''Repent, Harlequin!'' Said the Ticktockman | Historical Context

''Repent, Harlequin!'' Said the Ticktockman Historical Context

McCarthyism and the Cold War

In the two decades before the writing of "'Repent, Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman," a series of events occurred in the United States that marked the culture for years to come. In 1945, the Second World War ended. The Potsdam Conference effectively divided up Eastern Europe into spheres of influence. Consequently, the Soviet Union gained control over large sections of the area and quickly closed down access and communication to and from those countries. Winston Churchill in a famous speech referred to this part of the globe as the "Iron Curtain," and this metaphor persisted until the breakup of the Soviet Union many years later.

Thus, the "hot" Second World War degenerated into a cold war, a time when Western nations vied with the Soviet Union for power and control. Because both sides were developing considerable nuclear arsenals, the cold war was in deadly earnest; during the 1950s and 1960s,...
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