Spies, Sputniks, and Fall-Out Shelters

This course focuses on how the Cold War structured culture in the United States and the Soviet Union. How did the West appear to the East and the East appear to the West? How did culture help to create the Cold War? What were the myths of consensus in communist and capitalist cultures? How did the dominant cultures and political systems foster cultural rebellion? We answer these questions by exploring such topics as the red scare, the Soviet cult of World War II, nuclear apocalypse and civil defense, consumerism, spy stories, Westernization in communist culture (e.g., jazz and rock) and the development of Russian and American nationalism.