Cold War Culture Paper:
Paper Due: April 4
For this assignment you will examine how the Cold War shaped society through
your choice of an example of popular culture from either side of the Iron Curtain.
Based on evidence from The Culture of the Cold War and from other outside
sources, explain how your selected cultural artifact reflects an aspect of the Cold
War.
Suggested Structure of Papers:
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Provide a brief summary (no more than two pages) of the content in
your novel, film, collection of songs, or other options.
Place the example of popular culture within the context of the Cold
War. How do Cold War events, personalities, perspectives, ideologies, or
other relevant factors influence your cultural artifact?
How and how well does your choice of popular culture communicate
the experience of the Cold War? How does your pop culture choice
directly or indirectly address the Cold War? Does your choice accurately
reflect the realities of the Cold War, or distort them? Do such distortions
serve a rhetorical or aesthetic purpose?
How was your example of popular culture received by the public?
Was your novel banned by Soviet authorities or promoted by the John
Birch Society? Did your television show inspire public outrage or
adulation? Was your song sung at protest marches? Did your film win
critical awards or prizes?
Things To Remember:
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Essay length should be five to eight pages. Anything shorter or longer will suffer
a ten point penalty per page missing or added.
All successful essays will quote or cite material from the example of popular
culture and from The Culture of the Cold War. The quality and quantity of detail
taken from the book will weigh heavily in the assessment of student essays.
You should draw upon outside sources to contextualize and assess your choice
for popular culture. The quality and quantity of these sources will make a
substantial impact on the assessment of your paper. Remember, don’t use
Wikipedia as a source (although it may be an appropriate starting place).
In drawing on material from your book or from other sources, be sure to
properly credit the original source. If you quote, paraphrase, or refer to specific
material, cite where you obtained that information. History majors should use the
Chicago Manual of Style citation style; non-History majors can use the
appropriate style for their major. Proper citation strengthens the quality of the
paper; failure to cite source information is plagiarism.
Check the rubric to see if your paper follows correct formatting procedures.
Late papers lose ten points per day, not per class session.
Film Options
Additional Instructions and Information for Film Options: Chose one film listed below,
and discuss how that film reflects an aspect of the Cold War. Additional sources
concerning these films can be found in the following journals (available through the BAC
library databases)
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Film & History: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Film and Television Studies (via
Project Muse)
Film History: An International Journal (via Project Muse)
Science Fiction Film and Television (via Project Muse)
Journal of Cold War Studies (via Project Muse)
Journal of Popular Culture (via Academic Search Elite)
Americana: A Journal of American Popular Culture (via their website)
Red Scare:
Nuclear War:
I Married A Communist (1949)
I Was A Communist for the FBI (1951)
The Thing (1951) or (1982)
Strangers on a Train (1951)
Invasion U.S.A. (1952)
Red Planet Mars (1952)
High Noon (1952)
My Son John (1952)
Big Jim McClain (1952)
Pickup on South Street (1953)
Rear Window (1954)
Salt of the Earth (1954)
On the Waterfront (1954)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956),
not the 1978 remake
A Face in the Crowd (1957)
Spartacus (1960)
The Manchurian Candidate (1962), not
the 2004 remake
Quiz Show (1994)
Angels in America (2003) (play or HBO
miniseries)
Good Night, and Good Luck (2004)
Five (1951)
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) –
original version only
War of the Worlds (1953)
Them! (1954)
Godzilla (1954) – original version only
Forbidden Planet (1956)
The Seventh Seal (1957)
On the Beach (1959)
The Birds (1963)
Failsafe (1964)
The Bedford Incident (1965)
The War Game (1965) – British film
Planet of the Apes (1968)
Andromeda Strain (1971)
Atomic Café (1982)
Testament (1983)
The Day After (1983)
Wargames (1983)
Red Dawn (1984) – original version
only
Threads (1984) – British film
Spies Like Us (1985)
The Quiet Earth (1985)
When the Wind Blows (1986) – British
film
Miracle Mile (1988)
Thirteen Days (2000)
Cold War In Europe:
Bicycle Thieves (1948) – Italian film
Germany, Year Zero (1948) – German film
The Third Man (1949)
The Red Balloon (1956) – French film
The Seventh Seal (1957) – Swedish film
One, Two, Three (1961)
Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
The Tenth Victim (1965) – Italian film
Z (1969) – French film
The Baader Meinhof Complex (2008)
Barbara (2012) – German film
Cold War in Asia:
Stray Dog (1949) – Japanese film
Rashomon (1950) – Japanese film
The Steel Helmet (1951)
Tokyo Story (1953) – Japanese film
House of Bamboo (1955)
I Live in Fear (1955) – Japanese film
The Year of Living Dangerously (1982)
The Vietnam War:
China Gate (1957)
The Quiet American (1958)
The Green Berets (1968)
Medium Cool (1969)
MASH (1970)
The Deer Hunter (1978)
Apocalypse Now (1979)
Rambo: First Blood (1982)
The Killing Fields (1984)
Platoon (1986)
Full Metal Jacket (1987)
Forest Gump (1994)
Gran Torino (2008)
Cold War in Latin America:
I Am Cuba (1964) – Russian/Cuban film
Bananas (1971)
The Godfather, Part II (1974)
Salvador (1986)
Romero (1989)
Cold War in the Middle
East/Afghanistan:
The Battle of Algiers (1962)
Munich (2005)
Charlie Wilson’s War (2007)
Kite Runner (2007)
The Baader Meinhof Complex (2008)
Space Race:
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Solaris (1972) – original version only –
Russian film
The Right Stuff (1983)
October Sky (1999)
Life Behind the Iron Curtain:
Nonotchka (1939)
Doctor Zhivago (1965)
Russia House (1979)
Gorky Park (1983)
Red Heat (1988)
The Blue Kite (1993) – Chinese film
Farewell My Concubine (1993) –
Chinese film
To Live (1994) – Chinese film
East/West (1999) – French/Russian
film
Goodbye, Lenin! (2003) – German film
The Lives of Others (2006) – German
film
Cold War Espionage:
North by Northwest (1959)
Dr. No (1962)
From Russia With Love (1963)
The Spy Who Came In From the Cold
(1965)
Ice Station Zebra (1968)
The Hunt For Red October (1990)
The Good Shepard (2006)
Novel & Poetry Options:
Additional Instructions and Information for Novel Options: Chose one novel listed
below, and discuss how that novel reflects an aspect of the Cold War. For poetry, choose
three poems and discuss how they reflect elements of the Cold War.
Additional sources concerning these novels can be found in the following journals
(available through the BAC library databases)
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Critical Companions to Popular Contemporary Writers
Literature Resource Center
Literary Reference Center Plus
Writer’s Reference Center
Twentieth Century Poetry
Journal of Cold War Studies (via Project Muse)
Journal of Popular Culture (via Academic Search Elite)
Americana: A Journal of American Popular Culture (via their website)
Red Scare:
One Lonely Night (1951) by Mickey Spillane
The Crucible (1953) by Arthur Miller
Advise and Consent (1959) by Allen Drury
Seven Days in May (1962) by Fletcher Knebel and Charles W. Bailey II
The Book of Daniel (1971) by E.L. Doctorow
Nuclear War:
Lord of the Flies (1954) by William Golding
Alas, Babylon (1959) by Pat Frank
Fail Safe (1962) by Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler
Warday (1984) by Whitley Streiber and James Kunetka
Underworld (1997) by Don DeLillo
Science Fiction & the Cold War:
The Martian Chronicles (1950) by Ray Bradbury
The Day of the Triffids (1951) by John Wyndham
Fahrenheit 451 (1953) by Ray Bradbury
Childhood’s End (1953) by Arthur C. Clarke
Starship Troopers (1959) by Robert Heinlein
A Canticle for Leibowitz (1960) by Walter M. Miller. Not available for those
who read it in the First Year Symposium.
Solaris (1961) by Stanislaw Lev
A Wrinkle in Time (1962) by Madeleine L’Engle
Cats Cradle (1963) by Kurt Vonnegut
Hard to Be a God (1964) by Arkady and Boris Stugatsky
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968) by Philip K. Dick
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) by Arthur C. Clarke
Prisoners of Power (1969) by Arkady and Boris Stugatsky
The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia (1974) by Ursula K. Le Guin
Neuromancer (1984) by William Gibson
Watchmen (1984) by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons
Ender’s Game (1985) by Orson Scott Card
Life Behind the Iron Curtain:
Animal Farm (1945) by George Orwell
1984 (1948) by George Orwell
Love Among the Ruins: A Romance of the Near Future (1953) by Evelyn Waugh
Not by Bread Alone (1956) by Vladimir Dudintsev
Doctor Zhivago (1957) by Boris Pasternak
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (1963) by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
Hard to Be a God (1964) by Arkady and Boris Stugatsky
The Master and Margarita (1967) by Mikhail Bulgakov
The Life and Extraordinary Adventures of Private Ivan Chonkin (1969) by
Vladimir Voinovich
The Gulag Archipelago (1973) by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
Gorky Park (1981) by Marin Cruz Smith
Under the Frog (1992) by Tibor Fischer
The Wall Jumper: A Berlin Story (1998) by Peter Schneider
War Trash (2004) by Ha Jin
The Guest: A Novel (2008) by Hwang Sok-Yong
Change (2010) by Mo Yan
Red Plenty (2012) by Francis Spufford
A Chinese Life (2012) by Philippe Otie and Li Kunwu
Cold War Espionage:
Casino Royal (1952) by Ian Fleming
The Quiet American (1957) by Graham Greene
The Ugly American (1958) by Eugene Burdick and William Lederer
Mother Night (1961) by Kurt Vonnegut
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1963) by John Le Carre
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1964) by John Le Carre
The Hunt for Red October (1984) by Tom Clancy
Your Republic is Calling You (2010) by Young-ha Kim
Vietnam War:
The Quiet American (1957) by Graham Greene
The Ugly American (1958) by Eugene Burdick and William Lederer
Catch-22 (1961) by Joseph Heller
A Rumor of War (1977) by Philip Caputo
The Things They Carried (1990)
We Were Soldiers Once…And Young (1992)
Matterhorn: A Novel (2010) by Karl Marlantes
Cold War Poetry:
“New Song” by Langston Hughes (1939)
“The Planners” by Robert Frost (1946)
“U.S. 1946 King’s X” by Robert Frost (1946)
“Bursting Rapture” by Robert Frost (1947)
“We” by Richard Wilbur (1948)
“The Wholly Fail” by John Berryman (1950)
“Report from the Carolinas,” by Helen Bevington (1952)
“A Woman Unconscious” by Ted Hughes (undated – probably 1960s)
“Who Will Take Over the Universe?” by Allen Ginsburg (1961)
“Pentagon Exorcism” by Allen Ginsburg (1967)
“The Russian Army Goes Into Baku” by Alicia Ostriker (1990)
“Ambrose: Nam” by Anne Waldman (1997)
Television & Radio Options:
Additional Instructions and Information for Television Options: Chose at least three
episodes of one the television series listed below, or connect together three episodes
taken from multiple series. Discuss how the episodes/series you’ve chosen reflects an
aspect of the Cold War.
Additional sources concerning these films can be found in the following journals
(available through the BAC library databases)
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Science Fiction Film and Television (via Project Muse)
Film & History: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Film and Television Studies (via
Project Muse)
VIEW: Journal of European Television History and Culture (via their website)
Journal of Cold War Studies (via Project Muse)
Journal of Popular Culture (via Academic Search Elite)
Americana: A Journal of American Popular Culture (via their website)
Radio broadcast of Billy Graham’s Crusade in Los Angeles, 1949 - "Why
God Allows Communism to Flourish and Why God Allows Christians to Suffer."
(1949). Available here.
Radio broadcast of Archbishop Fulton Sheen’s Life Is Worth Living (1960s)
“Communism and the Church.” Available here.
I Led Three Lives
“Campus Story” (1953)
“Army Infiltration” (1953)
“Civil Defense” (1953
“Captured Congressman” (1953)
Rocky and Bullwinkle
“Jet Engine Fuel” story arc of the first season (1959)
The Twilight Zone
“Third from the Sun” (1960)
“The Obsolete Man” (1961)
“Two” (1961)
“The Shelter” (1961)
“One More Pallbearer” (1962)
“The Old Man in the Cave” (1963)
“Probe 7, Over and Out (1963)
Star Trek
“Balance of Terror” (1966)
“A Taste of Armageddon” (1967)
“A Private Little War” (1968)
“Let That Be Your Last Battlefield” (1969)
The Prisoner (1968) – British BBC series
First (and only) season
The Fulton Sheen Program
“We Are In Two Wars” (1968)
All in the Family
“Writing the President” (1971)
“Archie and the Lock-Up” (1971)
“Archie and the FBI” (1972)
“The Draft Dodger” (1976)
M*A*S*H
“Dear Dad” (1972)
“Army-Navy Game” (1972)
“Abyssinia, Henry” (1974)
“Hawkeye” (1975)
Dallas
“Digger’s Daughter” (1978)
“A House Divided” (1980)
“Who Done It?” (1980)
Popular Music Options:
Additional Instructions and Information for Television Options: Chose at least three
songs listed below and discuss how the songs you’ve chosen reflects an aspect of the
Cold War.
Additional sources concerning these films can be found in the following journals
(available through the BAC library databases)
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Journal of Cold War Studies (via Project Muse)
Journal of Popular Culture (via Academic Search Elite)
Americana: A Journal of American Popular Culture (via their website)
1950’s
“When They Drop the Atomic Bomb,” by Jackie Doll and his Pickled Peppers
(1951)
“Heartbreak Ridge,” by the Delmore Brothers (1951)
“Rock Around the Clock,” by the Bob Haley and the Comets (1955)
“Heartbreak Hotel,” by Elvis Presley (1956)
“Roll Over Beethoven,” by Chuck Berry (1956)
“Jailhouse Rock,” by Elvis Presley (1957)
“Take Five,” by Dave Brubeck (1959)
1960’s
“A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall,” by Bob Dylan (1962)
The Real Ambassadors, an album featuring Louie Armstrong and Dave Brubeck
(1962)
“Blowin’ in the Wind,” by Bob Dylan (1963)
“Masters of War,” by Bob Dylan (1963)
“The Times They Are A-Changin’, by Bob Dylan (1964)
“A Change Is Gonna Come,” by Sam Cooke (1964)
“Eve of Destruction,” by Barry McGuire (1965)
“We’ll All Go Together When We Go” by Tom Lehrer (1960)
“Send the Marines,” by Tom Lehrer (1966)
“Who’s Next?”, by Tom Lehrer (1966)
“MLF Lullaby,” by Tom Lehrer (1966)
“Wernher von Braun,” by Tom Lehrer (1966)
“For What It’s Worth,” by Buffalo Springfield (1966)
“Ballad of the Green Berets,” by Barry Sadler (1966)
“Alice’s Restaurant,” by Arlo Guthrie (1967)
“I Feel Like I’m Fixin’ to Die Rag,” by Country Joe and the Fish (1967)
“Revolution-1” and “Revolution-9,” by the Beatles (1968)
“Back in the U.S.S.R.,” by the Beatles (1968)
“Fortunate Son,” by Credence Clearwater Revival (1969)
“Okie from Muskogee,” by Merle Haggard (1969)
“Star Spangled Banner,” by Jimi Hendrix (1969)
“Gimme Shelter,” by the Rolling Stones (1969)
1970’s
“Ohio,” by Crosby, Stills, and Nash (1970)
“Whitey On the Moon,” by Gill Scott-Heron (1970)
“The Revolution Will Not Be Television,” by Gill Scott-Heron (1970)
“War Pigs,” by Black Sabbath (1970)
“Who’ll Stop the Rain,” by Credence Clearwater Revival (1970)
“What’s Going On,” by Marvin Gaye (1971)
“Imagine,” by John Lennon (1971)
“Get Up, Stand Up,” by Bob Marley and the Wailers (1973)
“Holidays In the Sun,” by the Sex Pistols (1976)
“Anarchy in the U.K,” by the Sex Pistols (1976)
“Heroes,” by David Bowie (1977)
“London Calling,” by the Clash (1979)
“I’m So Bored with the USA,” by the Clash (1979)
“(What’s So Funny About) Peace, Love, and Understanding,” by Elvis Costello
and the Attractions (1979)
1980’s and Beyond
“Holiday in Cambodia,” by the Dead Kennedys (1980)
“Der Kommissar,” by Falco (1981) - German
“99 Luftballoons,” by Nena (1983) – German
“I Was Only Nineteen,” by Redgum (1983)
“New Year’s Day,” by U2 (1983)
“Two Suns in the Sunset,” by Pink Floyd (1983)
“2 Minutes to Midnight,” by Iron Maiden (1984)
“Bonzo Goes to Bitburg,” by the Ramones (1985)
“Land of Confusion,” by Genesis (1986)
“Bullet the Blue Sky,” by U2 (1987)
“Leningrad,” by Billy Joel (1989)
“Rockin’ in the Free World,” by Neil Young (1989)
“Wind of Change,” by the Scorpions (1991) - German
Other Cultural Items:
Additional Instructions and Information for Television Options: Chose at least three
items from a single category, or connect together three items taken from multiple
categories. Discuss how the items you’ve chosen reflects an aspect of the Cold War.
Additional sources concerning these films can be found in the following journals
(available through the BAC library databases)
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Journal of Cold War Studies (via Project Muse)
Journal of Popular Culture (via Academic Search Elite)
Americana: A Journal of American Popular Culture (via their website)
Journal of Material Culture (via Interlibrary Loan)
Material Culture:
Barbie doll
G.I. Joe action figure
The Bikini
The Trabant (East German car)
The Yugo (Yugoslavian car)
Chevrolet Bel-Air (American car)
The Kitchen Debate (1959)
Ping Pong Diplomacy (1971)
Panda Diplomacy (1972)
Sports Events:
The Miracle on Ice (1980)
Bobby Fisher vs. Boris Spassky World Championship chess match, 1972
1972 Summer Olympic Gold Medal basketball game between USA vs. USSR
US boycott of 1980 Summer Olympics, Soviet boycott of 1984 Summer Olympics
Modern Art:
“Hunger” by Ben Shahn (1946)
“Welcome Home” by Jack Levine (1946)
“Number 8” by Jackson Pollack (1949)
“Roses for Stalin” by Boris Vladimirski (1949)
“Steel Workers” by V. Malagis (1950)
“Massacre in Korea” by Pablo Picasso (1951)
Murals at the Rincon Center, San Francisco, by Anton Refregier (1952)
“The Lucky Dragon” series by Ben Shahn (1957)
“Spring Day” by Nikolai Matveevich Pozdneev (1959)
“Waiting, 1945” by Ivan Babenko (between 1975-1985)