Jazz, Rock, and Rebels: Cold War Politics and American Culture in a Divided Germany (Studies on the History of Society and Culture)

Studies on the History of Society and Culture

by Uta G. Poiger

In the two decades after World War II, Germans on both sides of the iron curtain fought vehemently over American cultural imports. Uta G. Poiger traces how westerns, jeans, jazz, rock 'n' roll, and stars like Marlon Brando or Elvis Presley reached adolescents in both Germanies, who eagerly adopted the new styles. Poiger reveals that East and West German authorities deployed gender and racial norms to contain Americanized youth cultures in their own territories and to carry on the ideological Cold War battle with each other. Poiger's lively account is based on an impressive array of sources, ranging from films, newspapers, and contemporary sociological studies, to German and U.S. archival materials.

Jazz, Rock, and Rebels examines diverging responses to American culture in East and West Germany by linking these to changes in social science research, political cultures, state institutions, and international alliance systems. In the first two decades of the Cold War, consumer culture became a way to delineate the boundaries between East and West. This pathbreaking study, the first comparative cultural history of the two Germanies, sheds new light on the legacy of Weimar and National Socialism, on gender and race relations in Europe, and on Americanization and the Cold War.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Music, American History, Germany, 20th Century, School

346 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

Reviews

[William Fincher · Rating 3 out of 5]

An exceptionally interesting topic, but I felt as it was laborious to get through. Probably due to the short time frame and the fact it was a class assignment. Probably will revisit in the future.

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is about Cold War East and West Germany. Poiger suggests that American culture is used as a Cold War weapon which sparks rebellious youth revolutions in Germany. She also draws parallels of German and American youth upheavals. Highly sourced book; if you're looking for information on German Cold War politics, this is a good text to look at. Very tedious to read since you constantly go over the same material that is paralleled at different locations.

[Jerónimo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great read. For a lot of people, although political aspects are essential, they can be dreadfully boring at times. This book however, does not fall into that category. Both East and West Germany officials are threatened by the change and liberation heavily present in American culture. Without spoiling, it dives into the idea that gender roles for the Germans were changing at a pace unforeseen. I'd definitely recommend this for anyone who has interest in post world war II Historical books. Or anyone who has an interest in Germany quite frankly.

[Kellie Locke · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this for a class I'm taking on the United States during the Cold War. At times this was interesting, but it was also very dry and sometimes hard to get through. Individual chapters focus on specific events and time periods in Germany and Berlin during the 1950s and 60s, so some chapters were of more interest to me than others. Very academic, so if you're looking for an analysis of how East and West Germany reacted to western influence during the Cold War, this is for you!

[Dolgun · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poiger focuses on the reception of American culture in both postwar German states. Poiger certainly portrayed that dealing with American culture at the time was a political issue.the book too points out the similarities between east and west in receiving/commenting, or criticizing American culture. it was interesting for me to read about how gender issues scared both states, and issues about what Poiger terms “oversexualization” of women or “feminization” of men were actually at the center of both German states’ worries. Poijer study, doesn’t not only describe the emergence of youth culture after the war, but it also implies the difficulties and the obstacles of Americanizing Germany, hence the whole process of Americanizing another country.

[Baris · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you want to understand how German authorities (Weimar, Third Reich, and then East and West) viewed American cultural products especially, this book may interest you. For instance the discussion on how the culture became depoliticized in West German official discourse in the course of 50s is quiet interesting. Yet apart from that, book get very repetitive and does not say much about how this cultural consumption influenced the subjectivity of real people.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good book, and a model for transnational historical study. A fun read to boot.

[Sophie Errington · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh.

This book has positives and negatives. It does provide insight to a subject area that is not well known and therefore could be considered a valuable piece of information.

It's a good book for academics studying the subject of post-war Germany. However I did find it difficult to read as I myself am not knowledgable in the topic. The book did take me a while to read despite it being what I would consider a small page number. Also I found when reading it, on multiple occassions I had to make reference to similar events in British history or histories that I have a basic understanding in. By doing this I was able to understand some of the events described in the book and the theories that the author would hypothesise. If however, I did not have this understanding from other topics I do not think I would have understood the book to a great deal, let alone finish it. I therefore feel that this book is probably better for academics to read rather than the general public. You can also tell from reading that that was the author's intended audience.

The book is detailed and it is easy to see that the author did go into great depth on the topic. Her points come across coherently although at times can appear a bit repetitve. Also the structure of the book is a bit odd. Instead of acknowledging the flaws of her sourcework/ the limitations when passing, the author chooses to reference this in the epilogue of the book. So, even though my questions about the sourcework do get answered you have to wait until the end of the book to find out what the flaws were and her reasoning for not using some sourcework.

In addition, it's clear to me that the author does understand the difference between a rebel group anf teenagers, however this is only identified in the last chapter of the book, any reference to the rebel groups/ teens mentioned prior do not have this clear distinction. The author also fails in this instance to outline the distinction making the majority of the book difficult to read regarding that topic because for the majority of the book the reader is under the impression that the author does not know the difference between teenagers and rebels.

Furthermore, the author clearly focuses on the governement's response to western consumerism compared to the people; whilst this is a interesting microstudy, I feel it would have been more interesting to look at the people's reactions to western consumerism through a closer look at oral histories/interviews from the people, specifically those who were teens at the time of the 1950s in both East and West Germany. The book's sourcework does focus on the government's intentions a bit too much for my taste.

Also, despite the author wanting to look at the response to western consumerism with regard to race and gender, these topics are hardly discussed. Race only appears in specific case studies such as the effects of Jazz music and women are not mentioned in great detail until chapter 5, the last chapter of the book.

I ackowledge that the author would have struggled, there is simply not a lot of information about this topic and with it being in recent history it is safe to say that the documents from both governements could be restricted. However with that in mind the author should have made up for the lack of resources with interviews from the people; this would have given a better understanding to how the people on both sides of the wall responded to American influence. Not to mention, this would have given a nice contrast to the intentions that both governments had.

I like how the book ends with ideas for further research. The author clearly recognises the limitations in studying this subject and does present a few options for historians to study and expand the field of knowledge.

Overall, do I think it's a good book?
-Yes, I feel the book does benfit to the field of history, especially since it is about a topic that is not widely considered.
Do I like the book?
-It's alright. I prefer social history more myself and felt that the book could have been stronger had it balanced out between the government and the people rather than mainly focus on the government.