The Cold War comes to Main Street : America in 1950 Lisle A. Rose

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rose, Lisle A., 1936-2021

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Cold War (1945-1989).

United States--History--1945-1953.

United States.

United States--Politics and government--1945-1953.

United States--Social life and customs--1945-1970.

Cold War--Social aspects--United States.

Cold War.

Physical Description:

x, 404 pages ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Lawrence : University Press of Kansas, 1999.

Summary:

Revealing the intense interplay between foreign policy, domestic politics, and public opinion, Lisle Rose argues that 1950 was a pivotal year for the nation. Thermonuclear terror brought "a clutching fear of mass death," even as McCarthy's zealous campaign to root out "subversives" destroyed a sense of national community forged in the Great Depression and World War II. The Korean War, with its dramatic oscillations between victory and defeat, put the finishing touches on this national mood of crisis and hysteria.

Drawing upon recently available Russian and Chinese sources, Rose sheds much new light on the aggressive designs of Stalin, Mao, and North Korea's Kim Il Sung in East Asia and places the American reaction to the North Korean invasion in a new and more realistic context. Rose argues that the convergence of Korea, McCarthy, and the Bomb wounded the nation in ways from which we've never fully recovered. He suggests, in fact, that the convergence may have paved the way for our involvement in Vietnam and, by eroding public trust in and support for government, launched the ultra-Right's campaign to dismantle the foundations of modern American liberalism.

Contents:

1. Liberals

2. The Red Menace

3. Conservatives

4. The Bomb

5. McCarthyism

6. The Guns of Summer

7. The Politics of Hysteria

8. Hubris

9. Disaster.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 371-386) and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Rose, Lisle Abbott, 1936- Cold War comes to Main Street.

ISBN:

0700609288

9780700609284

OCLC:

39257036