Cold War Space and Culture in the 1960s and 1980s

David L. Pike has taught in the Department of Literature at American University since 1995. He is the author of Passage through Hell: Modernist Descents, Medieval Underworlds; Subterranean Cities: The World beneath Paris and London 1800-1945; Metropolis on the Styx: The Underworlds of Modern Urban Culture, 1800-2001; Canadian Cinema since the 1980s: At the Heart of the World; and articles on medieval literature, modernism, film, neo-Victorianism, subterranea, urban fantasy, global urban culture, and Paris and London. He is co-author of Corruption Plots: Stories, Ethics, and Publics of the Late Capitalist City and of Literature: A World of Writing, and co-general editor of the Longman Anthology of World Literature.

• Introduction: The Bunker Fantasy before and after the Bunkered Decades Part 1. America 1962: The New Mutants and Where They Lived 1: In the Basement: Shelter, Suburbia and the Nuclear Family 2: Back to the Cave: Tribalism and Feral Humanity 3: The Private Supershelter: Survivalism and Self-Reliance 4: We'll All Go Together When We Go: Shelter and Community 5: Mountain Deep: Government Supershelters Part 2. America 1983: The New Survivalism and Where It Hid 6: How to Survive the 80s 7: Men's Action Fictions 8: Nuclear Realism 9: Feminist Bunker Fantasies Conclusion: Cold War Space and Culture since the Cold War

Indeed, this is undeniably an incredibly well-researched book, brimming with detail and the ability to connect even the most mundane piece of popular culture to the fear- driven Cold War. As such, it is an essential read for anybody interested in Cold War culture or how apocalyptic themes manifest themselves in film, literature, and other forms of culture. As Pike suggests in his conclusion, other existential threats such as the climate crisis will ensure that the bunker fantasy continues to mutate and influence our culture.