Paradoxes of Nostalgia
Cold War Triumphalism and Global Disorder since 1989
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Duke University Press
Published:15th Jul '22
Should be back in stock very soon
In Paradoxes of Nostalgia Penny M. Von Eschen offers a sweeping examination of the cold war’s afterlife and the lingering shadows it casts over geopolitics, journalism, and popular culture. She shows how myriad forms of nostalgia across the globe—from those that posit a mythic national past to those critical of neoliberalism that remember a time when people believed in the possibility of a collective good—indelibly shape the post-cold war era. When Western triumphalism moved into the global South and former Eastern bloc spaces, many articulated a powerful sense of loss and a longing for stability. Innovatively bringing together diplomatic archives, museums, films, and video games, Von Eschen shows that as the United States continuously sought new enemies for its unipolar world, cold war triumphalism fueled the ascendancy of xenophobic right-wing nationalism and the embrace of authoritarian sensibilities in the United States and beyond. Ultimately, she demonstrates that triumphalist claims that capitalism and military might won the cold war distort the past and disfigure the present, undermining democratic values and institutions.
“In this analytically rigorous and impressively researched book Penny M. Von Eschen offers a profoundly original argument that the collapse of the Soviet Union reentrenched American elite faith in the necessity and goodness of US unipolar dominance of the world. By centering the rise and fall of the American unipolar project, Von Eschen presents a stunning synthetic history of the last thirty years that any scholar of the post--cold war period will have to confront. Paradoxes of Nostalgia is a magisterial accomplishment.” -- Aziz Rana, author of * The Two Faces of American Freedom *
“Penny M. Von Eschen offers a bold, new, and sweeping analysis of the end of the cold war and its aftermath. Pressing beyond the usual containers for cold war history, Von Eschen seamlessly interweaves stories of glasnost, perestroika, and structural adjustment with those of ascendant pro-gun, family-values, Christian right politics and the rise of mass incarceration, inequality, and climate change. Her pathbreaking book helps us to make sense of the tumultuous present.” -- Megan Black, author of * The Global Interior: Mineral Frontiers and American Power *
"This intriguing study is about opportunities missed and wrong paths taken in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union. . . . [A]n interesting, important book. For lovers of history and current events." (Starred Review) -- David Keymer * Library Journal *
"This is a complex, wide-ranging analysis of the relationship between nostalgia for the stability, economic security, and consensus of the Cold War and the triumphalism that led to a post-1989 rise in inequality, conflict, and authoritarianism in the US and abroad. . . . An excellent addition to university Cold War collections. Highly recommended. Graduate students and faculty." * Choice *
". . . the methodological dexterity and the multiplicity of sources makes for a fascinating study of U.S. foreign policy set in a deep reading of its culture. Paradoxes of Nostalgia delivers a hard-hitting and important message which cuts to the centre of intellectual and cultural production." -- David Ryan * Diplomatic History *
ISBN: 9781478018230
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: 544g
400 pages