Overview

In the mid-twentieth century, Cold War liberalism exerted a profound influence on the US state, US foreign policy, and liberal thought across the North Atlantic world. The essays in this volume examine the history of this important ideology from a variety of perspectives. Whereas most prior works that analyze Cold War liberalism have focused on small groupings of canonical intellectuals, this book explores how the ideology transformed politics, society, and culture writ large. From impacting US foreign policy in the Middle East, to influencing the ideological contours of industrial society, to reshaping the urban landscape of Los Angeles, Cold War liberalism left an indelible mark on modern history. This collection also illuminates the degree to which Cold War liberalism continues to shape how intellectuals and policymakers understand and approach the world.

Full Product Details

Author:   Daniel Bessner (University of Washington) ,  Michael Brenes (Yale University, Connecticut)
Publisher:   Cambridge University Press
Imprint:   Cambridge University Press
Weight:   0.500kg
ISBN:  

9781009448680

ISBN 10:   1009448684
Pages:   282
Publication Date:   31 January 2026
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Forthcoming
Availability:   Not yet available, will be POD  
This item is yet to be released. You can pre-order this item and we will dispatch it to you upon it's release. This is a print on demand item which is still yet to be released.

Table of Contents

List of Figures; List of Contributors; Acknowledgements; 1. Introduction: Cold War Liberalism in Historical Perspective Daniel Bessner; 2. Free World Leadership and the Limits of Liberalism Peter Slezkine; 3. Precursors, Practitioners, and Legacies of Cold War Liberalism in the Middle East Joshua Donovan; 4. Walter Lippmann: The Cold War Liberal as Conservative Isolationist Mark Edwards; 5. Catholic Internationalism and American Empire: The Cold War Liberalism of William Pfaff Christopher Schaefer; 6. The Productive Character: Cold War Liberal Social Psychology from Totalitarianism to Entrepreneurship Erik Baker; 7. Cold War Liberalism or Socialist Revisionism?: Transatlantic Sociology, 'Industrial Society,' and the Antitotalitarian Style between France and America David Sessions; 8. 'Slavery Old and New': Cold War Liberals in the Global Forced Labor Debate, 1947–1953 Emma Kuby; 9. The City That Could Have Been: Planning Los Angeles for the Postwar Era C. Kaye Rawlings; 10. Richard Hofstadter and the Demonology of the Cold War Right Daniel Smith and Anton Jäger; 11. Conservatives in a 'Liberal Age': Rethinking the Neoconservative Turn in the 1960s Michael Brenes and Michael Franczak; 12. The Non-Communist Boom: The Transformation of Carlos Fuentes and the Democratic Left in Latin America, 1959–1990 Andrés Sánchez-Padilla; 13. Afterword Samuel Moyn; Bibliography; Index.

Reviews

'This cohesive and highly readable collection skillfully dissects Cold War liberalism and charts its morphing into post-Cold War neoliberalism. Bessner and Brenes have brought together a brilliant array of scholars, who collectively identify the myriad problems Cold War liberals created and the troubling legacy so evident today.' David Milne, University of East Anglia 'This sharp and coherent collection makes a valuable contribution to the historiography of Cold War liberalism. Through a series of thoughtful and well-crafted essays, it shows how liberal thinkers—deeply wary of mass politics—were often willing to compromise liberal principles in defense of liberal goals.' Helena Rosenblatt, The Graduate Center, City University of New York

Author Information

Daniel Bessner is the Anne H. H. and Kenneth B. Pyle Associate Professor in American Foreign Policy in the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies, University of Washington. He is the author of Democracy in Exile: Hans Speier and the Rise of the Defense Intellectual; the co-editor, with Michael Brenes, of Rethinking US World Power: Domestic Histories of US Foreign Relations; and the co-editor, with Nicolas Guilhot, of The Decisionist Imagination: Sovereignty, Social Science, and Democracy in the 20th Century. Michael Brenes is the co-director of the Brady-Johnson Program in Grand Strategy and Lecturer in History at Yale University. He has authored and edited several books, including For Might and Right: Cold War Defense Spending and the Remaking of American Democracy and, with Daniel Bessner, Rethinking US World Power: Domestic Histories of US Foreign Relations.

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