Cold War Culture??? (1 Viewer)

[meercat]

Hey pplz, was just wondering if anyone could help me out - i've got most stuff for cold war finished, but can find nothing on culture other then mccarthyism in America, and anti-capitalism type stuff in the Soviet Union. How are we expected to form an essay on culture? What do we talk about?

 

[stemmo]

Hi meercat,

You should be focussing on how Cold War ideology, political and economic values were reflected in popular and artistic culture: literature, TV, movies, music, fashion, art and so forth. Normally this would involve comparing both Soviet and American propaganda, as well as pop culture. When you start looking you'll find that most American culture, for example, reflects strong conservatism, is pro-capitalism and even McCarthyist in nature.

Here are some links:
http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/experience/culture/
http://wneo.org/WebQuests/TeacherWebQuests/coldwar/coldwar.htm
http://www.sbs.uab.edu/history/varticles/Cultureo.htm
http://edition.cnn.com/fyi/interact...uage.and.fine.arts/cold.war.movies.lang_arts/

Some movies/shows you might want to consider analysing are The Third Man (1949), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), Get Smart (TV), Dr Strangelove (1964) and Red Dawn (1984).

A good one to quote in an essay about culture is the 'Kitchen debate' between Khrushchev and Nixon (about 1959 I think) because it reflects how they think people should live and the types of things they should have access to in their homes.

Good luck!

Steve

 

[Nick]

damn Stemmo u seem quite knowledgeable about the COld War topic..

culture essay would be pretty bad though, i kno they asked last year didnt they? and in the notes from marking centre they said it was done poorly..