In Our Times America Since World War II

by Rosenberg, Norman L.; Rosenberg, Emily S.

• ISBN13: 9780130996480
• ISBN10: 0130996483
• Edition: 7th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-08-20
• Publisher: Pearson

Summary

In Our Times: America Since World War II, Seventh Edition, is a revised and updated version of this widely used book, which has been popular in both survey courses in U.S. history and in more specialized courses. A clearly written, interpretive narrative, the book interrelates trends in foreign affairs, mass culture, social history, gender politics, civil rights, economics, and political culture. This new edition features Reorganized chapters that enhance clarity and expertly interweave politics, culture, and foreign policy. Significant expansion of material on the 1980s and 1990s, including the "conservative turn," the emergence of "new Democrats," the economic boom of the 1990s, and the new place of immigration in American life. New and more numerous pictures, charts, and maps Updated bibliographies Enhanced attention to mass culture, already one of the most popular features of the book

Author Biography

Norman and Emily Rosenberg are DeWitt Wallace Professors of History at Macalester College and have researched and published widely in twentieth century American history.

Table of Contents

Preface	xi
The World's Superpower	1	(24)
Collapse of the Old Order, Rise of the New	1	(4)
Reconstructing an International Economic System	3	(1)
Creating the United Nations	4	(1)
The Onset of the Cold War	5	(5)
Mounting Distrust between the United States and the Soviet Union	6	(2)
Cold War Aid Programs	8	(2)
Cold War Crises	10	(6)
The Berlin Crisis	10	(1)
The Chinese Revolution	11	(1)
The Anti-Communist Crusade	12	(1)
The Korean War	13	(3)
Shifts in Policy Making	16	(4)
Foreign Policies in New Areas of Concern	17	(1)
The Diplomacy of Culture	18	(2)
A Foreign Policy Establishment	20	(5)
Postwar Adjustments, 1946--1953	25	(34)
The Reconversion from War to Peace	25	(11)
Wartime-Tensions, Postwar Fears	25	(4)
1946: Inflation, Black Markets, Strikes, and a National Election	29	(2)
Truman Under Fire	31	(2)
1948: ``Truman Beats Dewey!''	33	(3)
The Fair Deal	36	(5)
Truman's Domestic Program	36	(1)
The Fair Deal: An Assessment	37	(2)
Civil Rights During the Truman Era	39	(2)
Anticommunism at Home	41	(7)
The ``Age of Surveillance''	41	(1)
Debating the Threat of Communist Subversion	42	(1)
Anti-Communist Initiatives during the Truman Years	43	(3)
McCarthyism	46	(1)
Anticommunism and Culture during the Cold War	47	(1)
The Promise and Perils of Progress	48	(11)
Science and Technology	49	(4)
Agriculture	53	(1)
``Selling Out'' and the End of the Truman Era	54	(5)
Eisenhower Republicanism	59	(25)
Domestic Politics	59	(8)
The Elections of 1952 and 1956	59	(1)
A ``Hidden-Hand'' Presidency?	60	(3)
Eisenhower and the Corporate Commonwealth	63	(3)
The Critical Culture of the 1950s	66	(1)
Republican Foreign Policies	67	(7)
The New Look	67	(2)
Korea	69	(1)
Summitry	70	(2)
Challenges to Superpower Dominance	72	(2)
The Third World and the Cold War	74	(6)
Vietnam	75	(2)
Intervention: Iran, Guatemala, Lebanon, Cuba	77	(3)
Reevaluation	80	(4)
Life During the 1950s	84	(34)
Gender and Family	84	(10)
The Baby Boom and the New Family Ideal	85	(1)
The New Suburbs	86	(2)
Women's Work and Domesticity	88	(2)
Organization Men and Women	90	(1)
Sexual Politics	90	(4)
Commercial Culture	94	(11)
Travel and Sports	94	(2)
The Hollywood Motion Picture Industry	96	(3)
Television	99	(2)
Rock around the Clock: The Cultures of Youth	101	(2)
The Mass Culture Debate of the 1950s	103	(1)
The Mass Culture Debate Revisited	104	(1)
Race, Ethnicity, and Urban Issues	105	(13)
African Americans	105	(3)
Puerto Ricans	108	(1)
Mexican Americans	109	(1)
American Indians	110	(2)
Urban Life and the ``Invisible Poor''	112	(6)
The Promise and Perils of the 1960s	118	(48)
The President We Hardly Knew	118	(7)
The Rise of John F. Kennedy and the Election of 1960	119	(1)
The New Frontier Camelot	120	(3)
Assassination	123	(2)
The Great Society	125	(9)
LBJ	125	(1)
The Johnson Program and the Landslide Election of 1964	126	(2)
The Great Society and the War on Poverty	128	(4)
The Warren Court and the Origins of ``Liberal Legalism''	132	(2)
From Civil Rights to Black Power	134	(12)
Civil Rights: The Kennedy Years	135	(3)
The Civil Rights Act of 1964: End of an Era	138	(2)
Urban Neighborhoods Explode	140	(2)
Black Power	142	(4)
Kennedy's Foreign Policies	146	(5)
New Programs	146	(2)
Cuba	148	(3)
The Struggle in Vietnam	151	(8)
A Vigorous Beginning, 1964--1965	152	(1)
Escalation, 1965--1967	153	(3)
Tet and the President's Discontent, 1968	156	(2)
Soldiers	158	(1)
Fallout from the War	159	(7)
Polarization and the Search for Empowerment	166	(39)
The ``Youth Movement''	166	(10)
The Origins of the Youth Revolt	167	(1)
Inventing a New Left	168	(2)
Radical Politics: From the College Campuses to the Streets	170	(2)
Campuses and Antiwar Demonstrations	172	(2)
The Counterculture	174	(2)
The New Conservatism	176	(5)
The Origins of the New Conservatism in the 1950s	176	(2)
Conservatism in the 1960s	178	(3)
The Politics of Polarization, 1968	181	(1)
The Fall of Lyndon Johnson	181	(1)
The New Politics and the Election of 1968	182	(3)
The Violent Years, 1969--1972	185	(5)
Violence in Southeast Asia	186	(1)
Violence at Home	187	(1)
A Law-and-Order Administration	188	(1)
The Violence Wanes	189	(1)
The Search for Empowerment	190	(10)
African American Politics	190	(2)
Mexican American Politics	192	(2)
American Indian Movements	194	(2)
A New Women's Movement	196	(4)
Gay and Lesbian Empowerment	200	(1)
Polarization: An Ambiguous Legacy	200	(5)
Times of Turmoil: The 1970s	205	(37)
Domestic Politics Under Nixon and Ford	205	(12)
Nixon's Domestic Policies	206	(1)
Stagflation	207	(1)
The 1972 Election	208	(2)
The Underside of the Nixon Administration: Leaks, Plumbers, and Watergate	210	(2)
Nixon's Last Battle	212	(3)
The Ford Presidency: The Wounds Remain	215	(2)
Nixon, Kissinger, and World Politics, 1969--1976	217	(7)
The Three Dimensional Game	217	(1)
The End of the War in Southeast Asia	218	(4)
The Middle East and Latin America	222	(2)
The Carter Presidency	224	(13)
Jimmy Carter Compassion and Competency?	224	(1)
Economic Dilemmas	225	(2)
Equality, Affirmative Action, and the New Right	227	(4)
Carter's Foreign Policy	231	(3)
Renewing the Cold War	234	(1)
The Election of 1980	235	(2)
Assessing the 1970s	237	(5)
An Oversized Society: Life during the 1960s and 1970s	242	(32)
The Economy: A Gathering of Giants	243	(10)
The Military-Industrial Complex	243	(3)
Business Giants	246	(2)
Energy and Ecology	248	(3)
Land and Real Estate Hustlers	251	(2)
An Out-Sized Culture	253	(21)
The Publishing Industry	253	(2)
The Motion Picture Industry	255	(2)
Sports	257	(2)
Television	259	(2)
The Popular Music Industry	261	(3)
Religion	264	(4)
The Educational Labyrinth	268	(6)
A Conservative Turn, 1980--1992	274	(44)
Domestic Politics during the Reagan Years	274	(14)
Presidential Style and the Conservative Turn	275	(2)
Reaganomics: The Eventual Boom	277	(2)
Reaganomics: The Debate	279	(2)
Reaganomics and Fairness	281	(4)
Drugs, AIDS, and Abortion	285	(1)
The Culture of Sleaze	286	(2)
The New Cold War, 1981--1987	288	(6)
A New Anti-Communist Offensive	288	(4)
The Cold War Suddenly Thaws	292	(2)
The Presidency of George Bush	294	(8)
The Election of 1988	294	(1)
Bush's Domestic Policies	295	(1)
Foreign Policy Under Bush	296	(3)
The Persian Gulf War	299	(3)
The Culture Industry 1980--1992	302	(16)
The Reagan Boom and the Culture Industry	302	(2)
Reprising the Past	304	(3)
Reworking the Past	307	(2)
The Politics of Cultural Confrontation	309	(9)
New Democrats, A New Economy, and New Americans	318	(37)
Politics and Culture during the Clinton Presidency	318	(15)
1992: The Election of a ``New Democrat''	318	(3)
The First Clinton Presidency: Domestic Politics	321	(2)
Clinton's Earliest Legal Battles	323	(1)
The Contract with America (1994) and the Clinton Resurgence (1996)	324	(4)
A Culture of Exposure and Clinton's Continuing Legal Battles	328	(3)
The Culture of Exposure and Clinton's Final Legal Battle	331	(2)
The ``New Economy''	333	(3)
Economic Boom	333	(3)
Fashioning Post-Cold War Foreign Policy	336	(3)
New Americans	339	(6)
Population Trends	339	(3)
Immigration	342	(3)
The Election and Early Presidency of George W. Bush	345	(5)
A Close Election	345	(2)
The Presidency of George W. Bush	347	(3)
Retrospective	350	(5)
Index	355

Excerpts

In Our Times,like the period of U.S. history it seeks to represent, remains a work in progress. We began writing the first edition of this book in the mid1970s, when only thirty years had elapsed since 1945. In this seventh, 2002 edition, the book now wears twice as many years as when we began--and so do we. We continue to be gratified that this book--one of the first texts designed for "1945 to present" courses--remains a favorite among history teachers and students. We have again undertaken the kind of reorganization and updating that those who useIn Our Times,and we ourselves, expect.We strive to provide students and instructors with an interesting, readable, and coherent historical framework. We have streamlined the narrative, integrated new scholarship, and entirely reorganized most chapters. New, and more numerous, pictures, charts, and maps enhance the book's visual dimension. Updated bibliographies, along with suggested websites, provide additional resources for teaching and learning. Users will find that our new introductions to chapters and to sections bring major themes into focus while enhancing the text's narrative quality.In this seventh journey through "our times," we have incurred many debts of gratitude. Our greatest goes to the anonymous reviewers, some of whom suggested the reorganizations and additions that we have undertaken for this new edition. We trust that they will see many of their fine recommendations reflected in these pages: more discussion, for example, of the soldier's experience in Vietnam and of cultural diplomacy; greater consistency in chapter size; improved organization ire the coverage of politics, diplomacy, and culture; significant expansion of material on the 1980s and 1990s. We have, of course, revised and updated our strong treatment of mass culture, a feature that has appealed to students over the years.We also extend our special thanks to our editors. Charles Cavaliere enthusiastically imparted a new vision and a special commitment toIn Our Times.Emsal Hasan has skillfully carried this book forward through the last two editions; his enthusiasm, good sense, and attention to detail has made him a true collaborator. Rosie Jones provided vital expert assistance on the finishing touches of the book. Joelle Blomquist, a senior history major at Macalester College, has provided meticulous and thorough assistance in the tasks of research d revision. Herta Pitman, department coordinator at Macalester, has also contributed her expertise. Finally, of course, we are indebted to all of the scholars whose books and essays make doing the history of "our times" meaningful d exciting.In Our Times,like our teaching career at Macalester College, remains a joint production. Although we continue to split the primary responsibility for .reviewing and rewriting specific sections, the computer remains community property. One of us will often complete the paragraph or sentence that the other had begun or had once thought, mistakenly, to be complete. For any errors of fact or judgment, each of us can offer the ready excuse that it was surely committed by "the other Professor Rosenberg." Yet we will also be happy to take joint credit for whatever positive features this book offers. Norman L. Rosenberg Emily S. Rosenberg