Manhood and American Political Culture in the Cold War

Manhood and American Political Culture in the Cold War examines the way in which a cult of toughness shaped the politics of the early cold war. Delving into the cultural origins of this preoccupation with masculinity, Cuordileone shows how the excessive emphasis placed on masculine virility in political life reflected acute mid-twentieth century anxieties about manhood and sexuality as well the ideological imperatives of the cold war. Reading major public figures like Arthur Schlesinger Jr., Adlai Stevenson, J. Edgar Hoover, Joseph McCarthy, Norman Mailer, David Riesman, William Whyte, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy as well as many lesser know experts and cultural commentators, Cuordileone reveals how deep anxieties about a decline in American masculinity shaped the political dynamics of the time and inspired a reinvention of the liberal as a cold warrior in the figure of JFK.