Paradoxes of Nostalgia: Cold War Triumphalism and Global Disorder since 1989
by Penny M. Von Eschen
Duke University Press, 2022 Paper: 978-1-4780-1823-0 | Cloth: 978-1-4780-1560-4 | eISBN: 978-1-4780-2284-8 Library of Congress Classification D860.V664 2022
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
ABOUT THIS BOOK 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.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY Penny M. Von Eschen is William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of American Studies and Professor of History at the University of Virginia and author of Satchmo Blows Up the World: Jazz Ambassadors Play the Cold War and Race against Empire: Black Americans and Anticolonialism, 1937–1957.
REVIEWS
“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
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 1. The Ends of History 21 2. Out of Order: Discordant Triumphalism and the “Clash of Civilizations” 56 3. Losing the Good Life: Post-Cold War Malaise and the Enemy Within 92 4. “God I Miss the Cold War”: Busted Containers and Popular Nostalgia, 1993–1999 131 5. Consuming Nostalgia: Lampooning Lenin, Marketing Mao, and the Global Turn to the Right 174 6. Patriot Acts: Staging the War on Terror from Spy Museum to Bishkek 218 7. Spies R Us: Paradoxes of US-Russian Relations 259 Epilogue. Nostalgia for the Future 298 Notes 309 Works Cited 353 Index 365
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Paradoxes of Nostalgia: Cold War Triumphalism and Global Disorder since 1989
by Penny M. Von Eschen
Duke University Press, 2022 Paper: 978-1-4780-1823-0 Cloth: 978-1-4780-1560-4 eISBN: 978-1-4780-2284-8
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.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY Penny M. Von Eschen is William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of American Studies and Professor of History at the University of Virginia and author of Satchmo Blows Up the World: Jazz Ambassadors Play the Cold War and Race against Empire: Black Americans and Anticolonialism, 1937–1957.
REVIEWS
“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
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 1. The Ends of History 21 2. Out of Order: Discordant Triumphalism and the “Clash of Civilizations” 56 3. Losing the Good Life: Post-Cold War Malaise and the Enemy Within 92 4. “God I Miss the Cold War”: Busted Containers and Popular Nostalgia, 1993–1999 131 5. Consuming Nostalgia: Lampooning Lenin, Marketing Mao, and the Global Turn to the Right 174 6. Patriot Acts: Staging the War on Terror from Spy Museum to Bishkek 218 7. Spies R Us: Paradoxes of US-Russian Relations 259 Epilogue. Nostalgia for the Future 298 Notes 309 Works Cited 353 Index 365
REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you
with an electronic file for alternative access.
Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.
It can take 2-3 weeks for requests to be filled.
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE