Much of my background will focus on the image of the fallout shelter and the nuclear family in the single-family home during the cold war. Fortunately I had no problem finding resources that fit this topic. A great deal has been written about suburbia and the fallout shelters during the cold war and today. First, I will need to create a basic understanding of suburban forces, which will serve as the backbone to my situated research. Two key resources I will be using to do this are Suburban nation?: the rise of sprawl and the decline of the American Dream by Robert Duany and Crabgrass Frontier by Kenneth T. Jackson. These both outline the rise of suburban sprawl in the Untied States, its consequences and its deep roots within the American psyche. Suburbia is a physical representation of the individualization of the American landscape. This individualization and value system will hopefully be the bolt that holds all of the different ideas of my thesis together.
In order to situate my research further, I will focus on suburbia in terms of cold war culture manifested in the fallout shelter. There are many resources that highlight this phenomenon such as Survival City: Adventures Among the Ruins of Atomic America by Tom Vanderbilt, Homeward bound?: American families in the Cold War era by Elaine Tyler May, and Fallout Shelter: Designing for Civil Defense in the Cold War. Survival City mainly focuses on the physical architecture of the fallout shelter and how that represented our fears and culture. Fallout Shelter looks at the bomb shelters place within our culture, media, and family values. Homeward bound looks at how the family functioned during the cold war. These resources offer a snapshot of American values during a specific time period that were ultimately demonstrated through the fallout shelter. While these aren?t primary sources that are central to my methodology, this historical perspective will allow me to make broad connections as a move forward with my data analysis.
In order to make my thesis research relevant to modern day, I need resources that will help me see how disaster preparedness happens in the single family home in response to real and perceived threats surrounding the Pacific Northwest region. There are many online resources such as governmental websites and blogs that advocate for disaster preparedness. These include the Federal Emergency Management Association, or more local ones such as the Portland Bureau of Emergency Management. Local nonprofit organizations offer more specific resources such as the Cascadia Region Earthquake Workgroup (CREW). Blogs, while less official, can offer comprehensive general information and advice. One local one is Prepare PDX. Another is Suburban Survivalist, but of course there are many, many more. The interactive and informal format of blogs will allow for me to gain a sense of whom, if anybody is actually following suggested prepping measures. By looking at the narratives of these resources, I will hopefully be able to come to a conclusion about modern day disaster planning and how it functions around the nuclear family and the single family home, much like it did during the Cold War Era.
Of course, in some scenarios, disaster planning is thought of as a weird subculture for the paranoid. Richard Mitchell takes a deep look at the survival community in his book, Dancing at Armageddon?: survivalism and chaos in modern times. This will provide me with a context to analyze the range of disaster preparedness and the culture that has sprouted up around it, like commercial disaster kits and model bomb shelters. Another resource that will give me more a context of this culture Rebecca Solnit?s, A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities That Arise in Disaster. While she ultimately argues against this, she addresses the fear of chaos that many preppers fear and prepare for during disaster. Hopefully these resources will provide a comprehensive and complete, but still specific look at disaster planning in the Pacific Northwest and how it compares to common perceptions.
Duany, A., Plater-Zyberk, E., & Speck, J. (2000). Suburban nation?: the rise of sprawl and the decline of the American Dream. New York: North Point Press.
Get Prepared | The City of Portland, Oregon. (n.d.). Retrieved February 7, 2013, from http://www.portlandoregon.gov/pbem/46475
Jackson, K. T. (1987). Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States (1st ed.). Oxford University Press, USA.
May, E. T. (1988). Homeward bound?: American families in the Cold War era. New York: Basic Books.
Mitchell, R. G. (2002). Dancing at Armageddon?: survivalism and chaos in modern times. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Monteyne, D. (2011). Fallout Shelter: Designing for Civil Defense in the Cold War. Univ Of Minnesota Press.
Plan, Prepare & Mitigate. (n.d.). Retrieved February 7, 2013, from http://www.fema.gov/plan-prepare-mitigate
Solnit, R. (2010). A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities That Arise in Disaster (Reprint.). Penguin Books.
Suburban Survivalist. (n.d.). Suburban Survivalist. Retrieved February 7, 2013, from http://suburbansurvivalist.wordpress.com/
Vanderbilt, T. (2010). Survival City: Adventures Among the Ruins of Atomic America. University Of Chicago Press.
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