The Culture of the Cold War (The American Moment) - Softcover

Whitfield

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0801840821 ISBN 13: 9780801840821

Publisher: John Hopkins University Press, 1990

Synopsis

Named an Outstanding Book by the Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Human Rights in the United States.

"A valuable contribution to the preservation of historical memory... In nine witty and crisply written chapters, Whitfield carries us from the late 1940s to the early 1960s... For those who lived through the 1950s, the book will bring back painful and perhaps embarrassing memories; for those who did not, it offers a timely reminder of what can happen to a society that demonizes its enemies, uncritically celebrates its own virtues, and insists onintellectual conformity as a test of cultural acceptance."--Paul Boyer, Bulletin of Atomic Scientists.

"A lively and well-documented account of how the Cold War both produced and was sustained by super-patriotism, intolerance and suspicion, and how these pathologies infected all aspects of American life in the 1950s-entertainment, churches, schools. Older readers will remember and still be amazed; younger ones will find this a readable introduction to a bizarre aspect of the American past."--Foreign Affairs.

About this title

Review

"A lively and well-documented account of how the Cold War both produced and was sustained by super-patriotism, intolerance and suspicion, and how these pathologies infected all aspects of American life in the 1950s -- entertainment, churches, schools. Older readers will remember and still be amazed; younger ones will find this a readable introduction to a bizarre aspect of the American past." -- Foreign Affairs, reviewing the first edition

From the Back Cover

Whitfield treats his subject matter with the eye of a historian, reminding the reader that the Cold War is now a thing of the past. His treatment underscores the importance of the Cold War to our national identity and forces the reader to ask, Where do we go from here? The question is especially crucial for the Cold War historian, Whitfield argues. His new epilogue is partly a guide for new historians to tackle the complexities of Cold War studies.

Edition details

• Publisher: John Hopkins University Press
• Publication date: 1990
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0801840821
• ISBN 13: 9780801840821
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 248