A Choice Outstanding Academic Title of the Year
How the fight for civil rights in America became an important front in the Cold War
In 1958, an African American handyman named Jimmy Wilson was sentenced to die in Alabama for stealing less than two dollars. Shocking as this sentence was, it was overturned only after intense international attention and the interference of Secretary of State John Foster Dulles. Soon after World War II, American racism became a major concern of US allies, a chief Soviet propaganda theme, and an obstacle to American Cold War goals throughout Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Racial segregation undermined the American image, harming foreign relations in every administration from Truman to Johnson. Mary Dudziak shows how the Cold War helped to facilitate desegregation and other key social reforms at home as the United States sought to polish its image abroad, yet how a focus on appearances over substance limited the nature and extent of progress. Cold War Civil Rights situates the Cold War in civil rights history while giving an international perspective to the fight for racial justice in America.
| ISBN: | 9780691274348 |
| Publication date: | 17th June 2025 |
| Author: | Mary L Dudziak |
| Publisher: | Princeton University Press |
| Format: | Hardback |
| Pagination: | 360 pages |
| Series: | Politics and Society in Twentieth-Century America |
| Genres: |
History of the Americas Diplomacy General and world history |
A Choice Outstanding Academic Title of the Year
How the fight for civil rights in America became an important front in the Cold War
In 1958, an African American handyman named Jimmy Wilson was sentenced to die in Alabama for stealing less than two dollars. Shocking as this sentence was, it was overturned only after intense international attention and the interference of Secretary of State John Foster Dulles. Soon after World War II, American racism became a major concern of US allies, a chief Soviet propaganda theme, and an obstacle to American Cold War goals throughout Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Racial segregation undermined the American image, harming foreign relations in every administration from Truman to Johnson. Mary Dudziak shows how the Cold War helped to facilitate desegregation and other key social reforms at home as the United States sought to polish its image abroad, yet how a focus on appearances over substance limited the nature and extent of progress. Cold War Civil Rights situates the Cold War in civil rights history while giving an international perspective to the fight for racial justice in America.
Cold War Civil Rights features in the following genres: History of the Americas, Diplomacy, General and world history
Cold War Civil Rights is available in Hardback, Paperback, Ebook
Cold War Civil Rights was written by Mary L Dudziak and published by Princeton University Press
Cold War Civil Rights has 360 pages
Yes it is part of Politics and Society in Twentieth-Century America series