scholarly journals Anthropological adventures with Romania's Wizard of Oz, 1973-1989

Focaal ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 2004 (43) ◽  
pp. 134-145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine Verdery
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
The State ◽  
Soviet Bloc ◽  
Wizard Of Oz ◽  
New Model ◽  
Present Essay ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Cold War

Throughout the Cold War, most people in the US saw the communist party-states of the Soviet bloc as all-powerful regimes imposing their will on their populations. The author, a child of the Cold War, began her fieldwork in Romania in the 1970s in this belief. The present essay describes how her experiences in Romania between 1973 and 1989 gradually forced her to see things differently, bringing her to realize that centralization was only one face of a system of rule pervaded by barely controlled anarchy and parasitism on the state. It was not simply that the regime had failed to change people's consciousness; rather, the system's operation was actively producing something quite different. These insights contributed to the author's developing a new model of the workings of socialism.

scholarly journals China in 2020

Asian Survey ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-33
Author(s):  
Min Ye
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
The State ◽  
Bilateral Relations ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Cold War

The COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on China, causing tremendous losses. It also accelerated the trend of power concentration, both within the state and inside the Communist Party. With tensions between the US and China mounting in more areas, bilateral relations dropped to the lowest point since the end of the Cold War. On its periphery, China also saw crises of varying intensity over Hong Kong, Taiwan, the Uyghurs, and the disputed border with India.

Ending Grand Alliance Politics in Western Europe: US Anti-communism in France and Italy, 1944–7

2017 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 134-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandro Brogi
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
The State ◽  
Alliance Politics ◽  
Time Period ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Grand Alliance ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Transitional Phase

The postwar ascendancy of the French and Italian Communist Parties (PCF and PCI) as the strongest ones in the emerging Western alliance was an unexpected challenge for the USA. The US response during this time period (1944–7) was tentative, and relatively moderate, reflecting the still transitional phase from wartime Grand Alliance politics to Cold War. US anti-communism in Western Europe remained guarded for diplomatic and political reasons, but it never mirrored the ambivalence of anti-Americanism among French and especially Italian Communist leaders and intellectuals. US prejudicial opposition to a share of communist power in the French and Italian provisional governments was consistently strong. A relatively decentralized approach by the State Department, however, gave considerable discretion to moderate, circumspect US officials on the ground in France and Italy. The subsequent US turn toward an absolute struggle with Western European communism was only in small part a reaction to direct provocations from Moscow, or the PCI and PCF. The two parties and their powerful propaganda appeared likely to undermine Western cohesion; this was the first depiction, by the USA and its political allies in Europe, of possible domino effects in the Cold War.

Communists: Ireland’s ‘Fifth Column’?

2019 ◽  
pp. 17-46
Author(s):  
John Mulqueen
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Great Britain ◽  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Cold War

This chapter discusses perceptions of Moscow’s ‘fifth column’ in the Irish state. While the communist party amounted to little more than an insignificant cult, not all communists declared themselves openly. Significantly, other political strands, particularly the IRA, were seen to be susceptible to communist manipulation. During the Cold War this gave rise to exaggerated fears about communism and its agents. Dublin officials co-operated with the British, and the Americans, in combating communists and their left-wing republican allies. In Northern Ireland, the Communist Party (CPNI) remained extremely weak, but retained influence of some significance within trade union officialdom. And, in Britain, the Connolly Association attempted to organise Irish exiles under the tutelage of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB). The US embassy in Dublin was sensitive to any suggestion of communist activity; Irish and American officials placed intelligence co-operation on a formal footing in 1954.

The American Exceptionalists

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Abrams Ansari
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
American Exceptionalism ◽  
State Department ◽  
The State ◽  
Musical Work ◽  
American Power ◽  
Concert Music ◽  
The Us ◽  
Us Government ◽  
The Cold War

This chapter examines Americanist composers William Schuman and Howard Hanson in parallel, as they engaged with the Cold War in very similar ways. These two men are shown to have used their influence as conservatory directors and advisers to government to present musical Americanism as a tool to grow American power on the global stage. Working with the State Department and the US Information Agency, Schuman and Hanson helped shape Cold War–created international cultural programs that placed a heavy emphasis on concert music and mandated the performance of American compositions. The chapter also includes an analysis of a musical work by Schuman that was commissioned by a branch of the US government. Credendum (1955) demonstrates in sound Schuman’s conception of Cold War American exceptionalism.

Jürgen Kuczynski and the Search for a (Non-Existent) Western Spy Ring in the East German Communist Party in 1953

2010 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
MATTHEW STIBBE
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
Strategic Bombing ◽  
Party Control ◽  
The Us ◽  
East German ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Labour History ◽  
The Cold War

AbstractJürgen Kuczynski, the East German Marxist intellectual and economic historian, is best known for his numerous publications on labour history. Far less has been written about his role as a leading figure in the German Communist Party in Britain between 1936 and 1944, and his work for the US Strategic Bombing Survey in 1944–5, activities which later came back to haunt him when he was the subject of a major inquiry launched by the Central Party Control Commission in 1953. Using newly available documents in London and Berlin, this article examines the investigation into Kuczynski as a case study for the inter-relationship between party purges, spy scares and the manipulation of individual biographies during one of the most volatile periods of the cold war.

scholarly journals The State and the Bulgarians Temporarily Working in Libya in the 1970s

2021 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-98
Author(s):  
Nadya Filipova
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Foreign Trade ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
Living Environment ◽  
The State ◽  
Foreign Affairs ◽  
Economic Conditions ◽  
Qualified Personnel ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
General Conditions

The publication examines the policy of the Bulgarian state towards the Bulgarian specialists working in Libya and the reactions of the employees to the regulatory norms and circumstances. The increase in the number of Bulgarians aspiring to work in Libya is analyzed in the context of the legal and socio-economic conditions in Bulgaria, the contract clauses for hiring, and their application in practice in addition to the growing needs and possibilities of the Libyan state to hire qualified personnel. The forms of control of the Bulgarian state towards the Bulgarians working abroad, and the attempts to protect their interests, and to create a propitious living environment are studied. The behavior of Bulgarians in Libya is presented in the context of the general conditions for residence and work in Libya. The research is based on archival sources of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade of Bulgaria for the Cold War period and on an unprocessed file of the Bulgarian Communist Party archive.

The Unassailable Self: Freud's Image Among Post-war American Intellectuals

2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-75 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine Jenness
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Cold War ◽  
External Force ◽  
Sigmund Freud ◽  
Human Being ◽  
World War ◽  
The Us ◽  
Post War ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Way

This paper explores the way American intellectuals depicted Sigmund Freud during the peak of popularity and prestige of psychoanalysis in the US, roughly the decade and a half following World War II. These intellectuals insisted upon the unassailability of Freud's mind and personality. He was depicted as unsusceptible to any external force or influence, a trait which was thought to account for Freud's admirable comportment as a scientist, colleague and human being. This post-war image of Freud was shaped in part by the Cold War anxiety that modern individuality was imperilled by totalitarian forces, which could only be resisted by the most rugged of selves. It was also shaped by the unique situation of the intellectuals themselves, who were eager to position themselves, like the Freud they imagined, as steadfastly independent and critical thinkers who would, through the very clarity of their thought, lead America to a more robust democracy.

Reluctant Cold Warriors

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vladimir Kontorovich
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
National Security ◽  
Soviet Economy ◽  
Accurate Analysis ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
The Us ◽  
Comprehensive Survey ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Military

The academic study of the Soviet economy in the US was created to help fight the Cold War, part of a broader mobilization of the social sciences for national security needs. The Soviet strategic challenge rested on the ability of its economy to produce large numbers of sophisticated weapons. The military sector was the dominant part of the economy, and the most successful one. However, a comprehensive survey of scholarship on the Soviet economy from 1948-1991 shows that it paid little attention to the military sector, compared to other less important parts of the economy. Soviet secrecy does not explain this pattern of neglect. Western scholars developed strained civilian interpretations for several aspects of the economy which the Soviets themselves acknowledged to have military significance. A close reading of the economic literature, combined with insights from other disciplines, suggest three complementary explanations for civilianization of the Soviet economy. Soviet studies was a peripheral field in economics, and its practitioners sought recognition by pursuing the agenda of the mainstream discipline, however ill-fitting their subject. The Soviet economy was supposed to be about socialism, and the military sector appeared to be unrelated to that. By stressing the militarization, one risked being viewed as a Cold War monger. The conflict identified in this book between the incentives of academia and the demands of policy makers (to say nothing of accurate analysis) has broad relevance for national security uses of social science.

History Has Begun

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruno Maçães
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Cold War ◽  
American Culture ◽  
Static Model ◽  
Early American Republic ◽  
Us History ◽  
New Model ◽  
Early American ◽  
Slow Decline ◽  
The Us

Popular consensus says that the US rose over two centuries to Cold War victory and world domination, and is now in slow decline. But is this right? History's great civilizations have always lasted much longer, and for all its colossal power, American culture was overshadowed by Europe until recently. What if this isn't the end? This book offers a compelling vision of America's future, both fascinating and unnerving. From the early American Republic, it takes us to the turbulent present, when, it argues, America is finally forging its own path. We can see the birth pangs of this new civilization in today's debates on guns, religion, foreign policy, and the significance of Trump. Should the coronavirus pandemic be regarded as an opportunity to build a new kind of society? What will its values be, and what will this new America look like? The book traces the long arc of US history to argue that in contrast to those who see the US on the cusp of decline, it may well be simply shifting to a new model, one equally powerful but no longer liberal. Consequently, it is no longer enough to analyze America's current trajectory through the simple prism of decline vs. progress, which assumes a static model—America as liberal leviathan. Rather, the book argues that America may be casting off the liberalism that has defined the country since its founding for a new model, one more appropriate to succeeding in a transformed world.

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