Armageddon Insurance - (New Cold War History) by Edward M Geist (Paperback)

About the Book

"The dangerous, decades-long arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War begged a fundamental question: how did these superpowers actually plan to survive a nuclear strike? In Armageddon insurance, the first historical account of Soviet civil defense and a pioneering reappraisal of its American counterpart, Edward M. Geist compares how the two superpowers tried, and mostly failed, to reinforce their societies to withstand the ultimate catastrophe"--

Book Synopsis

The dangerous, decades-long arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War begged a fundamental question: how did these superpowers actually plan to survive a nuclear strike? In Armageddon Insurance, the first historical account of Soviet civil defense and a pioneering reappraisal of its American counterpart, Edward M. Geist compares how the two superpowers tried, and mostly failed, to reinforce their societies to withstand the ultimate catastrophe.

Drawing on previously unexamined documents from archives in America, Russia, and Ukraine, Geist places these civil defense programs in their political and cultural contexts, demonstrating how each country's efforts reflected its cultural preoccupations and blind spots and revealing how American and Soviet civil defense related to profound issues of nuclear strategy and national values. This work challenges prevailing historical assumptions and unearths the ways Moscow and Washington developed nuclear weapons policies based not on rational strategic or technical considerations but in power struggles between different institutions pursuing their own narrow self-interests.

Review Quotes

"Armageddon Insurance is a book that joins the best of both worlds--best in the sense that Edward Geist surveys how, through the long years of the Cold War, both the US and USSR, with all their elaborate strategies to destroy each other, also attempted to save at least some part of their own populations from nuclear annihilation. The book is also comparative history at its best, joining comprehensive research and readings in both English and Russian language sources, with a sustained effort to be both balanced and unbiased."--American Historical Review

"Geist performs a service to scholars of civil defense by providing English-language history of Soviet civil-defense efforts, based heavily on Russian archival documents. . . . Armageddon Insurance adds nuance with fresh archival sources and the employment of an institutional focus."--Nonproliferation Review

"This is the first comprehensive history of any Cold War civil-defense system, and Geist has given us not one side but both. . . . A major contribution to the literature on the Cold War."--Russian Review