Cold War Constructions: The Political Culture of United States Imperialism, 1945-1966

Culture and Politics in the Cold War and Beyond

by Christian G. Appy (Editor)

The end of the Cold War has inspired a wave of exciting new scholarship about the central international struggle in the decades following World War II. Dissatisfied with traditional diplomatic and military interpretations, historians have begun to investigate the crucial role that political culture played in shaping global conflicts. Cold War Constructions contributes to this reappraisal by illuminating the political and cultural assumptions underlying U.S. policies from the end of World War II to the mid-1960s. How were Cold War ideas and events shaped by American culture? How were they explained and promoted at home and around the world? And how did they vary from one geographical context to another? These are among the questions addressed in this collection of original essays.

Each contributor focuses on a specific site of Cold War contestation―Southeast Asia, India, Europe, Africa, Iran, Guatemala, and Cuba―and analyzes the impact of domestic political culture on that particular conflict. Cultural attitudes, practices, and values are examined through a range of topics and sources, from travel literature and Broadway musicals to philanthropic organizations and Time magazine. Together the essays shed new light on such major Cold War events as the Cuban Revolution, the CIA overthrow of governments in Iran and Guatemala, and the United States intervention in Vietnam.

Contributors include Christian G. Appy, Mark Bradley, James T. Fisher, John Foran, Kevin Gaines, Van Gosse, Christina Klein, Jonathan Nashel, Andrew J. Rotter, Penny M. Von Eschen, and Wendy Wall.

Genres: History, School

352 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2000

Reviews

[bookblogjourney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cold War Constructions: The Political Culture of United States Imperialism, 1945-1966 Edited by Christian G. Appy is a collection that seeks to illuminate the ways in which U.S. political culture has shaped specific foreign sites of Cold War conflict. Appropriately, the thirteen original essays in this volume include an enormous range of topics—travel literature, diplomacy, Broadway musicals, foreign aid, propaganda programs, covert operations, journalism, expatriate activism, lobbyists, philanthropy, and more. They are written, in part, out of the faith that now is a propitious moment to study the Cold War anew. The era’s habits of mind, economic burdens, military and nuclear weapons, and physical, psychological, and environmental legacies, may remain with us for years to come, but as the formal end of superpower conflict recedes farther into the past, we have reason to hope for interpretations that scrutinize the unchallenged assumptions of the lived experience. The common goal of this collection is to address the connections between domestic political culture and U.S. Cold War foreign policy.
Cultural and literary historians have led the way in teaching their colleagues that all experience is historically constructed. Terms like Cold War, Free World, and containment are not fixed, immutable terms, but are created within particular historical and cultural contexts and are subject to contention and change over time. These scholars further argue that discourse has ideological resonance that extends well beyond conventional associations.

[Ashlyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was given this by Appy! An interesting look at the Cold War from a cultural history perspective. I was most interested in the articles on Africa.