During the Cold War, civil defense literature promoted not only methods by which citizens could survive a nuclear attack, but such also often set forth instructions for how citizens should act in the aftermath of an attach. These works of literature reminded citizens of their identities as Americans, as well as their responsibilities to their family, communities, and nations. These works of literature enforced, perhaps unreasonably, a sense that a nuclear attach was something that the U.S. could survive and that the citizens would need to make sacrifices in the aftermath of such.
