TY - BOOK ID - 78716799 TI - How we forgot the Cold War : a historical journey across America PY - 2012 SN - 1283003023 9786613823212 0520954254 9780520954250 0520271416 9780520271418 9780520271418 9780520954250 PB - Berkeley : University of California Press, DB - UniCat KW - Politics and culture KW - Cold War KW - Collective memory KW - World politics KW - Conservatism KW - Coexistence (World politics) KW - Peaceful coexistence KW - Collective remembrance KW - Common memory KW - Cultural memory KW - Emblematic memory KW - Historical memory KW - National memory KW - Public memory KW - Social memory KW - Memory KW - Social psychology KW - Group identity KW - National characteristics KW - History KW - Historiography. KW - Social aspects KW - United States KW - Intellectual life KW - 20th century american history. KW - american culture. KW - american history. KW - american wars. KW - berlin. KW - books for history lovers. KW - cold war victory. KW - communism. KW - discussion books. KW - easy to read. KW - end of cold war. KW - end of totalitarianism. KW - engaging. KW - fall of the ussr. KW - home school history books. KW - lenin. KW - life during cold war. KW - political ideology. KW - political parties. KW - political science. KW - politics. KW - post cold war politics. KW - post war life. KW - red scare. KW - rise of totalitarianism. KW - russian history. KW - stalin. KW - united states history. KW - world war ii. UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:78716799 AB - Hours after the USSR collapsed in 1991, Congress began making plans to establish the official memory of the Cold War. Conservatives dominated the proceedings, spending millions to portray the conflict as a triumph of good over evil and a defeat of totalitarianism equal in significance to World War II. In this provocative book, historian Jon Wiener visits Cold War monuments, museums, and memorials across the United States to find out how the era is being remembered. The author's journey provides a history of the Cold War, one that turns many conventional notions on their heads. In an engaging travelogue that takes readers to sites such as the life-size recreation of Berlin's "Checkpoint Charlie" at the Reagan Library, the fallout shelter display at the Smithsonian, and exhibits about "Sgt. Elvis," America's most famous Cold War veteran, Wiener discovers that the Cold War isn't being remembered. It's being forgotten. Despite an immense effort, the conservatives' monuments weren't built, their historic sites have few visitors, and many of their museums have now shifted focus to other topics. Proponents of the notion of a heroic "Cold War victory" failed; the public didn't buy the official story. Lively, readable, and well-informed, this book expands current discussions about memory and history, and raises intriguing questions about popular skepticism toward official ideology. ER -