The End of the Cold War: 1980 to the Present: The Cold War in the United States Book

Examines how the Cold War period in America, lasting roughly fifty years following World War II, was a contradictory time of prosperity and optimism coupled with concerns over ...

Children's Literature

During the Cold War Americans experienced extreme emotional highs and lows. The euphoria of defeating the Axis Powers during World War II was relatively quickly replaced by a sense of threat embodied by the forces of world communism. While an arms race unfolded Americans took actions at home to counteract the potentially disastrous effects of nuclear war. Backyard defense shelters or basement stockpiles of preserved foods were one fairly typical avenue for coping with the possibility of thermonuclear destruction. Simultaneously, insidious acts such as those of Senator Joseph McCarthy spurred on an aura of fear and suspicion that colored civil rights across the land. At the same time as these international and national events took place, Americans were moving to newly constructed suburbs, having babies at a record rate, and living a life of prosperity. In The Homefornt Geoffrey Campbell paints a picture of a seemingly bipolar America as its people struggled with the contradictory nature of Cold War life. As Campbell notes in this clearly written and nicely illustrated chapter in Lucent Books, "The Cold War" series, Americans in the "Baby Boomer" era felt both blessed and afraid. While material goods were readily available time, energy, and resources on a monumental scale had to be dedicated to the defense arena. This juxtaposition of domestic possibilities linked to potential global destruction left the home front as one that combined unusual elements. Those elements are ably described in this book and in a way that will both entertain and educate its readers. 2003, Lucent Books, Romaneck