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Bestseller
BestsellerE-book
Author Wiener, Jon.

Title How we forgot the Cold War : a historical journey across America / Jon Wiener.

Publication Info. Berkeley : University of California Press, 2012.

Item Status

Description 1 online resource (viii, 376 pages) : illustrations
data file
Physical Medium polychrome
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index.
Summary "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."-- Provided by publisher.
Contents Cover; Contents; List of Illustrations; Introduction: Forgetting the Cold War; PART ONE: THE END; 1 Hippie Day at the Reagan Library; 2 The Victims of Communism Museum: A Study in Failure; PART TWO: THE BEGINNING: 1946-1949; 3 Getting Started: The Churchill Memorial in Missouri; 4 Searching for the Pumpkin Patch: The Whittaker Chambers National Historic Landmark; 5 Naming Names, from Laramie to Beverly Hills; 6 Secrets on Display: The CIA Museum and the NSA Museum; 7 Cold War Cleanup: The Hanford Tour; PART THREE: THE 1950S; 8 Test Site Tourism in Nevada.
9 Memorial Day in Lakewood and La Jolla: Korean War Monuments of California10 Code Name "Ethel": The Rosenbergs in the Museums; 11 Mound Builders of Missouri: Nuclear Waste at Weldon Spring; 12 Cold War Elvis: Sgt. Presley at the General George Patton Museum; PART FOUR: THE 1960S AND AFTER; 13 The Graceland of Cold War Tourism: The Greenbrier Bunker; 14 Ike's Emmy: Monuments to the Military-Industrial Complex; 15 The Fallout Shelters of North Dakota; 16 "It Had to Do with Cuba and Missiles": Thirteen Days in October; 17 The Museum of the Missile Gap: Arizona's Titan Missile Museum.
18 The Museum of Détente: The Nixon Library in Yorba LindaPART FIVE: ALTERNATIVE APPROACHES; 19 Rocky Flats: Uncovering the Secrets; 20 CNN's Cold War: Equal Time for the Russians; 21 Harry Truman's Amazing Museum; Conclusion: History, Memory, and the Cold War; Epilogue: From the Cold War to the War in Iraq; Acknowledgments; Notes; Index; A; B; C; D; E; F; G; H; I; J; K; L; M; N; O; P; Q; R; S; T; U; V; W; X; Y; Z.
Local Note eBooks on EBSCOhost EBSCO eBook Subscription Academic Collection - North America
Subject Politics and culture -- United States -- History -- 20th century.
Politics and culture.
United States.
History.
Chronological Term 20th century
Subject Cold War -- Historiography.
Cold War (1945-1989)
Historiography.
Cold War -- Social aspects -- United States.
Social aspects.
Collective memory -- United States.
Collective memory.
World politics -- 1945-1989.
World politics.
Chronological Term 1945-1989
Subject Conservatism -- United States -- History -- 20th century.
Conservatism.
United States -- Intellectual life -- 20th century.
Intellectual life.
Chronological Term 1900-1999
Genre/Form Electronic books.
History.
Other Form: Print version: Wiener, Jon. How we forgot the Cold War. Berkeley : University of California Press, ©2012 9780520271418 (DLC) 2012011669 (OCoLC)783861961
ISBN 9780520954250 (eISBN)
0520954254 (eISBN)
0520271416 (cloth ; alkaline paper)
9780520271418 (cloth ; alkaline paper)
9780520271418 (cloth ; alkaline paper)
9780520954250