The Cold War is generally considered to be a period of time between 1947 and 1991 when a state of tension existed between two of the world’s superpowers: the USSR and the US. Considered a “cold war” because of the lack of large scale fighting between countries, this period had an extreme internal effect on home nation policies. These new policies were set in place to protect citizen as well as to insure their loyalty. Unfortunately, these patriotic policies had consequences which negatively affected many public and academic libraries. This paper will recount some of the difficulties experienced by academic libraries during the 1946-1956 time span of the Cold War era.
During the Cold War period loyalty programs became a standard policy invoked by government officials on all types of American libraries. Members of library staff were strongly encouraged to sign vague oaths and affidavits to prove loyalty to the United States and to denounce any relations with unnamed organizations. In the early stages of loyalty programs, academic librarians and staff believed that they were immune to such attacks on their loyalty, “they optimistically believed that they existed within a protected realm of academic freedom” (Robbins L. S., 1995, p. 346)
Despite the optimistic view of these librarians academic libraries were subjected to loyalty programs and probes just as their public counterparts were. Refusal to sign or swear to these oaths had no set outcome. Depending on the pressure put on the institution a library member who refused the loyalty program could either be publicly backed by their establishment, silently dismissed or suspended, or brought up on legal charges. The inconsistent and unforeseeable consequences caused many libraries...
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...lishers confront Joseph McCarthy. Libraries & Culture, 36(1), 27-39.
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Gaddis, John Lewis. We Now Know: Rethinking the Cold War: Dividing the World. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1997. Publishing.
The book contains some of what you would expect in a book by revolting librarians. There are the requisite essays on the suppression of civil liberties through the Patriot Act along with essays detailing the problem of cultural representation in the Library of Congress Subject Headings. And of course, there's something both by and about Sandy Berman, a living legend among progressive librarians. But there are also quite a few surprises. Ever curious about the astrological breakdown of librarians? You'll find an extensive article complete with enough statistics to make you break out your notes from IRLS 506. [Leos dominate the field, with Aquarians an astrological minority.] Another notable essay concerns what services librarians can offer to day laborers.
Gaddis, John Lewis. “We Now Know: Rethinking Cold War History.” Taking Sides: Clashing Views On Controversial Issues in United States History. Ed. Larry Madaras and James M. SoRelle. 14th Edition. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2011. 302-308.
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With this book, a major element of American history was analyzed. The Cold War is rampant with American foreign policy and influential in shaping the modern world. Strategies of Containment outlines American policy from the end of World War II until present day. Gaddis outlines the policies of presidents Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon, including policies influenced by others such as George Kennan, John Dulles, and Henry Kissinger. The author, John Lewis Gaddis has written many books on the Cold War and is an avid researcher in the field. Some of his other works include: The United States and the Origins of the Cold War, 1941-1947, The Long Peace: Inquiries into the History of the Cold War, We Now Know: Rethinking Cold War History, The Landscape of History: How Historians Map the Past, Surprise, Security, and the American Experience, and The Cold War: A New History. Dr. Gaddis received his PhD from the University of Texas in 1968; he currently is on a leave of absence, but he is a professor at Yale . At the University, his focus is Cold War history. Gaddis is one of the few men who have actually done a complete biography of George Kennan, and Gaddis even won a Pulitzer Prize in 2012.
Aside from the numerous run on sentences which continually made it difficult to decipher the authors point throughout the article, overall the historiography follows along with a number of the standards in Graff and Birkenstein’s book. Federico Romero eloquently balances the opposing arguments among historians in current day debate, as well as effectively conveying his own argument with only a few structural components which impede the reader from understanding the writing clearly at first. At the center of Romero’s article is the question of how historians define the Cold War, what exactly is it, and how can historians effectively study it without creating convoluted argument with which becomes over complicated. This questions eventually
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... to the Library and that have generally been underused resources. B. Greater use of the Library's Capitol Hill facilities by scholars for the kind of interdisciplinary, cross-cultural, multimedia, multilingual, and synthetic writing that is important to Congressional deliberation and national policy-making, but inadequately encouraged both by special interest groups and by advocacy-oriented think tanks; and C. Greater use by the general public through programs that stimulate interest, increase knowledge, and encourage more citizens to use the collections on-site and electronically.”The Library employees will add their position as information guides by “helping more people find appropriate materials in a swelling sea of unsorted information” and directing them to services and resources exclusive to the Library of Congress. This requires not only more growth of employees that the Library has formerly had, but also making it easier in new ways more wide-ranging and “systematic use by researchers of the distinctive materials that only the Library of Congress has.” Courses for the common public, such as displays or publications, must display the importance and value of the collections.