Rethinking Cold War Culture

This anthology of essays questions many widespread assumptions about the culture of postwar America. Illuminating the origins and development of the many threads that constituted American culture during the Cold War, the contributors challenge the existence of a monolithic culture during the 1950s and thereafter. They demonstrate instead that there was much more to American society than conformity, political conservatism, consumerism, and middle-class values. They explore the multitude of ways in which Americans experienced the Cold War, reflecting profound differences among generations, genders, races, and classes.

Peter J. Kuznick is associate professor of history and director of the Nuclear Studies Institute at American University, and the author of Beyond the Laboratory: Scientists as Political Activists in 1930s America (1987).

James Gilbert is Distinguished University Professor of History at the University of Maryland and author of Redeeming Culture: American Religion in an Age of Science (1997).