Martyrs, Miracles, and Martians: Religion and Cold War Cinematic Propaganda in the 1950s

2002 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 3-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tony Shaw
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
The West ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
American Movies ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Mass Entertainment ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
War Film

This article examines Cold War film propaganda in the 1950s, when the cin-ema was enjoying its last period as the dominant visual mass entertainment form in both the West and the East. I concentrates on the role that religion played as a theme of propaganda primarily in British and American movies, as well as some of the Soviet films released during the decade. The article ex-plores the relationship between film output and state propagandists to show how religious themes were incorporated into films dealing with Cold War is-sues, and considers how audiences received the messages contained within these films. The article therefore builds on recent scholarship that highlights the importance of ideas and culture during the Cold War by looking at the adoption and adaptation of religion as a tool of propaganda.

scholarly journals Trumpeting through the iron curtain: The breakthrough of jazz in socialist Yugoslavia

Muzikologija ◽  
2012 ◽  
pp. 53-77 ◽  
Author(s):  
Radina Vucetic
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
The West ◽  
Voice Of America ◽  
Record Industry ◽  
Socialist Government ◽  
Specific Position ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Hearts And Minds ◽  
The Voice

During the Cold War, jazz became a powerful propaganda weapon in the battle for ?hearts and minds?. As early as the 1950s, the American administration began its Cold War ?jazz campaign?, by broadcasting the popular jazz radio show Music USA over the Voice of America, and by sending its top jazz artists on world tours. In this specific cultural Cold War, Yugoslavia was, as in its overall politics, in a specific position between the East and the West. The postwar period in Yugoslavia, following the establishment of the new (socialist) government, was characterized by strong resistance towards jazz as ?decadent? music, until 1948 when ?no? to Stalin became ?yes? to jazz. From the 1950s, jazz entered Yugoslav institutions and media, and during the following two decades, completely conquered the radio, TV, and record industry, as well as the manifestations such as the Youth Day. On account of the openness of the regime during the 1950s and 1960s, Yugoslavia was frequently visited by the greatest jazz stars, such as Dizzy Gillespie, Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald. In the context of the Cold War, the promotion of jazz in Yugoslavia proved to be beneficial for both sides - by exporting jazz, America also exported its freedom, culture and system of values, while Yugoslavia showed the West to what extent its political system was open and liberal, at least concerning this type of music.

Sociology in Place of Socialism: On West German Cultural Radio

2014 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-42
Author(s):  
Monika Boll
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Federal Republic ◽  
Free Space ◽  
The West ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Sociological Discourse ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
East West

This article delves into the relationship between cultural radio and the Cold War. After 1945, culural radio took on a central role in the intellectual self-understanding of the early Federal Republic. From the very beginning, there was much less censorship than with political editorial departments. Thus, it was possible for cultrual radio to offer an intellectual forum in which socialism was not simply dismissed due to the official anticommunist political doctrine. This article shows the ways in which the East-West conflict was present in the cultrual departments of radio broadcasters. It argues that socialism appeared less as an ideological restraint or taboo, but rather as a productive challenge, which in the end was part of the modernization of West Germany's intellectual self-understanding. Two prominent examples buttress this argument: the free space that cultrual radio conquered in a kind of leftist integration with the West, and the rapid advancement of sociological discourse.

Russia says no: Power, status, and emotions in foreign policy

2014 ◽  
Vol 47 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 269-279 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deborah Welch Larson ◽  
Alexei Shevchenko
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Missile Defense ◽  
Social Psychological ◽  
The West ◽  
The Status ◽  
Ukrainian Crisis ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The U.S

Since 2003, Russian foreign behavior has become much more assertive and volatile toward the West, often rejecting U.S. diplomatic initiatives and overreacting to perceived slights. This essay explains Russia’s new assertiveness using social psychological hypotheses on the relationship between power, status, and emotions. Denial of respect to a state is humiliating. When a state loses status, the emotions experienced depend on the perceived cause of this loss. When a state perceives that others are responsible for its loss, it shows anger. The belief that others have unjustly used their power to deny the state its appropriate position arouses vengefulness. If a state believes that its loss of status is due to its own failure to live up to expectations, the elites will express shame. Since the end of the Cold War, Russia has displayed anger at the U.S. unwillingness to grant it the status to which it believes it is entitled, especially during the 2008 Russo-Georgian War, and most recently Russia’s takeover of Crimea and the 2014 Ukrainian Crisis. We can also see elements of vengefulness in Russia’s reaction to recognition of Kosovo, U.S. missile defense plans, the Magnitsky act, and the Snowden affair.

Populism in Turkey: Historical and Contemporary Patterns

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yüksel Taşkın
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Final Section ◽  
The World ◽  
Cold War Era ◽  
Conceptual Discussion ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter offers a historical and comparative analysis of populism in Turkey during and after the Cold War era. After a conceptual discussion of populism, it elaborates on the making of right and left populisms from Menderes in the 1950s to Ecevit in the 1970s and Erdoğan after 2002. The chapter then focuses on the reasons for the emergence of a new brand of right populism under Erdoğan and his AKP. The final section identifies the nature of the relationship between Erdoğan’s populism and the de-democratization process in Turkey in the light of theoretical debates on populism and authoritarianism across the world.

Cold War Strategies/Power and Culture—East

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vladislav Zubok
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
The West ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
International Behavior ◽  
Cold War Consensus

This chapter examines the root motives behind the Soviet struggle against the West and the paradigm of Soviet international behavior related to the Cold War. It suggests that decolonization contributed to the Cold War because the decline of European colonial empires in the 1950s created irresistible temptations for Soviet leaders to intervene in parts of the globe previously beyond their reach. The chapter also suggests that the Soviet Cold War consensus began to crumble when the key tenets of the revolutionary-imperial paradigm became suspect in the 1960s and 1970s. These tenets held that the West was determined to destroy the Soviet Union and its “socialist empire” by force.

The Politics of Cold War Culture

2001 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 59-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tony Shaw
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Great Britain ◽  
Labor Markets ◽  
The United States ◽  
Soviet Bloc ◽  
Entertainment Media ◽  
Politics And Culture ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Mass Entertainment ◽  
The Relationship

This article examines the relationship between politics and culture in Great Britain and the United States during the Cold War, with particular emphasis on the period from the late 1940s to the early 1960s. The article critically examines several recent books on British and American Cold War cultural activities, both domestic and external. The review covers theatrical, cinematic, literary, and broadcast propaganda and analyzes the complex network of links between governments and private groups in commerce, education, labor markets, and the mass entertainment media. It points out the fundamental differences between Western countries and the Soviet bloc and provides a warning to those inclined to view Western culture solely through a Cold War prism.

Russia – USA relationship: R.I.P. Cold War?

2018 ◽  
pp. 61-78
Author(s):  
Isabela de Andrade Gama
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
The Self ◽  
International Level ◽  
The West ◽  
Nato Enlargement ◽  
Sphere Of Influence ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
New Situation

The focus of the proposal is related to the relationship of Russia and the West after the Cold War, especially concerning the NATO enlargement. It is assumed that at this moment the relationship of these entities have changed to a whole new situation. However if the Cold War was about performance of identity conformation, this proposal claims that this logic still persists In this scenario Russia is trying to find a new role at the international level, as much as NATO is trying to do the same. since their main enemy no longer exists, so the Atlantic Alliance starts a new project of spreading democracy and market economy to the ex-soviet sphere of influence, on the basis of fear of a renewed cycle of Russian nationalist expansionism. Thereby, the rationalism of this debate can be substituted by a new one more inclined to the post-structuralist debate. In this way the main purpose of this paper is to analyze the delimitation of the Russian and West’s identities in this space full of “otherness” constituting the “self”, in this scenario of tension/distension hark back to the Cold War era, with special emphasis on Russian foreign policy.

Islam and the West: Coexistence or Clash?

2012 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 363-374
Author(s):  
Noor Mohammad Osmani ◽  
Tawfique Al-Mubarak
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Critical Evaluation ◽  
Western Civilization ◽  
Peaceful Coexistence ◽  
The West ◽  
Comprehensive Review ◽  
The World ◽  
Islamic Civilization ◽  
The Cold War

Samuel Huntington (1927-2008) claimed that there would be seven eight civilizations ruling over the world in the coming centuries, thus resulting a possible clash among them. The West faces the greatest challenge from the Islamic civilization, as he claimed. Beginning from the Cold-War, the Western civilization became dominant in reality over other cultures creating an invisible division between the West and the rest. The main purpose of this research is to examine the perceived clash between the Western and Islamic Civilization and the criteria that lead a civilization to precede others. The research would conduct a comprehensive review of available literatures from both Islamic and Western perspectives, analyze historical facts and data and provide a critical evaluation. This paper argues that there is no such a strong reason that should lead to any clash between the West and Islam; rather, there are many good reasons that may lead to a peaceful coexistence and cultural tolerance among civilizations

New ''Cold War''

2020 ◽  
pp. 27-34
Author(s):  
Vladimir Batiuk
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Nuclear Weapons ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Arms Race ◽  
Ideological Struggle ◽  
Nuclear Arms Race ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Nuclear Arms

In this article, the ''Cold War'' is understood as a situation where the relationship between the leading States is determined by ideological confrontation and, at the same time, the presence of nuclear weapons precludes the development of this confrontation into a large-scale armed conflict. Such a situation has developed in the years 1945–1989, during the first Cold War. We see that something similar is repeated in our time-with all the new nuances in the ideological struggle and in the nuclear arms race.

scholarly journals Saints on Stage: Popular Hagiography in Post-WWII Italy

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 216
Author(s):  
Daniela Cavallaro
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Young People ◽  
Educational Goal ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Lives Of The Saints

This article brings to light several examples of the hagiographic plays staged in Italy during the 1950s and early 1960s in parishes, schools, and oratories. The article begins with a brief introduction to the continued tradition of staging the lives of the saints for educational purposes, which focuses on the origins, aims, and main characteristics of theatre for young people of the Salesians, the order founded by Don Bosco in 1859. Next, it offers a brief panorama of the pervasive presence of the lives of the saints in post-WWII Italy. The main discussion of the article concerns the hagiographic plays created for the Salesian educational stages in the years between 1950 and 1965, especially those regarding the lives of young saints Agnes and Domenico Savio. The article concludes that the Salesian plays on the lives of the saints, far from constituting a mere exercise in hagiography, had a definite educational goal which applied to both performers and audiences in the specific times of Italy’s reconstruction and the cold war.

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