19) Tuesday, April 3. A Cold War at Home?

Story Line:
The prosperity that followed World War Two turned Americans into the "people of plenty." With abundance, consensus would replace conflict. But consensus had its underside. Americans engaged in an all-out battle at home against any trace of communist sympathies. No aspect of American life was left unchecked.

Review Questions for Discussion X

 

[Lecture 18] Outline [Lecture 20]

Readings for lecture 19

  • DJ2306200019 - Cold War Ideology
  • J. Edgar Hoover, testimony to HUAC, 1947
  • Joseph McCarthy, Speech at Wheeling, West Virginia to Women's Republican Club, 1950
  • Taft-Hartley, 1947
  • Austin J. Tobin, The Treaty of Detroit, Fortune Magazine, 1950
  • David Riesman, The Lonely Crowd, 1950
  • Dwight MacDonald, Mass Culture, 1953
  • Dwight Eisenhower, Farewell, On the Military-Industrial Complex, 1961

Images for lecture 19:


Alger Hiss in the U.N.C.I.O.

Whittaker Chambers Before HUAC

Alger Hiss Convicted

Ethel and Julius Rosenberg Convicted


Death House Visit

Protests on the Rosenbergs' Execution Evening
Lecture Outline [return to top]

 

I. The two ways of life

1) Concept of national character

2) The Japan example:

II. Fighting the Cold War turned these debates into ideological wars at home.

1 ) Was the cold war worth fighting at home?

Pictorial Interlude

2) Highlights of the Cold War at Home

III. A New Era of Conservative Unionism

1) Taft-Hartley and Treaty of Detroit

2) Meaning of Consensus

IV. American Attitudes

1) David Riesman's Other-Directed Man

2) The Kinsey report

Conclusion

[return to top]