‘No protection against the H-bomb’: press and popular reactions to the Coventry civil defence controversy, 1954

N. Barnett

DOI:10.1080/14682745.2014.968558

Corpus ID: 154550156

‘No protection against the H-bomb’: press and popular reactions to the Coventry civil defence controversy, 1954

@article{Barnett2015NoPA,
  title={‘No protection against the H-bomb’: press and popular reactions to the Coventry civil defence controversy, 1954},
  author={N. Barnett},
  journal={Cold War History},
  year={2015},
  volume={15},
  pages={277 - 300}
}

N. Barnett

Published 2015

Political Science

Cold War History

This article examines British popular and media reactions to America's Bravo test shot in April 1954 and Coventry City Council's subsequent decision to abandon civil defence. The article finds that three key motifs emerged which relate to Britain's broader sense of national identity in the 1950s. First, the controversy formed part of a cultural battle for national identity between a conservative and potentially militaristic culture, and one which was more progressive and opposed war and nuclear… CONTINUE READING

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