Rethinking Cold War Culture

by James Burkhart Gilbert (editor)

This anthology of essays questions many widespread assumptions about the culture of postwar America. Illuminating the origins and development of the many threads that constituted American culture during the Cold War, the contributors challenge the existence of a monolithic culture during the 1950s and thereafter. They demonstrate instead that there was more to American society than conformity, political conservatism, consumerism, and middle-class values.

By examining popular culture, politics, economics, gender relations, and civil rights, the contributors contend that, while there was little fundamentally new about American culture in the Cold War era, the Cold War shaped and distorted virtually every aspect of American life. Interacting with long-term historical trends related to demographics, technological change, and economic cycles, four new elements dramatically influenced American politics and the threat of nuclear annihilation, the use of surrogate and covert warfare, the intensification of anticommunist ideology, and the rise of a powerful military-industrial complex.

This provocative dialogue by leading historians promises to reshape readers' understanding of America during the Cold War, revealing a complex interplay of historical norms and political influences.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, American History

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 17, 2001

Reviews

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a collection of essays by historians looking at culture during the cold war. Some get quite heavy and deep, others more easily followed. It covers everything from gender and the cold war to just what the average person experienced during this period - was the threat of nuclear war as omnipresent as we are led to believe today. There is also an examination of cold war Hollywood movies. All in all, an interesting collection of thoughts and ideas.

[Craig Werner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Essay collection that's very much of it's start of the 21st century moment. Some very good essays, notably one on the dynamics of Cold War economic demographics (that has a really interesting segment on how the shift from ground forces to technological air power played out in my hometown of Colorado Springs. Some good essays that point towards later work on the understanding of gender and containment. Basically, though, most of the book's been superceded.

[Katherine Baber · Rating 3 out of 5]

A somewhat uneven edited volume, but definitely full of interesting stuff and some good theoretical frameworks for anyone getting into Cold War studies.