The Archaeology Of The Cold War (american Experience In Archaeological Pespective) [Hardcover]

A long overdue book that highlights issues of memory, scholarship, and the role of the archaeologist as part of a larger move to address the Cold War as a defining and significant period in human history.James P. Delgado, author of Silent Killers: Submarines and Underwater Warfare
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An important contribution to the growing number of archaeological studies of the Cold War, for the first time synthesizing research undertaken in the United States.Wayne Cocroft, coeditor of The Home Front in Britain 19141918: An Archaeological Handbook
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The Cold War was one of the twentieth centurys defining events, with long-lasting political, social, and material implications. It created a global landscape of culturally and politically significant artifacts and sites that are critical to understanding and preserving the history of that conflict. The stories of these artifacts and sites remain mostly untold, however, because so many of the facilities operated in secret.

In this volume, Todd Hanson examines the Cold Wars secret sites through three theoretical frameworks: conflict archaeology, the archaeology of the recent past, and the archaeology of science. He presents case studies of investigations conducted at some famousand some not so famoushistoric sites that were pivotal to the conflict, including Bikini Atoll, the Nevada Test Site, and the Cuban sites of the Soviet Missile Crisis. Hanson illustrates how, by examining nuclear weapons testing sites, missile silos, peace camps, fallout shelters, and more, archaeology can help strip away the Cold Wars myths, secrets, and political rhetoric in order to better understand the conflicts formative role in the making of the contemporary American landscape. Addressing modern ramifications of the Cold War, Hanson also looks at the preservation of atomic heritage sites, the phenomenon of atomic tourism, and the struggles of Americas atomic veterans.

As the Cold War retreats il4