[.ca] Cold War Secret Nuclear Bunkers: The Passive Defence of ... (ISBN 085052945X)

a good book:
this is a very good book and read , i recommend it as it is chock full of information , but it mostly only covers the buildings of cold war england , which it didnt mention in the editorial review , though there is a bit about norrad and sage and some early american cold war projects in the biginning.i did expect some more indepth pictures of some of the sites which is why i only gave it a 4 (with more pictures i would have given it a 5) overall it is a recommended read and an excelent addition to a post ww2 library.

US material contains mistakes:
This maybe a good book on UK bunkers of which there are many listed and detailed. US information contains many errors in the first edition. Example: Mount Pony Currency Vault for "North" of the Mississippi, should be "East" (the Mississippi flows North to South). The book is also full of the author anti-commentary, rather than descriptive analysis of the preparations. Does however have a map of Raven Rock which is rare to find.

A Good Attempt:
Nick McCamley has done a good job at covering the the extensive network of passive defense sites in the UK. This is a difficult subject that the author has obviously spent quite a long time researching and documenting. McCamley should have stopped with the UK. McCamley's treatment of North America lacks the thoroughness that his chapters on the UK show. The first part of the book attempts to cover the bunkers in the US and Canada. While he covers the Texas Towers in the middle of the ocean, he fails to even mention the RCAF bunker at North Bay in his chapter on Canada. Additionally, the author's explanation of the causes of the Cold War and the effects are sophomoric at best. He attempts to summarize the complex political, economic, military, historical, and philosophical forces up in trite blame America explanations. He should have kept to his area of expertise. The book shows a sloppy preparation by the publisher. For example, on the rear dust cover, it has a picture of a Titan II ICBM labeled as a "Peacemaker." The Peacemaker was the Convair B-36 bomber. Either the publisher was ignorant or they were mistaken and confused a "Peacekeeper" ICBM with a Titan II. There is no excuse for this kind of error, especially on the dust jacket. It can only lead you question the fact checking that the publisher did through the rest of the volume. The editing has typos, such as B-39 instead of B-29, and the book is choppy. Chapters seem to have been written independently and for different places than they were eventually put in the book. I recommend this work as a starting point for those who want to know about the bunker system in the UK. If you can see past the short comings mentioned above, this is a good attempt at a difficult subject.