How we forgot the Cold War [[electronic resource] ] : a historical journey across America / / Jon Wiener

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910465855203321
• Autore: Wiener Jon
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Berkeley, : University of California Press, 2012
• ISBN: 1-283-00302-3; 9786613823212; 0-520-95425-4
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (385 p.)
• Disciplina: 973.91
• Soggetti: Politics and culture - United States - History - 20th century; Cold War - Historiography; Cold War - Social aspects - United States; Collective memory - United States; World politics - 1945-1989; Conservatism - United States - History - 20th century; Electronic books.; United States Intellectual life 20th century
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Description based upon print version of record.
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references and index.
• Nota di contenuto: Front matter -- CONTENTS -- List of Illustrations -- Introduction: Forgetting the Cold War -- PART ONE. THE END -- PART TWO. THE BEGINNING: 1946-1949 -- PART THREE. THE 1950's -- PART FOUR: THE 1960's AND AFTER -- PART FIVE. ALTERNATIVE APPROACHES -- Conclusion: History, Memory, and the Cold War -- Epilogue: From the Cold War to the War in Iraq -- Acknowledgments -- Notes -- Index
• Sommario/riassunto: Hours after the USSR collapsed in 1991, Congress began making plans to establish the official memory of the Cold War. Conservatives dominated the proceedings, spending millions to portray the conflict as a triumph of good over evil and a defeat of totalitarianism equal in significance to World War II. In this provocative book, historian Jon Wiener visits Cold War monuments, museums, and memorials across the United States to find out how the era is being remembered. The ; author's journey provides a history of the Cold War, one that turns many conventional notions on their heads. In an engaging travelogue that takes readers to sites such as the life-size recreation of Berlin's "Checkpoint Charlie" at the Reagan Library, the fallout shelter display at the Smithsonian, and exhibits about "Sgt. Elvis," America's most famous Cold War veteran, Wiener discovers that the Cold War isn't being remembered. It's being forgotten. Despite an immense effort, the conservatives' monuments weren't built, their historic sites have few visitors, and many of their museums have now shifted focus to other topics. Proponents of the notion of a heroic "Cold War victory" failed; the public didn't buy the official story. Lively, readable, and well-informed, this book expands current discussions about memory and history, and raises intriguing questions about popular skepticism toward official ideology.