Cold War, Civil Rights, and the Party Inversion (1945–1980)
Cold War, Civil Rights, and the Party Inversion (1945–1980)
For three decades after 1945, the United States led the "free world" in a global struggle against Soviet communism while confronting its own unfinished business at home. A powerful civil rights movement forced the nation to reckon with racial injustice, and in doing so triggered a historic realignment that flipped the two parties' regional bases—the great inversion of modern American politics.
11.1The Cold War beginsThe wartime alliance with the Soviet Union collapsed almost immediately into rivalry. The United States and the USSR represented opposing…11.2Hot wars and the nuclear shadowContainment repeatedly turned violent. In Korea (1950–1953), American forces fought to a bloody stalemate against communist North Korea and…11.3Postwar prosperity and its limitsAt home, the postwar decades brought extraordinary prosperity. A booming economy, the GI Bill, and cheap housing fueled the growth of…11.4The civil rights movementThe civil rights movement mounted a sustained assault on the Jim Crow system of segregation. In Brown v. Board of Education (1954), the…11.5The great party inversionCivil rights shattered the New Deal coalition. When Democratic President Lyndon Johnson championed the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts…11.6An era of upheaval and backlashThe 1960s and 1970s churned with movements and reaction. Inspired by civil rights, activists pressed for women's liberation, environmental…11.7Meanwhile, elsewhere (1945–1980)The Cold War was global. Europe split into a democratic, American-aligned West and a communist, Soviet-dominated East, divided by an "Iron…