This article examines the politics of communication between British and West German protesters against nuclear weapons in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The interpretation suggested here historicises the assumptions of 'transnational history' and shows the nationalist and internationalist dimensions of the protest movements' histories to be inextricably connected. Both movements related their own aims to global and international problems. Yet they continued to observe the world from their individual perspectives: national, regional and local forms thus remained important. By illuminating the interaction between political traditions, social developments and international relations in shaping important political movements within two European societies, this article can provide one element of a new connective social history of the cold war.In the late 1950s and early 1960s, protesters against nuclear weapons campaigned for the fate of the world. The supporters of the British Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), for example, solemnly 'pledged [them]selves to this, the common cause of mankind'. 1 In a similar vein the British writer and CND supporter Robert St Peter's College, Oxford, OX1 2DL, UK. holger.nehring@spc.ox.ac.uk. 1
Around the world, social movements have become legitimate, yet contested, actors in local, national and global politics and civil society, yet we still know relatively little about their longer histories and the trajectories of their development. This series seeks to promote innovative historical research on the history of social movements in the modern period since around 1750. We bring together conceptually-informed studies that analyse labour movements, new social movements and other forms of protest from early modernity to the present. We conceive of 'social movements' in the broadest possible sense, encompassing social formations that lie between formal organisations and mere protest events. We also offer a home for studies that systematically explore the political, social, economic and cultural conditions in which social movements can emerge. We are especially interested in transnational and global perspectives on the history of social movements, and in studies that engage critically and creatively with political, social and sociological theories in order to make historically grounded arguments about social movements. This new series seeks to offer innovative historical work on social movements, while also helping to historicise the concept of 'social movement'. It hopes to revitalise the conversation between historians and historical sociologists in analysing what Charles Tilly has called the 'dynamics of contention'.
This article compares the ways in which Cold War culture in general and 'nuclear culture' in particular framed British and West German anti-nuclear-weapons campaigns in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Rather than interpreting the movements as protests against nuclear weapons only, this article suggests that the movements mounted a more fundamental resistance against the Cold War's effects on international relations, politics and society. In order to express this resistance, the protesters in both countries revitalised very specific national protest traditions. In exploring the relationship between Cold War culture and political traditions, the article highlights the ambiguities of Cold War culture in Britain and West Germany.This article aims to explore Cold War culture in general and 'nuclear culture' in particular by examining the protests against nuclear weapons in Britain and West Germany in the late 1950s and early 1960s. For the purposes of the article, 'culture' is conceptualised broadly as the pool of experiences out of which social actors supply themselves in order to endow their actions with meaning. 1 The article is, therefore, not concerned with cultural products, but with the interactions between social actions, politics and meaning. It is argued that the movements were protests against the Cold War in general and the effects the Cold War had (in the eyes of the protesters) on international relations, nation states, politics and society in particular. In order to make sense of the world around them, the protesters tapped different political traditions. But there was no agreement, even amongst the protesters in either country, about what meaning this resistance was supposed to have.
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