Cold War Civil Defence in Western Europe

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.

“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)

• 1. Introduction: New paths in civil defence history- Marie Cronqvist, Rosanna Farbøl and Casper Sylvest.- 2. Order on their home fronts: Imagining war and social control in 1950s NATO- Iben Bjørnsson.- 3. The imagined disastrous: West German civil defence between war preparation and emergency management 1950–1990- Jochen Molitor.- 4. Normalising nuclear war: Narrative scenarios, imaginative geographies and sites of leisure in 1950s Britain- Jonathan Hogg.- 5. Embedding preparedness, assigning responsibility: The role of film in sociotechnical imaginaries of civil defence- Peter Bennesved and Casper Sylvest.- 6. ‘The world is her home’: The role of women volunteers in Dutch civil defence in the 1950s and 1960s - Dick van Lente.- 7. Ruins of resilience: Imaginaries and materiality imagineered and embedded in civil defence architecture- Rosanna Farbøl.- 8. Framing civil defence critique: Swiss physicians’ resistance to the Coordinated Medical Services in the 1980s- Sibylle Marti.- 9. Remembering desirable futures? Civil defence memories and everyday life in Sweden and the United Kingdom- Marie Cronqvist and Matthew Grant.- 10. Conclusion: Civil defence futures (re)imagined- Marie Cronqvist, Rosanna Farbøl and Casper Sylvest.