The Culture of the Cold War (The American Moment)

By Stephen J. Whitfield

Book Overview

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.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0801840821
• ISBN13: 9780801840821
• Release Date: October 1990
• Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.8" x 0.6" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

Solid overview of US cultural history from 1946-1962

Whitfield's book serves as a succinct overview of American Cold War culture, which he defines as ending in the early 1960s (a questionable decision but one made by many scholars who employ the "Cold War Culture" rubric). What sets apart this book from other entries in the literature is Whitfield's recognition of the importance of religion to Cold War America and his willingness to grapple with the Cold War's full range of moral implications (an element lacking in most academic studies of the domestic side of the Cold War, which tend to fixate endlessly on McCarthy, who is used to tar and discredit all variants of American anti-Communism). This is not to suggest that Whitfield is an apologist for McCarthy, not at all, but to commend Whitfield for understanding that, to paraphrase Arthur Koestler, the Cold War was the story of the United States fighting for a half-truth against a total lie.

Culture of Cold War -- Whitfield

Whitfield's book is extremely informative. The connections he makes are fascinating. The book made me want to go out to the library and Blockbuster and look at the popular books and movies he talks about for a second time in a fresh light.