WHAT REVIEWERS SAY:

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An "important and intriguing book. . . . the details of political and institutional infighting are its great strength. . . ." "Relying primarily on a wealth of newly-declassified material ranging from defense studies, to committee reports, to the personal papers of key players, [the book] does a remarkable job of piecing together the inner workings of defense policymaking, industrial efforts to harness cutting-edge technology, defense analysts' thinking, and political infighting." Steve Call, author of Selling Air Power: Military Aviation and American Popular Culture after World War II.

A "careful, detailed, and well-documented reconstruction of the Eisenhower administration's actions. . . . [the book] convincingly establishes Eisenhower's hands-on role in planning and executing continental defense." It is "an important and thoroughly-researched history of a previously neglected component of the U.S. nuclear arsenal during the Cold War." --David Krugler, author of This Is Only a Test: How Washington D.C. Prepared for Nuclear War.

A "thorough study" which "examines a category of atomic weapons that has received relatively little scholarly attention . . . ." It includes "solid research and measured analysis." --Benjamin P. Greene, author of Eisenhower, Science Advice, and the Nuclear Test-Ban Debate, 1945-1963.

"Adds to the understanding of several other important issues from the Eisenhower era." --David L. Snead, author of The Gaither Committee, Eisenhower and the Cold War.

The complete reviews excerpted above can be found at H-DIPLO, an online discussion list for those interested in diplomatic history. Click here.

"Bright has mined the relevant U.S. primary sources, official histories, and secondary source material to produce a critical perspective on a previously neglected area of U.S. Cold War history. . . . [He] branches off in a new methodological direction in describing the cultural dimensions of U.S. nuclear antiaircraft weapons. . . . Bright is to be commended for establishing connections between official U.S. continental defense policy and public perceptions of its pertinent elements [and] . . . . he provides a basis for further research. . . ." -- Alexander W.G. Herd, Journal of Cold War Studies, Summer 2016.

"clearly written and . . . thoroughly researched in all available declassified sources. It is a very sound piece of work and fills a noticeable gap in the literature on continental defense. . . . [A]n excellent monograph and I strongly recommend it." - Michael J. Neufeld, author of The Rocket and the Reich: Peenemünde and the Coming of the Ballistic Missile Era, in Journal of Military History, July 2011.

"thoroughly researched, well-documented, and very readable. . . . [T]his book deserves a wide readership." Paul Ceruzzi, Quest: The History of Spaceflight Quarterly, 2011

"This pathbreaking book explores a neglected aspect of US nuclear history, as the Eisenhower administration deployed thousands of nuclear-armed planes and missiles around the nation's air bases and urban centers. Christopher J. Bright's welcome study illuminates how presidential decision-making, corporate interests, inter-service rivalries, think-tank calculations, and even popular-culture productions profoundly influenced American life in the fear-gripped early Atomic Age."-Paul S. Boyer, author of By the Bomb's Early Light: American Thought and Culture at the Dawn of the Atomic Age.

"Christopher J. Bright has written an important book that fills in lost chapters of the nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union. His extensive research and clear writing focus on antiaircraft nuclear weapons, the defensive mission which is less known than the offensive ballistic missiles and bombers which were so prominent during the Cold War." -Robert S. Norris, author of Racing for the Bomb: General Leslie R. Groves, The Manhattan Project's Indispensable Man.

For Mr. Norris' remarks about Continental Defense in the Eisenhower Era delivered at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, DC in November 2010, click here.