David L. Pike, Professor of Literature, American University

David L. Pike has taught in the Department of Literature at American University since 1995. He is the author of Passage through Hell: Modernist Descents, Medieval Underworlds; Subterranean Cities: The World beneath Paris and London 1800-1945; Metropolis on the Styx: The Underworlds of Modern Urban Culture, 1800-2001; Canadian Cinema since the 1980s: At the Heart of the World; and articles on medieval literature, modernism, film, neo-Victorianism, subterranea, urban fantasy, global urban culture, and Paris and London. He is co-author of Corruption Plots: Stories, Ethics, and Publics of the Late Capitalist City and of Literature: A World of Writing, and co-general editor of the Longman Anthology of World Literature.

"Indeed, this is undeniably an incredibly well-researched book, brimming with detail and the ability to connect even the most mundane piece of popular culture to the fear-driven Cold War. As such, it is an essential read for anybody interested in Cold War culture or how apocalyptic themes manifest themselves in film, literature, and other forms of culture. As Pike suggests in his conclusion, other existential threats such as the climate crisis will ensure that the bunker fantasy continues to mutate and influence our culture." -- John A. Riley, Pop Matters

"This is not just a beautifully written book about Cold War culture, but an intensely relevant meditation on the gendered and racialized anxieties about health and the state that continue to ease the migration of the extreme right into mainstream politics and fuel the survivalist 'prepper' movement today." -- Max Paul Friedman, Interim Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, American University, Washington, D.C. News