
Divided Dreamworlds?
The Cultural Cold War in East and West
Amsterdam University Press
Published on 17. July 2012
Book
Paperback/Softback
248 pages
978-90-8964-436-7 (ISBN)
Description
While the divide between capitalism and communism, embodied in the image of the Iron Curtain, seemed to be as wide and definitive as any cultural rift, Giles Scott-Smith, Joes Segal, and Peter Romijn have compiled a selection of essays on how culture contributed to the blurring of ideological boundaries between the East and the West. This important and diverse volume presents fascinating insights into the tensions, rivalries, and occasional cooperation between the two blocs, with essays that represent the cutting edge of Cold War Studies and analyze aesthetic preferences and cultural phenomena as various as interior design in East and West Germany; the Soviet stance on genetics; US cultural diplomacy during and after the Cold War; and the role of popular music as the universal cultural ambassador.
An illuminating and wide-ranging survey of interrelated collective dreams from both sides of the Iron Curtain, Divided Dreamworlds? has a place on the bookshelf of any modern historian.
An illuminating and wide-ranging survey of interrelated collective dreams from both sides of the Iron Curtain, Divided Dreamworlds? has a place on the bookshelf of any modern historian.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Amsterdam
Netherlands
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 240 mm
Width: 170 mm
Weight
482 gr
ISBN-13
978-90-8964-436-7 (9789089644367)
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Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Peter Romijn is a historian, Head of Research at NIOD, and part-time Professor of Twentieth-Century History at the University of Amsterdam.
Joes Segal is chief curator of the Wende Museum in Los Angeles and Assistant Professor of Cultural History at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands.
Joes Segal is chief curator of the Wende Museum in Los Angeles and Assistant Professor of Cultural History at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands.
Content
Divided Dreamworlds? - 2 Contents - 6 Preface - 8 Introduction Divided Dreamworlds? The Cultural Cold War in East and West - 10 part i Arts and Sciences Between the Blocs - 20 1 An Unofficial Cultural Ambassador Arthur Miller and the Cultural Cold War - 22 2 Biological Utopias East and West Trofim D. Lysenko and His Critics - 42 3 Tadeusz Kantor's Publics Warsaw - New York - 62 4 Co-Producing Cold War Culture East-West Film-Making and Cultural Diplomacy - 82 part ii Modernity East and West - 104 5 The Dreamworld of New Yugoslav Culture and the Logic of Cold War Binaries - 106 6 Sounds like America Yugoslavia's Soft Power in Eastern Europe - 124 7 Moving Toward Utopia Soviet Housing in the Atomic Age - 142 8 Cold War Modernism and Post-War German Homes An East-West Comparison - 164 9 Flying Away Civil Aviation and the Dream of Freedom in East and West - 190 part iii Post-1989 Perspectives on the Cultural Cold War - 208 10 Problematic Things East German Materials after 1989 - 210 11 (Dis)Connecting Cultures, Creating Dreamworlds Musical 'East-West' Diplomacy in the Cold War and the War on Terror - 226 About the Authors - 244 Index - 246