After The Bomb
Civil Defence and Nuclear War in Britain, 1945-68

Civil defence was an integral part of Britain's modern history. Throughout the cold war it was a central response of the British Government to the threat of war. This book will be the first history of the preparations to fight a nuclear war taken in Britain between the end of the Second World War and 1968.

After the Bomb is the first full-length archive-based study of successive British Government's plans to meet a nuclear attack on Britain. It examines the range of policies which were adopted to meet the shifting priorities of the state, and the strategic, political and economic contexts in which those policies and priorities were decided. It argues that civil defence must be seen a fundamental part of Britain's post-1945 history, and highlights the financial and administrative effort put into the policy, and its key role in allaying fears of nuclear attack, shaping ideas public about nuclear survival, and bolstering the credibility of the nuclear deterrent. It concludes that the role and nature of civil defence in cold war Britain can only be understood as a set of policies designed to meet a wide range of different priorities -- such as saving lives, protecting the economy, convincing people they could survive a nuclear attack and ensuring the survival of the British state -- which were themselves subject to a series of fast-changing developments in the international situation, domestic political context and fraught economic backdrop.

Preface Abbreviations Introduction
The Cold War and the New Civil Defence
Preparing for a Third World War
Protecting the Public The Hydrogen Bomb Revolution Years of Decision Separate Spheres of Civil Defence Equipoise, Crisis and Reform Gradual Decline and Sudden Fall Conclusion Notes and References Bibliography