American families during the Cold War - Book Report/Review Example

May describes the tensions that build up in white middle-class families that contribute to the explosive social movements. The book title emphasizes on the ambivalent nature of the period. On one side, the book captures weary people that head home to seek refuge and on the other side people unwillingly confined within boundaries. The most memorable confrontation of Cold War occurs in 1959 as Richard Nixon debates with Nikita Khrushchev as an American kitchen is in front of them. Nixon says that capitalism is better than communism as he points to the superior American consumer goods.

The American women have well-equipped kitchen to depict a symbol of American might. As Russians have parity in bombs and tanks America pride itself with modern appliances. The kitchen issue becomes controversial between the two nations. Russia version has the emphasis on hard work and equal responsibility while the American version stresses on attractiveness and consumerism. United States manages to produce better consumer goods and more feminine. May argues that the ideology of Cold War was a significant issue on American domesticity during 50s that affect everything from the design of the houses to the relation between sexes.

The context of the Cold War highlights connection between political and familiar values. The baby boom phenomenon and the feminine mystique fail to develop in a snug cocoon that isolates from other events in the postwar years. There is a direct response to the Cold War and anxieties it creates where the white middle-class Americans embrace traditional gender roles and their newfound commitment to family life. The countrys foreign policy and family life characterize by a quest for security and the attempt to contain potential dangerous forces.

The middle-class families occasion by early marriages, increase in a number of children, sharp