De-Centering Cold War History challenges the Cold War master narratives that focus on super-power politics by shifting our analytical perspective to include local-level experiences and regional initiatives that were crucial to the making of a Cold War world. Cold War histories are often told as stories of national leaders, state policies and the global confrontation that pitted a Communist Eastern Bloc against a Capitalist West. Taking a new analytical approach this book reveals unexpected complexities in the historical trajectory of the Cold War.

Contributions from an international group of scholars take a fresh look at historical agency in different places across the world, including Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas. This collaborative effort shapes a street-level history of the global Cold War era, one that uses the analysis of the 'local' to rethink and reframe the wider picture of the 'global', connecting the political negotiations of individuals and communities at the intersection of places and of meeting points between 'ordinary' people and political elites to the Cold War at large. Essential reading for all students of Cold War history.

Contents

Introduction (Jadwiga E. Pieper Mooney and Fabio Lanza) Part I: Cold War Activisms: Crossing Borders and Building Bridges 1. Thermonuclear Weapons and Tuna: Testing, Protest, and Knowledge in Japan (Ann Sherif) 2. The Cold War and Transnational Links: Indonesian Women and the Global Anti-Imperialist Movement 1949-1966 (Katharine McGregor) 3. Fighting Fascism and Forging New Political Activism: The Women’s International Democratic Federation (WIDF) in the Cold War (Jadwiga E. Pieper Mooney) Part II: Separating Enemies from Friends: Communism, Anticommunism, and the Construction of Cold War Realities 4. Cold War Happiness: Singing Pioneers, Internal Enemies and Hungarian Life under Stalinism (László Kürti) 5. New Men of Power: Jack Tenney, Ronald Reagan, and Postwar Labommunism (Jennifer Luff) 6. Female Terrorists and Vigilant Citizens. Gender, Citizenship and Cold War Direct Democracy (Dominique Grisard) Part III: Rethinking Opposition and Conformity 7. Making Sense of "China" during the Cold War: Global Maoism and Asian Studies (Fabio Lanza) 8. Anti-Communist Entrepreneurs and the Anti-"Peace" Campaigns in Latin America (Patrick Iber) 9. A "New Man" for Africa? Some Particularities of the Marxist Homem Novo Within Angolan Cultural Policy (Delinda Collier) 10. The Cold War and Orange County (Dimitri Papandreu)

Author Bio

Jadwiga Pieper-Mooney is an Associate Professor of History at the University of Arizona. Her publications include The Politics of Motherhood: Maternity and Women's Rights in Twentieth-Century Chile (Pittsburgh University Press, 2009).

Fabio Lanza is an Associate Professor of History and East Asian Studies at the University of Arizona. His publications include Behind the Gate: Inventing Students in Beijing (Columbia Univers...