Produktdetaljer
Biografisk notat
Jon Wiener is Professor of History at the University of California, Irvine. Among his books are Gimme Some Truth: The John Lennon FBI Files (UC Press) and Historians in Trouble: Plagiarism, Fraud and Politics in the Ivory Tower.“As popular reading, it's got the humor and wit of Sarah Vowell's Assassination Vacation and James Loewen's Sundown Towns and DJ Waldie's Holy Land. By which I mean it's witty and kinda mean, and exhilarating bad fun.”
- Andrew Tonkovich, Oc Weekly: Orange County News, Arts & Ent
“Wiener’s wit and deft grasp of geopolitics make for one of the season’s most intriguing historical books.”
- Andrew Milner, Philadelphia City Paper
“Who knew the Cold War was funny? Wiener’s adventures in American historical memory are surprisingly lively.”
- Sarah Rothbard, Zocalo Public Square
“A provocative and fascinating new book.”
- Andrew Gumbel, Los Angeles Review Of Books
“A political argument masquerading as a travel yarn. . . . Wiener’s accounts of his trips to nuclear test sites, missile-launching control centers and fallout shelter exhibits contrast the guides’ cheerful patter with the prospect of Armageddon.”
- Joshua Hammer, New York Times Book Review
“A splendid tour de farce of the museums and other memory palaces established largely by the American right in honor of the greatest triumph in human history, the winning of the... oh, remind me, what was it?”
Tomdispatch
"...An account of memory laced with irony and wit..."
- Kevin Temple, The Sixties: A Journal of History, Politics, and Culture
"Wiener is a sharp observer."
- Patrick Hagopian, American Historical Review
“Jon Wiener, an astute observer of how history is perceived by the general public, shows us how official efforts to shape popular memory of the Cold War have failed. His journey across America to visit exhibits, monuments, and other historical sites, demonstrates how quickly the Cold War has faded from popular consciousness. A fascinating and entertaining book.” —Eric Foner, author of Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863–1877
"In How We Forgot the Cold War, Jon Wiener shows how conservatives tried—and failed—to commemorate the Cold War as a noble victory over the global forces of tyranny, a 'good war' akin to World War II. Displaying splendid skills as a reporter in addition to his discerning eye as a scholar, this historian's travelogue convincingly shows how the right sought to extend its preferred policy of 'rollback' to the arena of public memory. In a country where historical memory has become an obsession, Wiener’s ability to document the ambiguities and absences in these commemorations is an unusual accomplishment.” —Rick Perlstein, author of Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America
“In this terrific piece of scholarly journalism, Jon Wiener imaginatively combines scholarship on the Cold War, contemporary journalism, and his own observations of various sites commemorating the era to describe both what they contain and, just as importantly, what they do not. By interrogating the standard conservative brand of American triumphalism, Wiener offers an interpretation of the Cold War that emphasizes just how unnecessary the conflict was and how deleterious its aftereffects have really been.”—Ellen Schrecker, author of Many Are The Crimes: McCarthyism in America