The Cold War and Popular Culture

Georgia History Festival

Tear Down This Wall: The Cold War at 75
A Virtual Conversation Series

Presenting “The Cold War and Popular Culture –
A Conversation with Grace Elizabeth Hale”

This program was held on December 3, 2020. Watch a recording of the program below.

Grace Elizabeth Hale is the Commonwealth Professor of American Studies and History at the University of Virginia, and author of A Nation of Outsiders: How the White Middle Class Fell in Love with Rebellion in Postwar America (Oxford Univ Press, 2011).

The Cold War’s impact was felt across all of American culture, from cinema and film (where the villains were often Communists) to television, to America’s consumer culture, to the race to beat the Soviets in space. This conversation will examine how the Cold War shaped American culture for over 40 years, the enormous impact it had on American society, and how it changed when the Cold War ended.

Presentation co-sponsored by
With support from


Georgia History Festival Sponsors