The 1930s Roots of the Postwar “Consensus”
This chapter argues that the postwar decades were characterized less by a fixedconsensus about American political values than by widespread agreement about the needfor such a consensus. It then suggests that the roots of this consensus culture can be found in the turbulent years that preceded U.S. entry into World War II. During this period, diverse American elites worried that fascism and communism constituted a threat to the United States not only abroad but also at home. They were also concerned about the effects of disunity on democratic political culture. As a consequence, these elites came to believe that Americans needed to emphasize their shared political values in order to avoid the social unrest that had ravaged other lands, but did not always agree on the nature of those shared values.