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Fall 2009

The Cold War Crucible and the Making of Modern America

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For decades the Cold War dominated American foreign policy and domestic life. We will look at the two superpowers' emergence from World War II and how their evolving rivalry and suspicions shaped national boundaries and international politics for nearly a half century. On the domestic front, the course will examine the emerging political culture of the Cold War in which the search for enemies coupled with a growing fear of nuclear nightmare legitimized the era of 'McCarthyism' while raising important questions about civil liberties, free speech and the limits of governmental power which are of critical significance in light of the Twenty First Century's 'War on Terror.'

Despite its enormous costs, and a series of often-bloody conflicts fought in such far-off regions as Korea, Central America, Vietnam, Africa and the Middle East, the Cold War ended peacefully with Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and ultimately with the collapse of the Soviet Union and its satellite empire in Eastern Europe.

Did we finally win the war, as American triumphalists would have us believe? Was it worth the cost? How did it transform American life? And what does it mean for our domestic and foreign policy as the nation faces a globalized, multipolar world with an increasing number of emerging powers?

Prerequisite(s):