ABSTRACT
The period 1945-1965 was an era of massive urban growth, with significant redevelopment and reconstruction of cities across much of the world. The notion of ‘atomic urbanism’ is central to understanding this Cold War dynamic, and it is concerned with how the threat of nuclear attack affected perceptions of city life and informed the planning of space in the Cold War era. There is some historical work published on Cold War planning, politics and culture at the national level, which is often strongly urban in focus. Research that has focused on aspects of space planning, politics and cultural discourse typically operate at the scale of the nation state. A major feature of understanding atomic urbanism in early Cold War period is the need to document how ideas for dispersal planning of cities were promulgated. This chapter also presents an overview on the key concepts discussed in this book.
