Armageddon Insurance

“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

“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

“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 book is imaginatively written and displays an impressively wide knowledge not only of civil defense planning, but the production, deployment, means of delivery and technologies of nuclear weapons. It is a valuable history.” — Kate Brown, author of A Biography of No Place: From Ethnic Borderland to Soviet Heartland

“Geist has produced a valuable analysis of the evolution of U.S. and Soviet policies toward civil defense, making creative use of previously uncited Soviet sources and contributing significantly to our understanding of a fascinating and timely issue.” — Professor William Potter, Middlebury Institute of International Studies

“This extensive, thorough, and archive-based book makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the debate over civil defense in the Soviet Union and the United States.” — Paul Josephson, Colby College

“This books provides much-needed historical context for the political and technological dimensions of civil defense during the Cold War. Geist makes thought-provoking claims about the ways that these issues were handled in very different state constructions and in an evolving political landscape.” — Jacob Hamblin, Oregon State University