Recasting America: Culture and Politics in the Age of Cold War

by Lary May

Overview

"The freshness of the authors' approaches . . . is salutary. . . . The collection is stimulating and valuable."—Joan Shelley Rubin, Journal of American History

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780226511764
Publisher:	University of Chicago Press
Publication date:	11/15/1988
Edition description:	1
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Lary May is a professor of American studies at the University of Minnesota. He is the author of Screening out the Past and editor of Recasting America.

Table of Contents

Introduction — Lary May
Part One: Toward a Theory of Postwar America
1. Did Success Spoil the United States? Dual Representations in Postwar
America — Warren Sussman, with the assistance of Edward Griffin
2. A Matter of Taste: Corporate Cultural Hegemony in a Mass-Consumption
Society — Jackson Lears
Part Two: The Intellectual Reorientation
3. The Reconstruction of Progress: Charles Beard, Richard Hofstadter,
and Postwar Historical Thought — David W. Noble
4. The Politics of Social Science in Postwar America — Terence Ball
5. A Life of Learning — Carl E. Shorske
Part Three: The Making of Cold War Culture
6. Gideon's Trumpet: Sounding the Retreat from Legal Realism — Norman
L. Rosenberg
7. Movie Star Politics: The Screen Actors' Guild, Cultural Conversion,
and the Hollywood Red Scare — Lary May
8. Explosive Issues: Sex, Women, and the Bomb — Elaine Tyler May
9. Ranch-House Suburbia: Ideals and Realities — Clifford E. Clark, Jr.
Part Four: The Search for Alternatives: Art, Minorities, and
Popular Culture
10. The Art of Cultural Politics: From Regionalism to Abstract
Expressionism — Erika Doss
11. Things to Come: Swing Bands, Bebop, and the Rise of a Postwar Jazz
Scene — Lewis A. Erenberg
12. To the Battle Royal: Ralph Ellison and the Quest for Black
Leadership in Postwar America — John S. Wright
13. Land of a Thousand Dances: Youth, Minorities, and the Rise of Rock
and Roll — George Lipsitz
14. The Irony of American Culture Abroad: Austria and the Cold War —
Reinhold Wagnleitner

Editorial Reviews

As the Cold War dawned, America experienced sweeping changes in its public affairs. At the same time, there was an explosion in creativity, an awakening that gave rise to new visions of modern art, intellectual inquiry, popular culture, and even the American identity itself. May (American studies, U. of Minnesota) has assembled 14 essays that address the origins of that postwar world and offer portraits of the culture--bebop and Chicano rock-and-roll, abstract expressionism, the film industry, and family life. Paper edition ($15.95) not seen. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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