace for nuclear threats. Essential for historians and policymakers, it sheds light on Canada’s Cold War home front.
Description
“Civil defence in Cold War Canada is largely uncharted territory, and this rich, pioneering study reveals the political, psychological, and practical challenges of trying to generate popular preparedness for the unthinkable: a nuclear holocaust at home. Burtch’s complex yet lively narrative not only engages existing scholarly debates but should launch new ones as well.” – P. Whitney Lackenbauer, co-author of Arctic Front: Defending Canada in the Far North
“In this fascinating study, Burtch eloquently illuminates a fundamental failure of national policy. Canadians did not adjust their thinking about civil defence much beyond overseas newsreel images of the Second World War and never seemed to take into account the possibility that war would come suddenly, exacting an enormous price for the absence of advance preparation. This story is told with wit and clarity by an author in command of his sources and measured in his judgment.” – Hector Mackenzie, Senior Departmental Historian, Policy Research Division, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade
How could you and your family survive a nuclear war? From 1945 onwards, the Canadian government developed civil defence plans and encouraged citizens to join local survival corps. By the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the civil defence program was widely mocked, and the public was still vastly unprepared for nuclear war. An exposé of the challenges of educating the public on the threat of nuclear annihilation, Give Me Shelter provides a well-grounded explanation of why Canada’s civil defence strategy ultimately failed. It is essential reading for anyone interested in Canada’s Cold War home front.
Andrew Burtch is the historian for the post-1945 period at the Canadian War Museum.
