Manhood and American Political Culture in the Cold War

Studying the work of Arthur Schlesinger, JFK, and Norman Mailer and major political events, this book is an exploration of the highly gendered and sexualised language of Cold War politics and the crisis in American masculinity that affected it. Manhood and American Political Culture in the Cold War explores the meaning of anxiety as expressed through the political and cultural language of the early cold war era. Cuordileone shows how the preoccupation with the soft, malleable American character reflected not only anti-Communism but acute anxieties about manhood and sexuality. Reading major figures like Arthur Schlesinger Jr., Adlai Stevenson, Joseph McCarthy, Norman Mailer, JFK, and many lesser known public figures, Cuordileone reveals how the era’s cult of toughness shaped the political dynamics of the time and inspired a reinvention of the liberal as a cold warrior.