If you'd like to watch other civil defense films, search the Internet Archive using the terms: "Atomic weapons" or "Civil defense".
Internet Archive: Movie Archive
This collection contains thousands of videos which range from classic full-length movies, to daily alternative news broadcasts, to user-uploaded videos of every genre. It also carries classic TV advertisements. View:Online
CONELRAD: Cold War short subject films
CONELRAD is the creation of writers who grew up in the shadow of the BOMB and all its attendant pop culture fallout. The website offers numerous short subject educational motion pictures dealing with the Cold War that were produced for civilian and government audiences. View:Online
Books for CAS 327 on Reserve
Prof. Pauley has placed these books on reserve for your class. Stop by the Main Circulation desk on the 2nd floor of the Library to check them out for 2 hours at a time.
By the bomb's early light : American thought and culture at the dawn of the atomic age
Boyer, Paul S.
E169.12 .B684 1985
The Cold War : a new history
Gaddis, John Lewis.
D843 .G22 2005
The imaginary war : civil defense and American cold war culture
Oakes, Guy.
UA927 .O23 1994
Finding scholarly resources
There are a several strategies you can follow to find scholarly materials on civil defense films.
Strategy 1) Take a look at the books Prof. Pauley has placed on reserve and use their bibliographies to track their research.
Strategy 2) Locate the article entitled "The Campaign for Civil Defense and the Struggle to Naturalize the
Bomb." by Mechling, Elizabeth Walker; Mechling,
Jay. Western
Journal of Speech Communication.
Spring 1991, Vol. 55 Issue 2, p105-133. Check out their bibliography as well.
Strategy 3) Using Google Scholar, search for the titles of the books on reserve and the Mechling article. Who is citing these items in their bibliographies? Not every one listed will be a critical article but you should find something useful.
Strategy 4) Search the research databases below. Try the terms "civil defense" but look for it as a subject or descriptor instead of just as a keyword. Use some of the following terms: "Cold War", "atomic weapon", "atomic warfare", "nuclear weapon". Combine these with the terms: "Public opinion", "rhetoric or rhetorical", "critical or criticism". You may need to limit your search to the United States.
Research Databases
Here's a few databases to get you started. But don't limit yourself to only these few.
How to Read a Film: the World of Movies, Media and Multimedia
- PN1994 .M59 2000
This definitive work discusses how film operates as a language and the various techniques and concepts that are responsible for eliciting audience responses. View:In PrintAnnotation
When writing about a film critically you'll need to use specialized terms. Either of these glossaries gives you a useful set of definitions.
You may wish to take a look at the back issues of the journal, The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. The library has it in print from 1949-1993 (TK9145.A84--5TH-FLOOR) or in electronic form through Academic Onefile from 1992-2005. This journal should help you find information about the state of public knowledge, feelings and opinion about the effects of the bomb during the time of the 1950s.
The library has a number of journals and magazines from the 1950s that would give you a feel for the Cold War period. Take a look at the ads and articles during the years 1953-1955.
CAS 327_Pauley Spring 2008 
