The Cold War in Scotland: Technology, Heritage and the British Warfare State

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

In Europe, the Cold War was 'war-like', but it never turned hot (Nehring, 2013). Its memories, heritage, and legacies are nevertheless emerging as vibrant fields of research (Greiner et al. 2013; Low and Joel 2014). Analyses of texts have begun to see the Cold War as an 'imaginary war', but such approaches cannot readily be applied to material objects and heritage. This project therefore addresses two issues: how does a non-military object created during the period of the Cold War, or military technology never deployed, become a Cold War object? And what are the implications of this blurred civil/military dichotomy for museum exhibitions and engagement? The project seeks to address these issues by using NMS science and technology and Scottish modern and contemporary history collections. It will interrogate the material legacies of the relationship between society, technology, and the military, considering objects ranging from typewriters to missiles. It will thereby illuminate the impact on heritage of what Edgerton (1991) has called 'liberal militarism', namely, the mobilisation of civilian resources for military ends.