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The Tools of Science: Dialectics and Children's Literature

Julia L. Mickenberg

in Learning from the Left: Children's Literature, the Cold War, and Radical Politics in the United States

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 ... More

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.Less

American gun rights: from national defense to self-defense

Justin A. Joyce

in Gunslinging justice: The American culture of gun violence in Westerns and the law

Equally important to the development of American law, as well as the Western's imagination of gunslinging heroics, is the constitutional guarantee of gun possession, a guarantee explored in this ... More

Equally important to the development of American law, as well as the Western's imagination of gunslinging heroics, is the constitutional guarantee of gun possession, a guarantee explored in this chapter by examining key Supreme Court cases. This chapter argues that the modified conception of defense, from a collective duty to an individual right, enforces a rhetorical shift to normativity concomitant with the rise of modernity and the formation of dispersed, interrelated networks of power that create individuated subjects, what Michel Foucault has termed “biopower.”Less

Housing for Defense

Sarah Jo Peterson

in Planning the Home Front: Building Bombers and Communities at Willow Run

As the federal government began to release funds for the construction of ships, tanks, and airplanes at industrial centers, the promise of jobs not only sparked mass migrations and created boom ... More

As the federal government began to release funds for the construction of ships, tanks, and airplanes at industrial centers, the promise of jobs not only sparked mass migrations and created boom communities but also highlighted the importance of adequate housing for the workers. On the eve of World War II, two competing plans for housing industrial workers emerged. Some favored large-scale developments that combined neighborhood planning and the mass production of apartments and row houses, but Pierre Blouke, architectual advisor to the federal government’s Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC), argued that the focus should be on improving the design of small houses and developing economical construction methods. As mobilization for national defense began to accelerate, conflicts arose. The protagonists ranged from the Federal Housing Administration to the CIO unions, particularly the United Auto Workers (UAW) which supported the “Camden Plan” proposed by union leaders but also suggested its own housing model called Defense City.Less

The Market-To-Military Trend

in In Defense of Japan: From the Market to the Military in Space Policy

This chapter discusses the theme of this book, which is about the market-to-military trend in Japan's space policy. The book examines the range of systems Japan has and is developing with its space ... More

This chapter discusses the theme of this book, which is about the market-to-military trend in Japan's space policy. The book examines the range of systems Japan has and is developing with its space technologies that can be used for its national defense goals, and identifies the key players in the militarization of space technologies. It also argues that as the security discourse in Japan has changed, this market-to-military trend has begun to be reflected in the national space strategy.Less

Dangerously Unstable

William J. Rust

in Before the Quagmire: American Intervention in Laos, 1954-1961

Divisions among the non-communist Lao politicians, a disciplined slate of Pathet Lao and leftist candidates, and the failure of Booster Shot to achieve its objectives lead to a May 1958 election ... More

Divisions among the non-communist Lao politicians, a disciplined slate of Pathet Lao and leftist candidates, and the failure of Booster Shot to achieve its objectives lead to a May 1958 election debacle for conservatives in the kingdom. Eisenhower administration officials, convinced of the need for a new generation of anti-communist leaders in the RLG, provided covert support for the Committtee for the Defense of National Interests (CDNI). Comprising younger, better-educated civilian elites and backed by elements of the Lao army, the CDNI became a powerful political force that helped depose Prime Minister Souvanna Phouma and his successor, Phoui Sananikone. The leading CDNI figure is Phoumi Nosavan, a CIA protégé and ardent anti-communist. This chapter includes biographic sketches of American Ambassador Horace Smith and Henry Hecksher, the CIA chief of station in Vientiane.Less

“A Draft-Dodging Business”: Manpower Channeling, 1955–1965

Amy J. Rutenberg

in Rough Draft: Cold War Military Manpower Policy and the Origins of Vietnam-Era Draft Resistance

This chapter explores the creation of anti-poverty programs that functioned through the military manpower procurement system. Military resources were tapped to fight the War on Poverty and the War on ... More

This chapter explores the creation of anti-poverty programs that functioned through the military manpower procurement system. Military resources were tapped to fight the War on Poverty and the War on Poverty was used to staff the military. Civilian rehabilitation programs identified clients through the system used to conscript soldiers. The Pentagon’s Project 100,000 drafted men otherwise unqualified for military service into the armed forces, ostensibly to offer them skills they could use to become successful breadwinners in their civilian lives. Civilian rehabilitation programs and Project 100,000 both were based on the assumption that useful men financially supported their families. Both explicitly tied breadwinner masculinity to citizenship in the name of national defense. And both specifically targeted poor and minority men, overtly tying this constituency to the military to the exclusion of wealthier (white) men.Less

How to Tell a Permanent War Story

Joseph Darda

in Empire of Defense: Race and the Cultural Politics of Permanent War

This chapter returns to the Korean War to locate the genesis of the idea of defense. The architects of the war remade the American empire for an anticolonial age by designating its enemies ... More

This chapter returns to the Korean War to locate the genesis of the idea of defense. The architects of the war remade the American empire for an anticolonial age by designating its enemies illegitimate for ideological rather than racial reasons, reframing wars fought along the color line as antiracist defense. This story begins with the National Security Council, which, three years after its formation, in the spring of 1950, drafted National Security Council Report 68 and delivered it to President Harry Truman. The NSC struggled to resolve the internal tensions of imperial defense by dividing the world into human, deferred human, and nonhuman categories of being—reframing war as either the endless policing of illegitimate societies or the conversion of “friendlies” to the West’s liberal democratic values. Some writers, including radical journalist I. F. Stone and antiracist activist William Patterson, met the Cold War state on its own terms by drawing out the contradictions in official accounts of the Korean War, demonstrating how to tell a permanent war story through the contradictions and failures of the idea of defense.Less

The War Years

Joan C. Tonn

in Mary P. Follett: Creating Democracy, Transforming Management

On February 10, 1917, Pauline Agassiz Shaw died at the age of seventy-six. Shaw's death brought sorrow and anxiety to Mary P. Follett and her partner Isabella Louisa Briggs. Shaw had provided seed ... More

On February 10, 1917, Pauline Agassiz Shaw died at the age of seventy-six. Shaw's death brought sorrow and anxiety to Mary P. Follett and her partner Isabella Louisa Briggs. Shaw had provided seed money for many of Follett's social and civic projects, and her loss came at a time when Follett was trying to raise funds for the new National Community Centers Association (NCCA). In the spring of 1917, Follett decided to write a chronicle of the community centers movement and raised funds to support the NCCA's contributions to the war effort. The NCCA was one of many social and civic groups enthusiastically supporting the United States's mobilization for World War I, such as assisting the Council of National Defense in gaining direct access to the nation's educators. Meanwhile, after an initial misunderstanding with Follett, Roscoe Pound, dean of the Harvard Law School, helped her finish her book The New State, published in 1918.Less

Why Confusion? Why the Commune?

Peter Starr

in Commemorating Trauma: The Paris Commune and Its Cultural Aftermath

Historians have generally seen the French declaration of war against Prussia on July 19, 1870, as doubly determined. From its inception, the Government of National Defense took as its primary ... More

Historians have generally seen the French declaration of war against Prussia on July 19, 1870, as doubly determined. From its inception, the Government of National Defense took as its primary objective the establishment of peace with Prussia; in this it was faithful to the will of both the peasantry and the provincial ruling class. But when Parisians learned on October 31 that Thiers was on the verge of signing an armistice with Prussia, large numbers took to the streets. Internally, the Commune was plagued by deep uncertainties as to where power effectively lay, with the Central Committee of the National Guard, the mayors of the twenty arrondissements, the Commune itself, and the Committee of Public Safety all staking their claims.Less

Introduction

Sarah Jo Peterson

in Planning the Home Front: Building Bombers and Communities at Willow Run

During World War II, the city of Detroit played a key role in national defense. The hometown of one of the world’s manufacturing giants, Detroit was the site of the Ford Motor Company’s Willow Run ... More

During World War II, the city of Detroit played a key role in national defense. The hometown of one of the world’s manufacturing giants, Detroit was the site of the Ford Motor Company’s Willow Run Bomber Plant, which became one of the most famous industrial facilities of the war, and would soon earn the monicker “Arsenal of Democracy.” Located twenty-five miles to the west, in mostly rural Washtenaw County near Ypsilanti Township, Willow Run mass-produced sophisticated four-engine “bombing airplanes” to be used by the United States during the war. This book tells the story of the Willow Run Bomber Plant and how the federal government mobilized the American home front. It explores how Willow Run figured prominently in the federal government’s mobilization efforts during the defense and early war years and its role in industrial expansion, migration, and suburbanization, as well as democracy, federalism, and participatory planning during the period.Less

/ Surviving the Peace: Economic War, 1919–1922

Kathryn Steen

in The American Synthetic Organic Chemicals Industry: War and Politics, 1910-1930

This chapter describes the conditions of the synthetic organic chemicals industry in the United States after World War I, with particular emphasis on the years 1919–1922. More specifically, it ... More

This chapter describes the conditions of the synthetic organic chemicals industry in the United States after World War I, with particular emphasis on the years 1919–1922. More specifically, it examines the domestic industry's strategy to win the postwar economic contest over Germany. It also considers the creative public-private cooperation designed specifically to aid the industry, and how the continuing resentment toward Germany and German Americans benefited the manufacturers. Finally, the chapter discusses the industry's call for promotional policies in the name of national defense; the industry's mobilization of political support in the wake of the war; and the help provided by Congress and other government agencies to manufacturers.Less

Channeling Womanpower: Maternalism and World War I Mobilization

Lynn Dumenil

in The Second Line of Defense: American Women and World War I

This chapter examines women's voluntary associations' role in mobilization. It examining the Women's Committee of the Council of National Defense, the Young Women's Christian Association, the Woman's ... More

This chapter examines women's voluntary associations' role in mobilization. It examining the Women's Committee of the Council of National Defense, the Young Women's Christian Association, the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, the National Association of Colored Women, and the American Red Cross, it analyzes the way in which women activists conjoined the war emergency to their own goals of staking their claim to full citizenship, and continuing their reform agendas begun in the Progressive reform era. As they did so, white women invoked “maternalism” and emphasized the instrumental role that women played in protecting the family. African American activists similarly focused on the centrality of women citizens, but did so in the specific context of racial uplift. Their engagement in meaningful war work encouraged them to view the war – over optimistically as it turned out – as an opportunity to achieve both long-standing reform goals and an enhanced role for women in public life.Less

The Navy and Unification

in From Hot War to Cold: The U.S. Navy and National Security Affairs, 1945–1955

This chapter focuses on the issue of military unification. By 1944, the Army and the Army Air Forces strongly supported the unification of the services, while the Navy and Marine Corps firmly opposed ... More

This chapter focuses on the issue of military unification. By 1944, the Army and the Army Air Forces strongly supported the unification of the services, while the Navy and Marine Corps firmly opposed it. Although the heat generated by this interservice dispute might lead one to believe that this had been a longstanding disagreement, such was not the case. In fact, for most of the interwar period, the Army and Navy had been united in their opposition to military unification. The Navy's concern that if it were forced into a unified department with the Army, its air arm at best would be subsumed by the Army Air Forces as a minor aviation element, and at worst would be eliminated entirely, appeared a highly realistic one. Other Navy concerns, such as those relating to how national defense policy and military strategy would be effectively created and managed under a system guided by a single Chief of Staff and a Joint General Staff, were forming but were still largely inchoate at this time. They would become fully formed and much more prominent during 1945.Less

Scaring Up Money for College: How the Politics of Crisis Set the Stage for Gender-Egalitarian Student Aid

Deondra Rose

in Citizenship By Degree: U.S. Higher Education Policy and the Changing Gender Dynamics of American Citizenship

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 ... More

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.Less

Devising “Constructive Peacetime Uses”

Scott Christianson

in The Last Gasp: The Rise and Fall of the American Gas Chamber

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 ... More

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.Less