The Cold War and American Culture

by Gregory A. Daddis
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10 books
Despite contributing to victory in World War II, Americans felt no real respite before entering into yet another existential struggle between “good” and “evil.” The coming Cold War seemed to pit the United States against a new totalitarian force as bent on global domination as the Nazi regime of the 1940s. Yet, the international competition against communism would last far longer than the Second World War. In the process, the decades-long struggle shaped Americans’ foundational relationships with domestic politics, the global economy, and US foreign policy. But how did this global competition affect American culture during the early Cold War years? Here are some of my favorite books telling us how.
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The Culture of the Cold War

Stephen J. Whitfield, 1996
Arguably, the best place to start for gaining a general sense of what Cold War “culture” meant in the 1950s and early 1960s. Whitfield argues that anti-communism became a “national fetish,” the domestic communist threat exaggerated so much so that it justified a contraction of civil liberties and damaged Americans’ relationships with their government and, worse, with each other. Whitfield offers a stark warning about politicizing American culture.

By the Bomb's Early Light

American Thought and Culture At the Dawn of the Atomic Age
Paul Boyer, 2005
A classic written as the Cold War entered its final stages, Boyer masterfully examines the anxiety and fears many Americans felt as they cautiously entered the atomic era. Tackling science, literature, and film, this remains one of the best works on the “culture and consciousness” of the early Cold War years. If the end of World War II was a breaking point between past and future, Boyer excels in explaining how Americans felt about the rupture.

Atomic Americans

Citizens in a Nuclear State
Sarah E. Robey, 2022
How did the prospects of nuclear Armageddon modify definitions of American citizenship? And how did nuclear weapons themselves alter the relationship between ordinary individuals and the government that wielded those weapons? These are the core questions Robey asks in a compelling story about Americans’ obligations for participating in “civil defense” and the changing conceptions of nationalism and citizenship in the atomic era’s early years.

The End of Victory Culture

Cold War America and the Disillusioning of a Generation
Tom Engelhardt, 2007
If atomic weapons altered Americans’ relationship with their government, Engelhardt demonstrates how definitions of “victory” after World War II changed as well. This is a compelling tale about how enemies, both internal and external, become central to a nation’s identity. Englehardt shines in examining how Americans created imaginary stories about war—and the possibility of defeat—that facilitated the militarization of Cold War society.

Selling the American Way

U.S. Propaganda and the Cold War
Laura A. Belmonte, 2013
Storytelling, of course, is central to propaganda and US policymakers undeniably sought to weaponize American culture in the war against communism. Here, Belmonte argues that in “selling” America abroad, Washington’s policy elite had to grapple with numerous, often contradictory definitions of what “America” truly meant. If the American way really was exceptional, was it possible then to universalize its central values and notions abroad?

EC Comics

Race, Shock, and Social Protest
Qiana Whitted, 2019
If we’re talking about Cold War stories, we must discuss the era's most popular medium: comics. Among the more influential were EC Comics, with titles like Tales from the Crypt, Weird Fantasy, and Frontline Combat. Whitted is just superb in relating how comics often were at the forefront of vital cultural and social issues like civil rights, freedom of speech, and social justice. Don’t let the Crypt-Keeper hide this excellent book from you!

Manhood and American Political Culture in the Cold War

K.A. Cuordileone, 2012
If James Gilbert demonstrated how popular conceptions of gender could be contested ground during the Cold War—see Men in the Middle: Searching for Masculinity in the 1950s—K.A. Cuordileone shows us how a perceived “crisis of masculinity” not only had immense cultural implications, but political ones as well. A superb analysis of how anticommunism embraced a decidedly cruel form by demanding conformity when it came to understanding “manhood.”

Homeward Bound

American Families in the Cold War Era
Elaine Tyler May, 2008
And if we’re appraising Cold War gender norms, we also have to consider how most Americans conceived of the “nuclear family” during these years. In another classic, May reconceptualizes our understanding of “containment” by arguing that the “traditional” family unit became a “bastion of safety in an insecure world.” She also covers a great deal of ground by examining trends in consumerism, social and gender movements, and cultural conformity.

Many Are the Crimes

McCarthyism in America
Ellen Schrecker, 1998
Evaluating Cold War culture usually, if not inevitably, leads us back to one individual: Wisconsin Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy. Schrecker has written extensively on the man and his moment, unveiling the ugliness of what became a mainstream movement. McCarthyism demonstrated the repressiveness of political extremism and the “irrational scapegoating” which came to define, in a host of unfortunate ways, a generation.

Gun Country

Gun Capitalism, Culture, and Control in Cold War America
Andrew C. McKevitt, 2023
We don’t often think about guns as consumer products, but McKevitt argues persuasively why we need to understand why the United States became the “gun country” after World War II. At once a cultural history of Cold War America and an economic history of global markets, this work excels at uncovering how consumer capitalism became interwoven with gun politics with frightening consequences that we’re still grappling with today.