Content note: Illustration of a nuclear explosion over a city. This object is shown as it was published. Why
Survival Under Atomic Attack (official U.S. Government booklet, cover)
Cover of the 1950 federal civil defense booklet: a mushroom cloud rises over a black city skyline, debris and fire at its base, under the single word 'Survival' and the line 'The official U.S. Government booklet'. The cover stages the harm in full before the booklet offers its protective advice, and the official-publication line is the attribution tell: the source is named, the advice is framed as authoritative.
- Date
- 1950
- Period
- Cold War
- Made by
- National Security Resources Board, Civil Defense Office (Executive Office of the President), printed by the Government Printing Office
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Books and pamphlets
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Truman Administration
- Leader
- Harry S. Truman
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Warn or inform
- Themes
- Home front, Science and technology
- Event
- Cold War
- Techniques
- Fear appeal
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- Wikimedia Commons, retrieved October 2, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (U.S. government work; Commons PD-USGov, NSRB Civil Defense Office)
National Security Resources Board, Civil Defense Office, Executive Office of the President, 1950; Government Printing Office. The Commons file page cites PD-USGov (17 U.S.C. 105).
Text on the object
SURVIVAL UNDER ATOMIC ATTACK THE OFFICIAL U. S. GOVERNMENT BOOKLET
