The Culture of the Cold War [Paperback]

 

 

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Straying from the more common analysis of Cold War military tactics and foreign relations, Whitfield explores the American domestic culture during the early Cold War years in his book, The Culture of the Cold War. Whitfield comprehensively analyzes what impact McCarthyism and the Red Scare had on the cultural institutions of the United States.

Whitfield bases his analysis on an in depth look at a number of specific institutions across many facets of the American cultural landscape. He pays especially close attention to the U.S. film and television industries. Whitfield's particular attention to these two industries is most likely due to the fact that they had a disproportionately large impact on the American cultural scene. Because the television and film industry had such popular appeal at the time, one might argue that the reason the Cold War had such a strong cultural impact was because the Red Scare was not just political wrangling in Washington, but was broadcast directly into the living room of every American. Whitfield puts much of the blame for the U.S. overreaction on Senator McCarthy's list of names. He also exposes the HUAC and the FBI as being autonomous, repressive organizations that seemed to operate with no real government oversight or accountability. The culture war that McCarthy sparked had a domino effect across a number of different industries. For example, the drive to root communist influence out of the television industry quickly spread to the advertising and retail industries as well. Thus, the Red Scare soon became all encompassing and inescapable aspect of everyday American life.

Whitfield's argues that the Red Scare threw the U.S. administration into a panic, and elicited such a heavy handed and far reaching response that in many regards it turned the United States into the type of totalitarian state that they were battling against. As the so called leader of the free world, the United States suspended an alarming number of civil liberties in order to root out the perceived domestic communist subversion. The irony of the situation being that, civil liberties were infringed to preserve freedom in general. In contrast, countries such as Italy, where communist parties drew nearly one fifth of the popular vote, did not see the need to enact such disabling laws.

Although Whitfield does an excellent job of analyzing individual institutions and events, The Culture of the Cold war lacks a coherent connection to the broader picture. Whitfield explains how the Red Scare affected certain cultural industries, but how did it affect the general public? Did the American public accept the Red Scare because they truly believed it? Because they were patriotic and chose to follow the lead of their government? Or because they truly despised communism on an individual level, thus making the Red Scare a popular movement as well as a political one?

Whitfield explains how the culture changed, but not why it did. Since it is ultimately the people who make up the culture of a country, Whitfield leaves a lot unanswered by not examining the popular sentiment.

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.

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.

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3.0 out of 5 stars Intelectually Challenging
This was rated a "3" by me because it was a little redundant as well as choppy. The book was great in the sense of intelecutal reading but lacked the story like... Read more

Published on Feb 16 2001 by Brian McCoy

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