RSG News & Information updates:

Cold War: building for nuclear confrontation 1946-1989, by Wayne D Cocroft and Roger J C Thomas, edited by P S Barnwell

• 282 pages, 162 illustrations
  
• ISBN 1 873592 69 8
  
• Product code 50725
  
• Price £24.99 hardback
  
• Published July 2003
  
• To be launched: 22 July  at Waterstones Bookshop, Piccadilly, by Dr Simon Thurley, Chief Executive of English Heritage

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Summary The Cold War was one of the defining phenomena of the late 20th century, but the defence installations built in Britain between 1946 and 1989 to carry out nuclear war have remained little known because of the secrecy that surrounded them. This book is the first overview of the impact of the Cold War on the built environment of the United Kingdom.

The book begins with a brief account of the military and political events of the Cold War. There follows discussions of the sites most readily associated with the central themes of the Cold War - the deployment of nuclear weapons and the presence of large United States air bases. The credibility of the nuclear deterrent was dependent on a complex infrastructure of surveillance and early warning systems, so that, if an attack did come, defences were ready to counter it. Any strike by nuclear weapons would have resulted in widespread devastation, and the Government established a network of protected bunkers, which are discussed along with other civil defence structures. All these post-Second World War defence efforts required increasingly complex technological products, and their development was underpinned by specialised scientific research establishments and factories, which are also described. The book ends with a discussion of international initiatives to record and preserve key Cold War monuments. There is a list of key sources allows readers who wish to pursue the topics in greater depth.

The book is based on a 5-year programme of original field investigation and research. It is heavily illustrated with photographs of the sites as they survive today, archive photographs (many not published before), modern and historic air photographs, site and building plans, and specially commissioned interpretative drawings.

Research carried out for the project has directly contributed to the assessment of Cold War structures for statutory protection in England, supporting that work by presenting a national context for the sites and structures selected for preservation. It also provides the basis for international comparisons.