Divided Dreamworlds?
The Cultural Cold War in East and West
9789089644367
248 pages
Amsterdam University Press
Overview
While the divide between capitalism and communism, embodied in the image of the Iron Curtain, seemed to be as wide and definitive as any cultural rift, Giles Scott-Smith, Joes Segal, and Peter Romijn have compiled a selection of essays on how culture contributed to the blurring of ideological boundaries between the East and the West. This important and diverse volume presents fascinating insights into the tensions, rivalries, and occasional cooperation between the two blocs, with essays that represent the cutting edge of Cold War Studies and analyze aesthetic preferences and cultural phenomena as various as interior design in East and West Germany; the Soviet stance on genetics; US cultural diplomacy during and after the Cold War; and the role of popular music as the universal cultural ambassador.An illuminating and wide-ranging survey of interrelated collective dreams from both sides of the Iron Curtain, Divided Dreamworlds? has a place on the bookshelf of any modern historian.
Author Bio
Peter Romijn is a historian, Head of Research at NIOD, and part-time Professor of Twentieth-Century History at the University of Amsterdam.Joes Segal is chief curator of the Wende Museum in Los Angeles and Assistant Professor of Cultural History at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands.
