Description
Examines the social, political, and popular culture of America in the period between VJ Day and the start of the Korean War, discussing the country's anxieties and insecurities at the onset of the Red Scare and the Cold War.
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Lingeman, senior editor of the Nation, offers a political and cultural history of Americans' dreams and nightmares during the five years after WWII, as revealed in popular song lyrics, literature, art, and especially crime noir films produced between 1945 and 1950. An opening chapter describes the impact of the war's end on the small town of Red Oak, Iowa, relying on interviews with the town's residents. The rest of the book explores the manifestations of the 'psychological hangover' of the war as seen in waves of labor strikes, fear of the atomic bomb, the rise of conservatives, anti-communist paranoia, and blacklisting of those in the arts and politics, including noir filmmakers. Lingeman served as a Special Agent with the Army Counter Intelligence Corps in Japan, 1954-56, and he interweaves his own personal history, mostly at the beginning of the book. The book is illustrated with numerous b&w film stills, movies posters, and book jackets, and also includes boxes of song lyrics. Annotation ©2013 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
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