Give Me Shelter: The Failure of Canada's Cold War Civil Defence

by Andrew Burtch

What do you do when a nuclear weapon detonates nearby? During the
early Cold War years of 1945-63, Civil Defence Canada and the Emergency
Measures Organization planned for just such a disaster and encouraged
citizens to prepare their families and their cities for nuclear war. By
the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the civil defence program was
widely mocked, and the public was vastly unprepared for nuclear
war.
Canada's civil defence program was born in the early Cold War,
when fears of conflict between the superpowers ran high. Give Me
Shelter features previously unreleased documents detailing
Canada's nuclear survival plans. Andrew Burtch reveals how the
organization publicly appealed to citizens to prepare for disaster
themselves - from volunteering as air-raid wardens to
building fallout shelters. This tactic ultimately failed, however, due
to a skeptical populace, chronic underfunding, and repeated
bureaucratic fumbling. Give Me Shelter exposes the challenges
of educating the public in the face of the looming threat of nuclear
annihilation.
Give Me Shelter explains how governments and the public
prepared for the unexpected. It is essential reading for historians,
policymakers, and anybody interested in Canada's Cold War home
front.


Andrew Burtch is the historian for the post-1945
period at the Canadian War Museum.

300 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2012