Description
The class examines American culture from the mid-1940s through the early 1960s, through the medium of film and television. American culture in this era was defined by the Cold War, a period of intense military, political, and ideological struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union and their allies. But we also think of this era as one of conformity, cultural uniformity, and the dominance of “normalcy” with nuclear families, solidified gender roles, stifled sexuality, and suburban crabgrass frontiers. So how did these international and domestic aspects of “Cold War America” interact to shape American culture from 1945 to 1965? This class will look at how underneath the surface of this “normalcy” lurked a culture of insecurity, anxiety, paranoia, and even panic. And movies and television of the era reflected and commented on these tensions. Visions of secretive spies, sleeper agents, alien invasions, and nuclear war, alongside stories of repressed suburbanites, hidden sexual