Exporting America: Cold War Cultural Politics, Past and Present 4219-SF063
From Louis Armstrong’s tour of the Soviet bloc to Hollywood’s strategic narratives of the Red Scare and heated debates about the forces shaping modern art, this course investigates how the Cold War was fought not only with weapons and policies, but with music, movies, books, and images. We will uncover the often subtle, and sometimes covert, deployment of culture as a weapon and a site of exchange between the United States and the Soviet Union. Students will engage with cultural artifacts and archival sources to uncover the layered political meanings embedded in cultural production during the bipolar era. We will explore how the U.S. government shaped, funded, and circulated certain cultural products, revealing how culture functioned as a site of both contestation and interchange between America and the Soviet Union. Weekly discussions will examine a range of cultural artifacts, asking how they embody broader (socio)political trends and approaches. The final part of the course will bring these insights into the present: in the era of TikTok, Instagram, and instant international digital connections, are today’s cultural forms—memes, viral videos, music streaming, influencer culture—shaping international relations and narratives of identity in what many commentators suggest is the beginning of a new "Cold War"?
Type of course
Mode
Course coordinators
Learning outcomes
Upon completing this course, a student will:
Knowledge:
• Possess knowledge of American Cold War culture across a range of art forms
• Better understand the interrelations of politics and culture in the United States
• Have improved knowledge of theoretical approaches to the study of cultural politics
Skills:
• Have practiced identifying and analyzing manifestations of cultural politics within a Cold War context
• Have honed their ability to read, interrogate, and interpret primary sources
• Have critically analyzed and applied approaches from secondary sources
Social Competencies:
• Be aware of the relationships between individuals and state actors in cultural production
• Be open to changing power structures and cultural dissemination in the digital era
Have practiced independent research and project planning skills
Assessment criteria
1. Weekly attendance and participation (15%)
2. Write 2 reading reflections (5% x 2)
3. In preparation for final research essay, write:
a) a research question for final essay (5%);
b) an analysis of a primary source you could use in final essay (2-3 pages) (25%);
c) a sample thesis statement and source list for final essay (10%).
4. Write final research essay (5-7 pages) (35%)
Bibliography
Sample Primary Sources:
• The Grapes of wrath [Film, 1940; Soviet release 1948].
• Porgy and Bess [Opera performance]. 1955 U.S. State Department–sponsored tour, Moscow & Leningrad.
• Voice of America Jazz Hour [Radio program]. Voice of America.
• American National Exhibition, 1959 [Cultural exhibition]. Sokolniki Park, Moscow.
• Armstrong, Louis. Concert performance in East Berlin, 1965.
• Rocky IV [Film, 1985].
• For Those About to Rock: Monsters in Moscow [Concert Film, 1992].
Sample Secondary Texts:
• Barnhisel, G. (2015). Cold War modernists: Art, literature, and American cultural diplomacy. Columbia University Press.
• Belmonte, L. (2008). Selling the American way: U.S. propaganda and the Cold War. University of Pennsylvania Press.
• Richmond, Y. (2003). Cultural exchange and the Cold War: Raising the Iron Curtain. Pennsylvania State University Press.
• Risch, W. (Ed.). (2015). Youth and rock in the Soviet bloc: Youth cultures, music, and the global Cold War. Lexington Books.
• Ryback, T. (1990). Rock around the bloc: A history of rock music in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, 1954–1988. Oxford University Press.
• Saunders, F. (2000). The cultural Cold War: The CIA and the world of arts and letters. The New Press.
• Shaw, T. (2007). Hollywood’s Cold War. Edinburgh University Press.
• Von Eschen, P. (2004). Satchmo blows up the world: Jazz ambassadors play the Cold War. Harvard University Press.
Additional information
Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system: