2.1 postwar america
TRANSCRIPT
Postwar America and the Cold War
Art 109A: Art Since 1945 Westchester Community College Fall 2012 Dr. Melissa Hall
Postwar America On May 7, 1945, Germany surrendered to Allied forces, bringing the war in Europe to an end
New York Times, May 8, 1945 Image source: hRp://wb9otx.blogspot.com/2011/05/ve-‐day.html
Time Magazine cover, May 7, 1945 Image source: hRp://www.Xme.com/Xme/covers/0,16641,19450507,00.html
Postwar America Just three months later the world’s first atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
American newspapers announcing the dropping of the Atomic bomb, and the surrender of Japan Image source: hRp://blogs.knoxnews.com/munger/2010/08/oak-‐ridge-‐celebrates-‐v-‐j-‐day-‐a.html
Nagasaki bomb strike, August 9, 1945 Image source: hRp://www.presidenXalXmeline.org/html/educators/HST/atomicbomb_wq/
Postwar America Americans took to the streets in spontaneous VJ Day celebraXons
New Yorkers Celebrate VJ Day: Americans celebrate Japan's surrender. August 17, 1945 Image source: hRp://www.history.com/photos/end-‐of-‐world-‐war-‐ii/photo7
Photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt in Times Square on VJ-‐Day, 1945 Image source: Wikipedia
Postwar America
President Harry S. Truman making a radio broadcast to Armed Forces on April 17, 1945 Image source: hRp://popartmachine.com/item/pop_art/LOC+1074256/%5BHARRY-‐S.-‐TRUMAN,-‐HEAD-‐AND-‐SHOULDERS,-‐FACING-‐RIGHT,-‐MAKING-‐RADIO...
Time Magazine cover, May 7, 1945 Image source: hRp://www.Xme.com/Xme/covers/0,16641,19450507,00.html
"This is the day we have been waiXng for since Pearl Harbor. This is the day when Fascism finally dies, as we always knew it would.” President Harry S. Truman
Postwar America
Time magazine cover of a special issue on the death of Osama bin Laden, May 5, 2011. The magazine says it is the fourth cover in Time’s history to feature the red “X.” Other covers showed Adolf Hitler on May 7, 1945, Saddam Hussein on April 21, 2003, and Abu Musab al-‐Zarqawi on June 19, 2006. (AP Photo/Time) Read more: hRp://www.thestate.com/2011/05/04/1804626/white-‐house-‐bin-‐laden-‐was-‐unarmed.html#ixzz1OheUfcwg
Who do Americans regard as “evil” today?
Time Magazine cover depicXng Saddam Hussein April 21, 2003
Postwar America There were other reasons to celebrate:
• The economic hardships of the Depression were over
• America was now the richest naXon in the world
V-‐J Day, Oak Ridge, August 14, 1945Photo by Ed WestcoR Image source: hRp://sunsite.utk.edu/westcoR/warends.htm
“While most of Europe and part of Asia suffered extensive physical damage during the war, the United States was untouched. It thus emerged in 1945 with its manufacturing capacity intact and a strong economy generated by years of war producXon.” Lisa Phillips, The American Century, p. 11
Postwar America During the 1940s Detroit’s automobile factories were re-‐fiRed to build tanks, bombers, army trucks, and ordnance
The assembly line at the Chrysler tank arsenal cha Photo: William Vandivert./Time & Life Pictures/GeRy ImagesJan 01, 1942 hRp://www.life.com/image/53373655
“We must have more ships, more guns, more planes – more of everything . . . We must be the great arsenal of democracy.” President Franklin Roosevelt, December 29, 1940
Postwar America
USS Steel Ad, Country gentleman, September 1947 Image source: hRp://www.flickr.com/photos/incidental-‐ephemera/3301076481/
“Going into the war, America had been one of the world’s great powers; by 1945, it was militarily, poliXcally, and economically without equal. By 1947 . . America was producing half the world’s manufactured goods: 57 percent of its steel; 43 percent of its electricity; 62 percent of its oil; and 80 percent of its automobiles. In addiXon, America had a monopoly on the atomic bomb, the most dangerous weapon in the world.” Lisa Phillips, The American Century, p. 11
Postwar America “American economic success hinged on mass consumerism . . . . Americans were urged to go on a shopping spree: buying new cars, suburban homes, washing machines, refrigerators, and television sets.” Erika Doss, TwenBeth Century American Art, Oxford History of Art, Oxford University Press, 2002, p. 125.
Image source: hRp://todaysinspiraXon.blogspot.com/2006/11/axer-‐war-‐suburbia.html
1950 refrigerator ad; image source: hRp://www.marketworks.com/StoreFrontProfiles/DeluxeSFItemDetail.aspx?sid=1&sfid=44192&c=102794&i=231907881
Postwar America Against this backdrop of middle-‐class affluence and prosperity, American society was beset by feelings of anxiety and peril
George Tooker, Subway, 1950 Whitney Museum
“Tooker’s Ka{a-‐esque image captured middle-‐class men and women who formed postwar consensus culture, and showed them oppressed by their own uniformity.” Erika Doss, TwenBeth Century American Art, Oxford History of Art, Oxford University Press, 2002, p. 125.
Postwar America But prosperity came at a cost
Nagasaki bomb strike, August 9, 1945 Image source: hRp://www.presidenXalXmeline.org/html/educators/HST/atomicbomb_wq/
“Peace had been won at the cost of innocence and security. The bomb’s potenXal for total world destrucXon brought home the basic fragility and conXngency of human life as well as the impotence of reason to provide the meaning of existence.” Barbara Haskell, The American Century, p. 353
Postwar America The end of World War II was also the beginning of the Cold War, as the United States and Russia vied for global dominance
Time Magazine cover depicBng Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, February 5, 1945 Image source: hLp://www.Bme.com/Bme/covers/0,16641,19450205,00.html
Postwar America When it was discovered that the Soviets also had the bomb, the annihilaXon of the human race became an imminent reality
Russian Atomic Bomb test, Kazakhstan August 29, 1949 Image source: hRp://www.atomicarchive.com/History/hbomb/page_09.shtml
Postwar America The Office of Civil Defense stocked “fall out shelters,” and provided instrucXons for what to do in case of nuclear aRack
Image source: hRp://www.civildefensemuseum.com/shelsupp.html
Postwar America Guidebooks to building your own family fall out shelter were published
"Fallout shelter built by Louis Severance adjacent to his home near Akron, Michigan NaBonal Archives and Records AdministraBon, Records of the Defense Civil Preparedness Agency hLp://www.archives.gov/exhibits/picturing_the_century/postwar/postwar_img80.html
Postwar America Children were taught to “duck and cover” during school bomb drills
Nuclear air raid drills were part of everyday life for schoolchildren in the late 1940s and early '50s. Children were taught to "duck and cover" under their desks and were herded into school basements for periodic air raid drills From The Detroit News: hRp://apps.detnews.com/apps/history/index.php?id=48#ixzz1OiGw0NK3 Image source: hRp://www.eo}ocus.com/event/image/id/4622/headline/Duck%20and%20Cover/
Duck and Cover 1951 Civil Defense Film with Bert the Turtle hRp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKqXu-‐5jw60
Postwar America Fear of nuclear Armageddon was matched by widespread anxiety about the spread of communism
Cover to the propaganda comic book "Is This Tomorrow"’ Image source: hRp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Is_this_tomorrow.jpg
Mao Tse Tung, Time, Feb 7, 1949
Postwar America The poliXcal acXvism and lex wing sympathies of the 1930s became dangerous in the postwar poliXcal climate
Cover to the propaganda comic book "Is This Tomorrow"’ Image source: hRp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Is_this_tomorrow.jpg
Wiliam Gropper, John Reed Club, 1934 In 1929, the poliXcal cartoonist and painter William Gropper became one of the founding members of the John Reed Club of ArXsts and Writers. This Communist-‐affiliated group . . . believed in creaXng art with explicit social and poliXcal content that would inform workers and encourage the class struggle. The Jewish Museum
Postwar America Fear of Communist expansion led to the the hysteria of the McCarthy era
Hank Walker, Sen. Joseph McCarthy swearing in author Dashiell HammeR at Senate Permanent InvesXgaXng CommiRee hearing on Communism, 1953. HammeR is suspected of being a communist. LIFE
Senator Joseph McCarthy, Time, March 8, 1954
Postwar America The House CommiRee on Un-‐American AcXviXes invesXgated thousands of ordinary ciXzens suspected of Communist sympathies
Ronald Reagan tesXfying at JUAC hearing Image source: hRp://theomahaproject.org/module_display.php?mod_id=44&review=yes
Ronald Reagan had been a long-‐Xme opponent of Communism and as President of the Screen Actor’s Guild (SAG) cooperated with the House Un-‐American AcXviXes CommiRee’s inquiry into the potenXal infiltraXon of Communism into the MoXon Picture industry.
Read a transcript of his tesXmony here: hRp://theomahaproject.org/module_display.php?mod_id=44&review=yes
Postwar America When ten members of the Hollywood industry refused to tesXfy they were cited for contempt
The Hollywood Ten in November 1947 waiXng to be fingerprinted Image source: hRp://www.al}g.com/blog/censorship/the-‐hollywood-‐ten-‐remembered/
Postwar America The film industry responded with the “Hollywood Blacklist” -‐-‐ a list of individuals suspected of communist affiliaXons
Dalton Trumbo and his wife Cleo at the 1947 HUAC hearings that resulted in his imprisonment
The Hollywood screenwriter Dalton Trumbull was blacklisted as one of the “Hollywood Ten,” and was imprisoned for his refusal to divulge his poliXcal beliefs at the HUAC hearings in 1947. During the 1950s he wrote under a pseudonym, and won two Academy Awards for Roman Holiday and The Brave One, but the awards were given to the people who “fronted” for him. Christopher Trumbo, “War and Peace (A Sequel),” The Huffington Post, May 20, 2009 hLp://www.huffingtonpost.com/christopher-‐trumbo/war-‐and-‐peace-‐a-‐sequel_b_205501.html
Postwar America ArXsts came under aRack as well
FBI files were kept on arXsts such as Pablo Picasso, Ben Shahn, and other suspected communist sympathizers
FBI File on Pablo Picasso