For Might and Right: Cold War Defense Spending and the Remaking of American Democracy (Culture and Politics in the Cold War and Beyond)

Brenes, Michael

ISBN 10: 1625345224 / ISBN 13: 9781625345226

Published by University of Massachusetts Press, 2020

About this Item

Seller Inventory # 2.4M_MV_H0005ZHX

Bibliographic Details

• Title: For Might and Right: Cold War Defense Spending and the Remaking of American Democracy (Culture and Politics in the Cold War and Beyond)
• Publisher: University of Massachusetts Press
• Publication Date: 2020
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1625345224
• ISBN 13: 9781625345226
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: Very Good

About this title

Synopsis

How did the global Cold War influence American politics at home? For Might and Right traces the story of how Cold War defense spending remade participatory politics, producing a powerful and dynamic political coalition that reached across party lines. This “Cold War coalition” favored massive defense spending over social welfare programs, bringing together a diverse array of actors from across the nation, including defense workers, community boosters, military contractors, current and retired members of the armed services, activists, and politicians. Faced with neoliberal austerity and uncertainty surrounding America's foreign policy after the 1960s, increased military spending became a bipartisan solution to create jobs and stimulate economic growth, even in the absence of national security threats.

Using a rich array of archival sources, Michael Brenes draws important connections between economic inequality and American militarism that enhance our understanding of the Cold War's continued impact on American democracy and the resilience of the military-industrial complex, up to the age of Donald Trump.

About the Author

MICHAEL BRENES is associate director of the Brady-Johnson Program in Grand Strategy and lecturer in history at Yale University.