Cold War captives : imprisonment, escape, and brainwashing / Susan L. Carruthers.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Carruthers, Susan L. (Susan Lisa)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Popular culture--United States--History--20th century.

Popular culture.

Cold War--Social aspects--United States.

Cold War.

Captivity narratives.

Political prisoners--History--20th century.

Political prisoners.

Repatriation--History--20th century.

Repatriation.

Defection--History--20th century.

Defection.

Brainwashing--History--20th century.

Brainwashing.

Cold War in mass media.

Cold War in motion pictures.

Cold War in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (351 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Berkeley : University of California Press, c2009.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This provocative history of early cold war America recreates a time when World War III seemed imminent. Headlines were dominated by stories of Soviet slave laborers, brainwashed prisoners in Korea, and courageous escapees like Oksana Kasenkina who made a "leap for freedom" from the Soviet Consulate in New York. Full of fascinating and forgotten stories, Cold War Captives explores a central dimension of American culture and politics-the postwar preoccupation with captivity. "Menticide," the calculated destruction of individual autonomy, struck many Americans as a more immediate danger than nuclear annihilation. Drawing upon a rich array of declassified documents, movies, and reportage-from national security directives to films like The Manchurian Candidate-his book explores the ways in which east-west disputes over prisoners, repatriation, and defection shaped popular culture. Captivity became a way to understand everything from the anomie of suburban housewives to the "slave world" of drug addiction. Sixty years later, this era may seem distant. Yet, with interrogation techniques derived from America's communist enemies now being used in the "war on terror," the past remains powerfully present.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Between Camps

1. Upper East Side Story: Repatriation, Romance, and Cold War Mobilization

2. Bloc-Busters: The Politics and Pageantry of Escape from the East

3. Stalin's Slaves: The Rise of Gulag Consciousness

4. First Captive in a Hot War: The Case of Robert Vogeler

5. Prisoners of Pavlov: Korean War Captivity and the Brainwashing Scare

Epilogue: Returns and Repercussions

Abbreviations

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed.

ISBN:

9786612772641

9781282772649

1282772643

9780520944794

0520944798

OCLC:

646846803