The nursery'sIronCurtain: Children, childhood, and the globalColdWar

Abstract

This essay surveys recent literature on children, childhood, and the Cold War. Over the past decade or so, numerous studies have explored the complex ways in which children and young people both bolstered and challenged the Cold War order. In doing so, they have shed new light on the social and cultural dynamics of the Cold War, encouraged historians to recover formerly marginalized voices, and expanded our definition of politics to include arenas far removed from the formal halls of power. Moreover, looking at youth has revealed striking similarities between the two superpowers whose rivalry defined the latter half of the 20th century.