Ten west European countries joined with the United States and Canada to form NATO in 1949 as a military alliance intended to provide collective defense in the event of an attack by the Soviet Union. During the Cold War, NATO was countered by a similar...

As the mid-twentieth century unfolded, the desire to escape Earth's atmosphere to explore space beyond reached a new height. This desire was initially stimulated by the lure of adventure and discovery. To know the unknown has been the strong...

Struggle between the Western democracies and the Eastern Communist nations was probably inevitable from the first shot fired in the Russian Revolution of 1917. Guided by one of the essential tenets of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels' Communist...

Beyond their value as artistic expression or entertainment, novels and movies are cultural records that reflect a society's views and values. During the Cold War (1946–1991), novels and films reflected the anxieties and suspicions created...

In the years following the Second World War, American popular culture mirrored the anxieties that developed between the United States and the USSR. Although allies in the war against fascism, the two nations became increasingly agitated by mutual...

Between 1946 and 1991, America's rivalry with the Soviet Union spurred the longest continuous wartime mobilization—or state of military readiness—in U.S. history. Over the course of four decades of U.S. resolve to...

The Cold War (1946–1991) had profound effects on American society and culture. Fresh from victory in 1945, Americans quickly disarmed and expected to focus their attention on domestic matters, in particular the adjustment to a peacetime economy...

America's role in the Cold War led the nation to pursue policies that eventually resulted in the rise of multiculturalism. This trend has had an increasing impact on American society. "Multiculturalism" has several meanings. At the...

The Cold War was the period of conflict, tension and competition between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies from the mid-1940s until the early 1990s. Throughout the period, the rivalry between the two superpowers was...