Department of History

Duck and cover! That's what kids were taught in the 1950's to protect themselves in case of nuclear attack. Government Civil Defense infomercials taught America how to build bomb shelters to protect ourselves from the "Red Menace". Drawing from interviews with historians, former officials, and some of the actors in the Civil Defense film. It's a nostalgic and often wacky look at the agency designed to prepare us for the worst and the propaganda it fed to a more innocent America.