Description
Book SynopsisIn an era defined by the threat of nuclear annihilation, Western nations attempted to prepare civilian populations for atomic attack through staged drills, evacuations, and field exercises. This title investigates the fundamentally theatrical nature of these Cold War civil defense exercises.
Trade Review“Tracy C. Davis is a leading performance historian, and in
Stages of Emergency she applies her considerable skills to a kind of ‘play’ that permeated the consciousness and determined much social reality in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom during the Cold War. The story she tells, and her analysis of it, goes to the very heart of what these societies were and are.”—Richard Schechner, author of
Performance Studies: An Introduction“Tracy C. Davis’s highly original cross-cultural study represents the most perceptive analysis of Cold War–era civil-defense theory and practice written to date. As a theater scholar, she focuses on the ‘rehearsal’ and performative aspects of civil-defense planning in a way that is brilliantly illuminating.”—Paul Boyer, author of
By the Bomb’s Early Light: American Thought and Culture at the Dawn of the Atomic Age“[An] inspired reading of the cold war. . . . The historical reach of Davis’s study, from the defense planning f the early 1950s and 1960s to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, is as impressive as her ability to move with subtlety between civil defense in the United States and that in Canada or Britain.” -- Martin Halliwell * Theatre Survey *
“Davis presents meticulous discussions throughout the book, with extremely well-endnoted references, helping her to paint clear and in-depth pictures of these various exercises. These stories are surprisingly amusing to read, despite the seriousness of their underlying logic.” -- Joshua Abrams * TDR: The Drama Review *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix
Abbreviations xiii
Introduction 1
Part I: Directing Apocalypse
1. Civil Defense Concepts and Planning 9
2. Rehearsals for Nuclear War 58
Part II: Act Your Part: The Private Citizen on the Public Stage
3. The Psychology of Vulnerability 105
4. Sheltering 127
5. Get Out of Town! 158
6. Communications 181
7. Acting Out Injury 198
Part III: Covert Stages: The "Public Sector" Rehearses in Private
8. Crisis Play 223
9. International Play 247
10. Disaster Welfare 261
11. Continuity of Government 287
12. Computer Play 312
Afterword:Dismantling Civil Defense 331
Appendix: Cold War and Civil Defense Time Line 339
Notes 351
Works Cited 401
Index 429
