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Communism and Popular Culture

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Communism and Popular Culture
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Pop Culture as History: The War Comes Home After World War II, the United States faced a malevolent philosophical dispute that had spread from within itself. Chapter nine in Thinking Through the Past is titled “Pop Culture as History: The War Comes Home” because it identifies America’s disposition over the subject of communism during the Cold War era. Historian Stephen J. Whitfield writes his secondary source entitled, “The Culture of the Cold War” which presents a detailed analysis pertaining to the lives of Americans on both sides of the political spectrum of anti-communism during the 1950s in United States. Questions arise that carry significance to cultural and social growth during the period: How was communism threatening the US and why? What did the threat of communism do to the culture of the US during the 1950s? Finally, does the secondary source written by Stephen Whitfield align with what is mentioned in primary sources or do they conflict with one another. Communism held a powerful grip on the United States’ cultural development during the 1950s. America was either too ferocious in its’ approach of defeating communism on the home-front as Whitfield suggests, or it’s necessity is overlooked and was prudent to end the political and social agenda of communism in the United States. In either case, communism held an astounding affect on the social aspects of the United States during the 1950s regarding motion pictures, novels, advertisement, music, and much more. Although, the majority of the population in the US sealed communism’s fate as they would not allow it to become apart of the popular culture during the 1950s.
1. Did the Cold War narrow post war popular culture? According to historian Stephan Whitfield, American culture was heavily influenced by societies disapproval of communism. So much in fact that members of media would become blatant in their approach to dismember anyone supporting the philosophical notions of communism. With the

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