Description
Notions of Communism, blackness, and insanity were interchangeably deployed during the Cold War to discount activism such as Robeson's, just a part of an array of social and cultural practices that author Tony Perucci calls the Cold War performance complex. Focusing on two key Robeson performances—the concerts in Peekskill, New York, in 1949 and his appearance before the House Committee on Un-American Activities in 1956—Perucci demonstrates how these performances and the government's response to them are central to understanding the history of Cold War culture in the United States. His book provides a transformative new perspective on how the struggle over the politics of performance in the 1950s was also a domestic struggle over freedom and equality. The book closely examines both of these performance events as well as artifacts from Cold War culture—including congressional documents, FBI files, foreign policy papers, the popular literature on mental illness, and government propaganda films—to study the operation of power and activism in American Cold War culture.
Book Information
ISBN 9780472051687
Author Tony Perucci
Format Paperback
Page Count 232
Imprint The University of Michigan Press
Publisher The University of Michigan Press
Weight(grams) 380g