Description
Book SynopsisPenny M. Von Eschen offers a sweeping examination of the afterlife of the cold war and its lingering shadows, showing how a nostalgia and longing for stability fuels US-led militarism and the rise of xenophobic right-wing nationalism and authoritarianism around the world.
Trade Review“In this analytically rigorous and impressively researched book Penny M. Von Eschen offers a profoundly original argument that the collapse of the Soviet Union reentrenched American elite faith in the necessity and goodness of US unipolar dominance of the world. By centering the rise and fall of the American unipolar project, Von Eschen presents a stunning synthetic history of the last thirty years that any scholar of the post--cold war period will have to confront.
Paradoxes of Nostalgia is a magisterial accomplishment.” -- Aziz Rana, author of * The Two Faces of American Freedom *
“Penny M. Von Eschen offers a bold, new, and sweeping analysis of the end of the cold war and its aftermath. Pressing beyond the usual containers for cold war history, Von Eschen seamlessly interweaves stories of glasnost, perestroika, and structural adjustment with those of ascendant pro-gun, family-values, Christian right politics and the rise of mass incarceration, inequality, and climate change. Her pathbreaking book helps us to make sense of the tumultuous present.” -- Megan Black, author of * The Global Interior: Mineral Frontiers and American Power *
"This intriguing study is about opportunities missed and wrong paths taken in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union. . . . [A]n interesting, important book. For lovers of history and current events." (Starred Review) -- David Keymer * Library Journal *
"This is a complex, wide-ranging analysis of the relationship between nostalgia for the stability, economic security, and consensus of the Cold War and the triumphalism that led to a post-1989 rise in inequality, conflict, and authoritarianism in the US and abroad. . . . An excellent addition to university Cold War collections. Highly recommended. Graduate students and faculty." * Choice *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
1. The Ends of History 21
2. Out of Order: Discordant Triumphalism and the “Clash of Civilizations” 56
3. Losing the Good Life: Post-Cold War Malaise and the Enemy Within 92
4. “God I Miss the Cold War”: Busted Containers and Popular Nostalgia, 1993–1999 131
5. Consuming Nostalgia: Lampooning Lenin, Marketing Mao, and the Global Turn to the Right 174
6. Patriot Acts: Staging the War on Terror from Spy Museum to Bishkek 218
7. Spies R Us: Paradoxes of US-Russian Relations 259
Epilogue. Nostalgia for the Future 298
Notes 309
Works Cited 353
Index 365
