American Girls and Global Responsibility: A New Relation to the World during the Early Cold War by Jennifer Helgren

Abstract

Reviewed by: American Girls and Global Responsibility: A New Relation to the World during the Early Cold War by Jennifer Helgren Susan Eckelmann Berghel American Girls and Global Responsibility: A New Relation to the World during the Early Cold War. By Jennifer Helgren. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2017. viii + 226 pp. Cloth $59.96. In American Girls and Global Responsibility, Jennifer Helgren tells an empowering history of white, middle-class girls, ages ten to seventeen, as "global ambassadors of world friendship" (83). Building on Sara Fiedston's Raising the World [End Page 463] and Penny Von Eschen's Satchmo Blows Up the World, Helgren convincingly illustrates how American postwar visions promoted teenage girl citizens' "intimate diplomacy" to enhance US global power and advance peaceful relations. The author's ambitious and careful examination of American youth organizations' handbooks, internal memos and meeting records, scrapbooks, pen pal correspondence, and oral histories; Seventeen magazine reprints of girls' essays, stories, plays, and poems; as well as educational textbooks and other pedagogical resources reveals that 1940s and 1950s girl citizens' international friendships and cultural exchanges offered an alternative to traditional notions of maternalism. Broadening the historical periodization of international youth activism, Helgren shows that antimilitarism, antiracism, and decolonization, typically associated with 1960s social movements, already represented important forces in 1950s teenage culture. Chapter 1 traces the shift in American youth culture and democratic education after World War II. Politicians, youth organizers, and educators instructed American girls that international friendship and fighting for equality strengthened American democracy at home as well as abroad. As Americans' racial attitudes changed, postwar girl agencies adopted integration policies and cross-cultural activities. A girl from Nebraska maintained that her generation "could not make the mistakes which our forefathers made" (54). Much of Helgren's narrative focuses on adult-led initiatives. By considering archival repositories beyond teenage magazines and youth organizations like the Girl Scouts, Camp Fire Girls, or YWCA Y-Teens, historians might be rewarded with new discoveries about teenage girls' engagement with political issues and foreign affairs. Scholars looking to include Helgren's work in an undergraduate classroom will find in chapters 2 and 3 effective assignments in engaging students. Both chapters document postwar girls' pen pal correspondence and package projects that supported war-torn nations, sought to reduce conflict, and intended to strengthen America's global image. In chapter 2, Helgren features an archival treasure trove. The six-year correspondence between Elizabeth "Liz" Frank, the Jewish American daughter of a Hollywood producer, and Lore Petzka, a Catholic Viennese girl (whose father served as a former Nazi soldier), represents one of the most illustrative stories of international friendship and reconciliation among postwar girl citizens. Sharing dreams, thoughts, and personal experiences restored a degree of balance and equality to the girls' otherwise uneven friendship. Representing the "Voice of America," adults stressed girls' good manners and flattering descriptions of the American political and economic system. Many girls deviated from these official Cold War scripts when addressing continued racial problems, or worse, exhibited racist attitudes. Girl [End Page 464] agencies' cultural exchanges faced additional obstacles: a lack of resources at times, language barriers, and Cold War anticommunist rebukes. One might wonder just how much information was lost in translation in these written exchanges. Chapter 3 sheds light on American girls' role in reimagining former enemies Japan and Germany. Teenage girls learned to view Japan as "compliant" and "subordinate" in contrast to the United States, the "generous" and "benevolent" superpower (87, 86). Regarding German peers "as victims rather than villains," young Americans were urged to reeducate former Nazi youth (95). Liz Frank's correspondence illustrated her rage toward Hitler, the international symbol of evil, but empathy toward her friend Lore. American youth organizations urged girls to export American consumer values among foreign peers by sharing doll collections, fiction, and recipes. In chapter 4, Helgren asserts that American girls' international involvement pursued two important American Cold War objectives by "showcasing the American good life" and stabilizing foreign markets for American goods. Some peers abroad occasionally commented on American girls' "shallowness." A British girl explained that youth her age "thought for themselves and worked for themselves, whereas American girls had everything done for...