Cultural Heritage II

The Cold War, De-colonization, Civil Rights, and Oil

The Post-WWII Settlements

Germany

Japan

Soviet Union

United States

Founding of United Nations (New York, 1945)

The Cold War (1945-1991): could be essay option on exam (like “causes of WWI”)

Eastern Europe, “The Iron Curtain”

East and West Germany, Berlin Airlift (1948-49); Berlin Wall (1961-1989)

The Marshall Plan

NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization, 1949-) vs. Warsaw Pact, 1955-

The Truman Doctrine of Containment (1947-)

The Domino Theory (Korean War, 1950-53, and Vietnam War, 1965-73)

People’s Republic of China, Chairman Mao, and the “Great Leap Forward”

Joseph McCarthy, “McCarthyism” (1950-54)

Nikita Khrushchev at the U.N. (1956) and Kitchen Debate with Nixon (1959)

ICBMs (Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles)

Cuban Missile Crisis (1962), Fidel Castro and Cuban Revolution (1959); Kennedy Assassination (1963)

The Arms Race, MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction)

Détente (Nixon, 1970s), re-escalation under Ronald Reagan in 1980s

De-colonization (end of British empire, among others)

Philippines (U.S., 1946)

India and Pakistan (Great Britain, 1947), Mohandas Gandhi, dispute over Kashmir (ongoing)

Ceylon, Burma, and Malaya (late 1940s, Great Britain)

Vietnam (France, 1954)

Palestine (Great Britain, 1948): becomes Israel, an international Jewish homeland, against League of Arab States and displaced Palestinians.

Suez Canal (1956, Great Britain loses to Egypt)

Algeria (1962, France)

British Africa (by 1965)

South Africa remained white-dominated (Apartheid) until 1990s.

“The Third World” and the Postcolonial Condition revisited

Discussion?: What do your parents remember about the Cold War? What was it like in the early 60s (e.g., during the Cuban Missile Crisis)? What about service in the Vietnam or Korean wars? What did the soldiers think they were doing? Was that different from what people back home believed? Are there parallels between efforts to contain Communism and the current War on Terror?

Existentialism

Jean Paul Sartre (1905-1980)

Abstract Expressionism

Jackson Pollock (1912-1956)

Pop Art

Andy Warhol (1928-1987)

Global Americanization: Hollywood, Rock n’Roll, Cigarettes, Jeans, Cola, Fast Food.

Feminism and the Women’s Liberation Movement (1950s-Present)

Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986), The Second Sex (1949)

Betty Friedan (1921-2006), The Feminine Mystique (1963)

Birth Control Pill (early 60s), and Abortion Rights (Roe V. Wade, U.S., 1973)

Women Enter the Workplace

Civil Rights Movement (1950s-Present)

Brown vs. Board of Education (1954)

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968)

Malcolm X (1925-1965)

Multiculturalism, Diversity, and Affirmative Action

Student Movement and the New Left (1960s-70s)

Baby Boomers (born 1945-55):

Herbert Marcuse (1898-1979):

Jacques Derrida (1930-2004): opposing Western “logocentrism”

The Counterculture:

Sexual Revolution:

Oil and the Middle East

OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) and Gas Crisis (1973-79)

Iran and the Hostage Crisis (1979-81); Arab objections to Israel and U.S.

Terrorism: PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization)

Stagflation (late 70s):

Postindustrial Society

Medicine:

Discussion: What do your parents remember as the major events on the national and international stages during their lives before you were born? How did their lives differ from those of their parents? What are their hopes for you, and how does history play a role in this? Do you ever worry about what the world will be like for your children? Of the events described on this handout, which one’s have had the biggest impact, do you think?