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This chapter takes as its point of departure the launch of the Soviet satellite, Sputnik, in 1957 and the subsequent passage of the National Defense Education Act, which, as part of its program of strengthening math and science education in the United States, also provided libraries with funds for purchasing books in these areas. Although designed to fortify the United States against the Communist menace, the Act helped foster a major market for books by people who were strongly critical of the Cold War, and, in some cases, were Marxists or even current or former Communist Party members. This chapter traces the development of science education and scientific literature for children as these intersected with interest in science among Socialists, Communists, and other Marxists, as well as radicals in general, starting in the early 20th century and continuing through the Cold War. In a repressive cultural climate, scientific themes had the advantage of seeming value-neutral, but in practice proved fertile ground for teaching children to think critically, to question received authority (especially on racial matters), and to feel empowered to influence and change the world around them. The chapter also suggests ways in which Marxism's logic influenced scientific thought and translated into scientific children's literature.

By providing substantial financial support for college students on the basis of need, the National Defense Education Act (NDEA) blazed a trail for gender parity in public support for college students. Chapter 3 explores how lawmakers successfully passed the path-breaking student aid program in 1958 and how it has contributed to women’s educational attainment in subsequent decades. This analysis suggests that women’s incorporation as full citizens under US social policy is rooted in the political development of the NDEA, which was shaped by Cold War politics on the international stage and contention over civil rights on the domestic front. The concerted influence of these factors was central to lawmakers’ success in passing a student assistance program that institutionalized gender-egalitarian support for college students and contributed to a narrowing of the gender gap in higher educational attainment that had been exacerbated by the GI Bill.

This chapter argues that the Cold War context of the late 1950s and early 1960s provided the background for the development (i.e., the funding and need to exist) of the humanistic/nontheological study of religion in the United States.

When World War I ended, the United States shut down its poison gas plants for a time. But General Amos Fries and the chemical industry vowed to fight the dismantling of the precious apparatus they had worked so hard to build. Due to their efforts, despite overwhelming public opinion against gas warfare and strong political opposition from his own commanders, Fries and his allies somehow succeeded in gaining passage of the National Defense Act of 1920, which not only saved the Chemical Warfare Service (CWS) from extinction, but also turned it into a permanent part of the army. Under Fries's leadership, the CWS publicly turned its attention to undertaking cooperative enterprises with various government departments to harness the fruits of wartime gas research in constructive, peaceful ways. A fierce industrial and political battle ensued over one of the world's deadliest and more useful poisons: cyanide. The mining industry relied on cyanide's ability to separate silver, gold, copper, lead, and other ores. Fries and his allies lobbied against America's support for the Geneva Protocol, which sought to outlaw chemical warfare.

This chapter examines the Chemical Warfare Service's (CWS) efforts to improve its public image and its reputation in the military in the first half of the 1920s. It shows that while the National Defense Act preserved the CWS as an organization within the military, it was surrounded by army officers who still had doubts about chemical weapons. It highlights the tenuous relationship between the CWS and the rest of the military that was exacerbated by the financial constraints of the postwar period. It considers the ways that Amos A. Fries and his fellow CWS officers continued to build on the foundations they had laid during the U.S. Army's reorganization crisis and tried to change public opinion with respect to chemical weapons, mainly by cultivating relationships within the military and with civilians in the chemical industry, as the organization struggled to consolidate its gains and carry out its mission in the postwar world.

This chapter examines France’s efforts using the “soft power” of language to maintain a presence particularly in French-speaking Africa, and similar efforts by China in its Belt and Road Initiative to gain an economic foothold in the continent. It discusses the ways in which French president Emmanuel Macron has cultivated France’s relationship with the nations of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, the critical responses of African intellectuals to his strained attempts at navigating the colonial narrative, and his repeated calls promoting linguistic pluralism over a common language in English. It explores China’s “charm initiative” in spreading its language and culture through its Confucius Institutes and Confucius Classrooms and the mounting opposition to those programs for their lack of transparency and limits on academic freedom. It suggests that France and China may be facing renewed competition from the United Kingdom and the United States in the “new scramble” for Africa.