Winds of Hope, Storms of Discord
The United States since 1945

In vivid, engaging prose, this book illuminates modern US history as a story of ceaseless change, struggle, conflict, and renewal.

Salim Yaqub (Author)

9781108496728, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 3 November 2022

450 pages
25.3 x 19.6 x 2.9 cm, 1.31 kg

'Winds of Hope, Storms of Discord by Salim Yaqub is a masterful exploration of US history since 1945. Useful for students in a variety of courses as well as beginning researchers, the book chronicles the often rapid and dramatic changes in US society, culture, politics, technology, economics, and foreign relations during the tumultuous years from the end of World War II through the present. The fact that it ends in 2022 is novel and useful. Despite its ambitious scope, the book has a clear narrative and singular point of view that make it compelling and highly readable. The author deftly weaves together multiple themes to tell a story that is a must-read for anyone who wants to know why the United States today is the way it is.' Kelly J. Shannon, Florida Atlantic University

In brisk and engaging prose, this comprehensive introductory textbook traverses the broad sweep of US history since 1945. Winds of Hope, Storms of Discord explores how Americans from all walks of life – political leaders, businesspeople, public intellectuals, workers, students, activists, migrants, and others – struggled to define the nation's political, economic, geopolitical, demographic, and social character. It chronicles the nation's ceaseless ferment, from the rocky conversion to peacetime in the early aftermath of World War II; to the frightening emergence of the Cold War and repeated US military adventures abroad; to the struggles of African Americans and other minorities to claim a share of the American Dream; to the striking transformations in social attitudes catalyzed by the women's movement and struggles for gay and lesbian liberation; to the dynamic force of political, economic, and social conservatism. Carrying the story to the spring of 2022, Winds of Hope also shows how dizzying technological changes at times threatened to upend the nation's civic and political life.

Preface
Introduction
1. Wake up Willie: from war to postwar, 1945–1948
2. We may not now relax our guard: hot war abroad and cold war at home, 1949–1954
3. It's like turning over a rock: America in the fifties
4. Listen, Yankee: the transformation of America's Cold War, 1956–1963
5. Is this America?: civil rights and the liberal movement, 1960–1965
6. Berkeley Cong: fighting abroad and unraveling at home, 1963–1968
7. Expletive deleted: the presidency of Richard Nixon, 1969–1974
8. Great blinding lightbulb: women's rights, gay and lesbian rights, and new understandings of gender, sexuality, and family, 1960–1975
9. Soylent Green is people: America in the seventies
10. The picture always overrides: America in the Reagan years, 1981–1989
11. To look over the horizon: from New Cold War to New World Order, 1981–1991
12. Triangulation: the nineties and Bill Clinton
13. Freedom fries: George W. Bush, 9/11, and the Iraq war, 2001–2008
14. Yes we can't: American politics, 2009–2015
15. Crossfire hurricane: the Trump years, 2015–2021
Epilogue
Index.

Subject Areas: Military history: post WW2 conflicts [HBWS], Social & cultural history [HBTB], 21st century history: from c 2000 - [HBLX], Postwar 20th century history, from c 1945 to c 2000 [HBLW3], History of the Americas [HBJK]