The Centrist History of the Culture Wars

This chapter begins with an analysis of Andrew Hartman’s A War for the Soul of America: A History of the Culture Wars, which seeks to provide an historical overview of past and current culture wars. We will see how Hartman’s centrist perspective laments polarization as it engages in its own mode of splitting in order to create a clear narrative. While Hartman does provide insight into the ideological conflicts starting in the 1980s, his work tends to idealize the 1950s as a period of American stability, and this idealization relies on repressing the role of sexism and racism in shaping the American economy during this Cold War period. Hartman’s historical narratives also tend to separate culture from class.