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E-book
Author Helgren, Jennifer, 1972- author

Title American girls and global responsibility : a new relation to the world during the early Cold War / Jennifer Helgren
Published New Brunswick, New Jersey : Rutgers University Press, [2017]
©2017

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Description 1 online resource
Contents 1. "What Kind of World Do You Want?" : Preparing Girls for Peace and Tolerance in the Atomic Age -- 2. "Hello, World, Let's Get Together" : Building Global Conversations through Pen Pals and Care Packages -- 3. "Famous for Its Cherry Blossoms" : Reimagining Japan and Germany in the Postwar Period -- 4. "Playing Foreign Shopper" : Consuming Internationalism -- 5. "We Hand the Communists Powerful Propaganda Weapons to Use against Us" : Defending Global Citizenship during the Post-World War II Red Scare -- Epilogue: The Watchers of the Skies
Summary "American Girls and Global Responsibility brings together insights from Cold War culture studies, girls' studies, and the history of gender and militarization to shed new light on how age and gender work together to form categories of citizenship. Jennifer Helgren argues that a new internationalist girl citizenship took root in the country in the years following World War II in youth organizations such as Camp Fire Girls, Girl Scouts, YWCA Y-Teens, schools, and even magazines like Seventeen. She shows the particular ways that girls' identities and roles were configured, and reveals the links between internationalist youth culture, mainstream U.S. educational goals, and the U.S. government in creating and marketing that internationalist girl, thus shaping the girls' sense of responsibilities as citizens"-- Provided by publisher
"This book brings together Cold War culture studies, girls' studies, and the history of gender and militarization to shed new light on how age and gender work together to form categories of citizenship. In the post-World War II period, lessons about world friendship and peace became mainstream in US schools and youth organizations as educators and youth leaders sought to reduce conflict in the atomic age and contribute to an image of the United States as a benevolent global leader. American Girls and Global Responsibility argues that a new internationalist girl citizenship took root in the United States in the years following World War II in youth organizations such as Camp Fire Girls, Girl Scouts, YWCA Y Teens, schools, and even magazines like Seventeen. The internationalist focus of youth culture in the 1940s and 1950s, much of it developed in girls' institutions, laid a firm foundation for interest in the Peace Corps, an institution that is often credited with first engaging US youth in internationalism; however, this book contends that a new girl citizenry emerged earlier, after the Second World War. With a few significant exceptions, little attention has been paid to internationalism in 1940s and 1950s youth culture, let alone girls' culture. Yet, this project shows the particular ways that girls' identities and roles were configured and reveals the links between internationalist youth culture, mainstream US educational goals, and the US government in creating and marketing that internationalist girl. By unearthing girls' voices in pen-pal letters and scrapbooks, this book reveals how postwar internationalism shaped girls' sense of their responsibilities as citizens"-- Provided by publisher
Analysis girls, cold war, war, global, responsibility, history, United States, citizens, girlhood, girl, nation, nationhood, gender, military, WW2, world war 2, youth culture, internationalist, internationalist girl, postwar, postwar U.S., postwar united states, us history, women's history, women's studies, childhood
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Online resource; title from PDF title page (EBSCO, viewed March 22, 2017)
Subject Teenage girls -- Political activity -- United States -- History -- 20th century
Youth -- Political activity -- United States -- History -- 20th century
Girls -- United States -- Societies and clubs -- History -- 20th century
Sex role -- Political aspects -- United States -- History -- 20th century
Responsibility -- Political aspects -- United States -- History -- 20th century
Citizenship -- United States -- History -- 20th century
Internationalism -- Social aspects -- United States -- History -- 20th century
Cold War -- Social aspects -- United States -- History
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Women's Studies.
HISTORY -- United States -- 20th Century.
POLITICAL SCIENCE -- Public Policy -- Cultural Policy.
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Children's Studies.
POLITICAL SCIENCE -- Essays.
POLITICAL SCIENCE -- Government -- General.
POLITICAL SCIENCE -- Government -- National.
POLITICAL SCIENCE -- Reference.
Citizenship
Diplomatic relations
Girls -- Societies and clubs
Responsibility -- Political aspects
Sex role -- Political aspects
Social aspects
Youth -- Political activity
SUBJECT United States -- Foreign relations -- 1945-1953. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85140097
United States -- Foreign relations -- 1953-1961. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85140099
Subject United States
Genre/Form History
Form Electronic book
LC no. 2016025800
ISBN 9780813575827
0813575826