Description
Book SynopsisDEMOCRATIC EMPIRE DEMOCRATIC EMPIRE The United States Since 1945
Democracy and empire often seem like competing, even opposing, concepts. And yet, since the end of World War II, the United States has integrated elements of both in the process of becoming a dominant global power. Democratic Empire: The United States Since 1945 explores the way democracy and empire have converged and been challenged both at home and abroad, surveying the nation's recent cultural, political and economic history. This account pays particular attention to mass media, the fine arts, and intellectual currents in the era of the American Dream. Concise and engagingly written, Democratic Empire presents a unique analysis of US history since 1945 and the egalitarian and imperial forces that have shaped contemporary America.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments xi
Prelude: The Imperial Logic of the American Dream xiii
Part I The Postwar Decades 1
1 Victory and Anxiety: World War and Cold War, 1945–1962 3
Colony to Colonizer: American Rise to Globalism 4
Wages of War: Triumph over Germany and Japan 5
First Frost: Dawn of the Cold War 9
Seeing Red: The Cold War at Home 12
Playing with Dominoes: Cold War Hot Spots 17
Cold War Showdown: Cuba 19
culture watch: The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (1955/1956) 23
2 Conformity and Rebellion: American Culture and Politics, 1945–1963 27
Best Worst Time: Early Postwar Years 28
Boom! The Postwar Economy Explodes 29
Rising Suburbs: Life on the Crabgrass Frontier 32
Restless in the Promised Land: Suburbia's Critics 35
Free Movement: Early Civil Rights Struggles 40
Big Bangs: 1950s Youth Culture 45
culture watch: A Raisin in the Sun (1959) 49
Part II The Long 1960s 53
3 Confidence and Agitation: The American Empire at High Tide, 1960–1965 55
Dishing: The Kitchen Debate as Domestic Squabble 56
American Prince: JFK 58
Grand Expectations: The Birth of "Sixties" 60
Overcoming: The Civil Rights Movement Crests 61
Voices: Popular Culture of the Early 1960s 64
Countercurrents: Civil Rights Skeptics 65
Lone Star Rising: The LBJ Moment 69
Flanking Maneuver: Johnson in Vietnam 73
Fissures: Democratic Fault Lines 75
culture watch: "The Times They Are A-Changin'" (1964) 80
4 Fulfillment and Frustration: An Empire in Conflict, 1965–1974 86
Over the Moon: Winning the Space Race 87
Imperial Quagmire: The Vietnam Wars 89
Down from the Mountaintop: The Civil Rights Movement 93
Turning Point: 1968 96
Right Rising: The Return of Richard Nixon 99
Women's Work: The Feminist Movement 102
Rainbows: Rights Revolutions 105
Grim Peace: Endgame in Vietnam 108
Crooked Justice: The Triumph and Fall of Nixon 109
culture watch: Easy Rider (1969) 113
5 Experimentation and Exhaustion: Political Culture of the Sixties, 1965–1975 119
The Great Divide: Establishment and Counterculture 120
(de)Construction Sites: The Rise of Postmodernism 125
System Failure: The Reorganization of Hollywood 126
Medium Dominant: Television 128
Fit Print: Publishing 130
Kingdom of Rebels: The Reign of Rock 132
culture watch: "Chuckles the Clown Bites the Dust," The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1975) 140
Interlude 144
6 Reassessment and Nostalgia: The American Empire in the Age of Limits, 1973–1980 144
1973: Hinge of American History 145
Apocalypse Now: The New Gloom 150
Depressingly Decent: Ford and Carter 153
Solitary Refinement: The Me Decade 159
Body Politics: Gender and Its Discontents 163
Rebellion and Revival: Pop Culture of the Late Seventies 166
Right Signal: The Conservative Turn 168
culture watch: Taxi Driver (1976) 175
Part III Indian Summer 181
7 Revival and Denial: The American Empire on Borrowed Time, 1981–1991 183
Right Man: The Age of Reagan 184
Making the Cut: Reaganomics 187
Breaking Ice: Reagan and the Cold War 191
Headwinds: Second]Term Blues 193
For God's Sake: Social Conservatism 196
Left Ahead: The Legacy of the Sixties in the Eighties 197
Swan Song: Reagan and the Soviets 201
41: The (First) Bush Years 203
Freely Intervening: United States as Sole Superpower 207
culture watch: The House on Mango Street (1984) 210
8 Innovation and Nostalgia: The Culture of the Eighties, 1981–1989 215
Small Transformations: The Rise of the Personal Computer 216
Consuming Pleasures: Old Fashions, New Gadgets 220
Seeing Music: Music Television, or MTV 225
Yo! African American Culture and the Birth of Hip-Hop 227
Bourne in the USA: Dissident Voices 231
culture watch: "The Message" (1982) 233
9 Prosperity and Distraction: The Post-Cold War Era, 1991–2001 238
Opposing Justice: The Hill–Thomas Imbroglio 239
Not Black and White: The Changing Colors of Race 242
Thug Life: Gangsta Rap 244
Running Saga: The O. J. Simpson Case 246
Family Matters: Demography and the Assault on Patriarchy 247
Culture War: The Fall of George Bush 250
Comeback Kid: The Rises and Falls of Bill Clinton 252
La Vida Loca: The Roaring Nineties 258
Tech Sec: Toward the Internet 260
Insulated Intervention: US Foreign Policy 264
Recount: The 2000 Election 267
culture watch: Exile in Guyville (1993) 271
Part IV Present Tense 277
10 Comfort and Dread: The American Empire in Decline, 2001–present 279
Towering Collapse: 9/11 280
Unknown Unknowns: The Iraq War 285
Spending Resources: The Debt Society 290
Bushed: Second-Term Blues 291
Downloading: Twenty-first Century Pop Culture 294
Posting: Web 2.0 298
Freely Unequal: The Tottering US Economy 299
Audacious Hopes: The Rise of Barack Obama 303
Future History: The Present as Past 310
culture watch: "Made in America," The Sopranos (2007) 311
Postlude: The Ends of the American Century 316
Index 318
