Give Me Shelter

How could you and your family survive a nuclear war? From 1945 to 1963, the Canadian government developed civil defence plans to save lives in bombed cities, evacuate target areas, and encouraged the public to build basement fallout shelters. By the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the civil defence program was widely mocked, and the public was still vastly unprepared for nuclear war. Give Me Shelter features recently released documents detailing Canada’s nuclear survival plans. Andrew Burtch reveals how, through public appeals, the department urged citizens to assume responsibility for disaster preparation, a tactic that ultimately failed. An exposé of the challenges of educating the public on the threat of nuclear annihilation, this book illuminates Canada’s Cold War home front like never before.