Postwar America Research Articles

The Jews of Summer: Summer Camp and Jewish Culture in Postwar America by Sandra Fox (review)

The Jews of Summer: Summer Camp and Jewish Culture in Postwar America by Sandra Fox (review)

Fit Citizens: A History of Black Women's Exercise from Post-Reconstruction to Postwar America

Fit Citizens: A History of Black Women's Exercise from Post-Reconstruction to Postwar America

Sequentialized Samson: Five postwar (1949–1956) comic retellings of the Judges’’ tale

This essay examines comic book adaptations of the biblical story of Samson within the socio-political context of post-World War II and Cold War America. Challenging the notion that religious narratives in comics are inherently conservative, this study employs a history of interpretation approach to analyze five different adaptations, each illuminating the era’s complex cultural landscape. Themes such as distrust, binary morality, the value of duty over individualism, defiant autonomy, and nuanced masculinity are explored, revealing how these comics were not merely religious retellings but cultural artifacts shaped by the broader societal concerns of the late 1940s and 1950s. The paper argues that comic creators were acutely influenced by Cold War-era ideologies and anxieties, thus adapting the Samson narrative to address contemporary challenges. The essay contributes to the understanding of comics as both interpretive tools for ancient narratives and reflective historical documents of postwar America.

The Market Life of Japanese Literature in Postwar America: Knopf, Translation, and the Archives of Cultural Commerce

This article examines the aesthetic and economic forms of judgment that guided the Japanese literature translation program at the American publisher Alfred A. Knopf Inc. in the 1950s—1970s. During these years, the editor Harold Strauss coordinated Knopf’s ambitious translation program that made dozens of recently written Japanese novels available in English to an American audience. This article provides a fresh perspective on Knopf’s well-known Japanese literature translation program by understanding it to be an illuminating case study that reveals how the practical business of cultural commerce mixes aesthetic and economic modes of valuation, producing provocative connections that link what might otherwise seem to be the antagonistic realms of art and the market. Guided by documents held in the Knopf corporate archive, the article shows how the aesthetics of modern Japanese literature and the economics of publishing each encountered the other in the transactional territory of translation.

The Jews of Summer: Summer Camp and Jewish Culture in Postwar America by Sandra Fox (review)

The Jews of Summer: Summer Camp and Jewish Culture in Postwar America by Sandra Fox (review)

RELOOKING BEAT GENERATION AND THE SPIRIT OF REBELLION IN HOWL

In the history of American Literature, the Beat Generation secures a position which defines the spirit of protest in literature. The Beat Generation or Beat Movement was not only a literary movement but also a cultural movement that spearheaded several counter-cultural movements in the second half of twentieth-century America. This essay explores and examines the rebellious traits of the Beat Generation by addressing their style, technique, language and content. While the Beats were against the conformist values of post-war America, they also challenged the established traditional values. These challenges and protests are studied by analysing Allen Ginsberg’s poem “Howl”. As “Howl” marked the beginning of a new era in literature. The poem is not only rebellious in style or content, but it paved the way to an end to censorship of literary texts. The paper briefly delves into the history of the movement and how it corresponds with the content of the “Howl”.

Inventing Exceptional Religion: U.S. Catholics and Cognitive Disability in Postwar America

Inventing Exceptional Religion: U.S. Catholics and Cognitive Disability in Postwar America

Rocking in the Free World: Popular Music and the Politics of Freedom in Postwar America by Nicholas Tochka (review)

Rocking in the Free World: Popular Music and the Politics of Freedom in Postwar America by Nicholas Tochka (review)

A Righteous Smokescreen: Postwar America and the Politics of Cultural Globalization

A Righteous Smokescreen: Postwar America and the Politics of Cultural Globalization

Women in Post-World War II America: Portrayals, Stereotypes, and Challenges

This essay examines the portrayal of women in post-World War II America, focusing on the perpetuation of gender stereotypes and challenges faced by women in the era. Through historical and visual analysis of primary sources, namely a Coca-Cola poster and the iconic V-J Day in Times Square photograph, the study reveals the complexities underlying societal attitudes towards women during this transformative period. The Coca-Cola poster exemplifies the idealized image of women as submissive caregivers, despite their growing role in the workforce. Similarly, the analysis of the V-J Day photograph unveils the contrast between the perceived romance and the reality of non-consensual interaction, shedding light on the evolving understanding of consent and the limitations of prevailing gender norms. By juxtaposing historical context and visual representation, this research underscores the nuanced interplay between media imagery and the evolving societal roles of women in post-war America. The study contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of the challenges and representations women faced in shaping the post-war landscape.

The Jews of Summer: Summer Camp and Jewish Culture in Postwar America by Sandra Fox (review)

The Jews of Summer: Summer Camp and Jewish Culture in Postwar America by Sandra Fox (review)

Transatlantic Modern Consumerisms: Italian Goods and Commercial Cultures in Postwar America, 1949–1972

Transatlantic Modern Consumerisms: Italian Goods and Commercial Cultures in Postwar America, 1949–1972

Robert T. Chase. We Are Not Slaves: State Violence, Coerced Labor, and Prisoners’ Rights in Postwar America.

Robert T. Chase. <i>We Are Not Slaves: State Violence, Coerced Labor, and Prisoners’ Rights in Postwar America</i>.

Cybernetics in Kurt Vonnegut’s Player Piano

In Player Piano (1952), Kurt Vonnegut depicts individuals who fall prey to a dominating cybernetics system that amplifies its influence through computers, consumer culture, and the advertising sector in post-war America. The article explores the concept of cybernetics in Player Piano, which reduces people to sentient machines and mindless bodies. Player Piano is an attempt to use machine analogies to make sense of complex systems. It is difficult to depict a cosmos that is predetermined and gives humans no free will.

"Conscientious Guardian" vs. "Commercialized Jungle": Pharmacists and Pharmacy Design in the Postwar United States.

Pharmacists and pharmacies are key drivers in the American marketplace. They serve as an endpoint of the pharmaceutical supply chain and are the dispensers of a range of consumer goods, some nonthreatening and others potentially harmful to public health. In adding pharmacies to the roster of consumerist locales in the postwar period, scholars might draw even deeper connections about the transformation of health, corporate medicine, and American economic power. To understand the interface of consumerism, corporatism, and health in postwar America, this article holds the postwar pharmacy as a key site of commodity exchange and business and positions it within the larger American firmament, paying attention to the design of pharmacies. In particular, the article will add to the knowledge about the tangible ways that medical and health care spaces are constructed, organized, and designed to best generate profits. Besides prescription medications, alcohol, tobacco, and sugar-rich products were also vital elements of the postwar pharmacy and will be featured in this article. What is more, this article focuses on a central debate between pharmacists during the postwar period about how pharmacies were shifting from the role of healer to that of a retailer - from a "conscientious guardian" to a "commercialized jungle" - in order to highlight how the public health role of pharmacies was undermined by industry pressures for profit. Based on unused corporate guides and manuals, company records, photographs, and management documents, this article will spotlight the underexplored interiority of pharmacies - the store's insides, processes of organization, and design features related to potentially habit-changing substances.

“It Will Be Our Job to Make Them Workers”: Child Labor and Youth Employment in Postwar America

“It Will Be Our Job to Make Them Workers”: Child Labor and Youth Employment in Postwar America

:The Editor Function: Literary Publishing in Postwar America

:<i>The Editor Function: Literary Publishing in Postwar America</i>

Sandra Fox: The Jews of Summer: Summer Camp and Jewish Culture in Postwar America

Sandra Fox: The Jews of Summer: Summer Camp and Jewish Culture in Postwar America

On Gary Snyder’s Tradaptation of &lt;em&gt;Cold Mountain Poems&lt;/em&gt; and its Spiritual Salvation and Literary Enlightenment in Postwar America

On Gary Snyder’s Tradaptation of &lt;em&gt;Cold Mountain Poems&lt;/em&gt; and its Spiritual Salvation and Literary Enlightenment in Postwar America

The Jews of Summer: Summer Camps and Jewish Culture in Postwar America by Sandra Fox (review)

The Jews of Summer: Summer Camps and Jewish Culture in Postwar America by Sandra Fox (review)