University of Massachusetts Press For Might and Right: Cold War Defense Spending and the Remaking of American Democracy (Culture and Politics in the Cold War and Beyond)

How did the global Cold War influence American politics at home? For Might and Right traces the story of how Cold War defense spending remade participatory politics, producing a powerful and dynamic political coalition that reached across party lines. This "Cold War coalition" favored massive defense spending over social welfare programs, bringing together a diverse array of actors from across the nation, including defense workers, community boosters, military contractors, current and retired members of the armed services, activists, and politicians. Faced with neoliberal austerity and uncertainty surrounding America's foreign policy after the 1960s, increased military spending became a bipartisan solution to create jobs and stimulate economic growth, even in the absence of national security threats.Using a rich array of archival sources, Michael Brenes draws important connections between economic inequality and American militarism that enhance our understanding of the Cold War's continued impact on American democracy and the resilience of the military-industrial complex, up to the age of Donald Trump. Review Brenes has significantly added to our understanding of the political economy of the Cold War and the reshaping of American values from the New Deal to the contemporary moment. A truly engrossing and important story told with depth and skill.--Mitchell B. Lerner, author of The Pueblo Incident: A Spy Ship and the Failure of American Foreign PolicyFor Might and Right will appeal not only to Cold War scholars but to anyone interested in the history of twentieth-century politics, liberalism or conservatism, and the history of U.S. foreign policy. A must-read.--Michael Koncewicz, author of They Said No to Nixon: Republicans Who Stood Up to the President's Abuses of PowerMichael Brenes's remarkable and original study of the material life of anticommunism shows how deeply it reshaped not only ideological commitments but the daily economic experiences of millions of Americans. A beautifully researched and powerfully argued work of history, For Might and Right transforms our understanding of the Cold War.--Kim Phillips-Fein, author of Fear City: New York's Fiscal Crisis and the Rise of Austerity Politics About the Author Michael Brenes is associate director of the Brady-Johnson Program in Grand Strategy and lecturer in history at Yale University.