The End Of Victory Culture: Cold War America And The Disillusioning Of A Generation. This item is unavailable.The End Of Victory Culture: Cold War America And The Disillusioning Of A Generation

This is a reinterpretation of American culture since World War II. The book relates the experience of a generation that grew up in the wake of Japanese surrender. From Hiroshima through to Vietnam, American triumphalism disintegrated and, along with it, the certitudes of national identity. Drawing on sources as diverse as war toys and national security memoranda, the author explores the cultural life of a nation that has lost its national myth - that elimination of a less than human enemy was the key to achieving its destiny.

"Engelhardt is absorbing and provocative. . . . Everything he writes is of a satisfyingly congruent piece."

"An extraordinarily original work that places postwar American history in an entirely new perspective." -- John Dower

"In this tour de force, Tom Engelhardt tracks the American 'war story' along its declining arc. . . . Full of brilliancies, this is one of those rare books that can change the way we see." -- Todd Gitlin

"A brilliant meditation on the past half-century of the American national story. . . . Its account of the disintegration of a confident post-World War II national identity is a stunning achievement." -- Marilyn Young

"America Victorious has been our country's postulate since its birth. Tom Engelhardt, with a burning clarity, recounts the end of this fantasy, from the split atom to Vietnam. . . . As powerful as a Joe Louis jab to the solar plexus." -- Studs Terkel

"Sets out to trace the vicissitudes of America's self-image since World War II as they showed up in popular culture: war toys, war comics, war reporting, and war films. It succeeds brilliantly. . . . Engelhardt's prose is smart and smooth, and his book is social and cultural history of a high order."