Rethinking the 1950s

Abstract

Historians generally portray the 1950s as a conservative era when anticommunism and the Cold War subverted domestic reform, crushed political dissent, and ended liberal dreams of social democracy. These years, historians tell us, represented a turn to the right, a negation of New Deal liberalism, an end to reform. Jennifer A. Delton argues that, far from subverting the New Deal state, anticommunism and the Cold War enabled, fulfilled, and even surpassed the New Deal's reform agenda. Anticommunism solidified liberal political power and the Cold War justified liberal goals such as jobs creation, corporate regulation, economic redevelopment, and civil rights. She shows how despite President Eisenhower's professed conservativism, he maintained the highest tax rates in US history, expanded New Deal programs, and supported major civil rights reforms.

The International Context of Democratic Backsliding: Rethinking the Role of Third Wave “Prodemocracy” Global Actors

“…This made it imperative to present American democracy to the world in the best possible light, as the US could serve as a beacon to those fighting Soviet totalitarianism only to the extent that it lived up to the principles it claimed to stand and fight for. The Soviets called out American racism in their propaganda, while US diplomats understood that their ability to promote democracy and capitalism in the (largely nonwhite) developing world depended on progress on racial injustice back home (Delton 2013). The extension of democracy at home thus became key to bolstering America’s global prestige and influence (Borstelmann 2009).…”

The Fiscal Revolution in America: A Reinterpretation

“…Kevin Mattson and Jennifer Delton have disputed the idea that the Eisenhower presidency ushered in a more conservative climate in the 1950s 180. This analysis of postwar fiscal policy has shown how liberalism's heyday in the mid-1960s had powerful and daring Keynesian roots.…”