Apocalypse Then : : American Intellectuals and the Vietnam War, 1954-1975 / / Robert R. Tomes.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter New York University Press Archive eBook-Package Pre-2000
• VerfasserIn: Tomes, Robert R.,
• Place / Publishing House: New York, NY : : New York University Press, , [1998]; ©1998
• Year of Publication: 1998
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource

Prior to the Vietnam war, American intellectual life rested comfortably on shared assumptions and often common ideals. Intellectuals largely supported the social and economic reforms of the 1930s, the war against Hitler's Germany, and U.S. conduct during the Cold War. By the early 1960s, a liberal intellectual consensus existed. The war in Southeast Asia shattered this fragile coalition, which promptly dissolved into numerous camps, each of which questioned American institutions, values, and ideals. Robert R. Tomes sheds new light on the demise of Cold War liberalism and the development of the New Left, and the steady growth of a conservatism that used Vietnam, and anti-war sentiment, as a rallying point. Importantly, Tomes provides new evidence that neoconservatism retreated from internationalism due largely to Vietnam, only to regroup later with substantially diminished goals and expectations. Covering vast archival terrain, Apocalypse Then stands as the definitive account of the impact of the Vietnam war on American intellectual life.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. A Long Time in the Comin’ -- 2. Consensus and Commitment -- 3. The Search for Order -- 4. Skepticism and Dissent -- 5. The Collapse of the Liberal Consensus, 1968 -- 6. The Twilight of Liberalism, 1969–1975 -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- About the Author