Communist Rhetoric and Feminist Voices in Cold War America

Jennifer Keohane is assistant professor in the Klein Family School of Communications Design at the University of Baltimore.

• CONTENTSAcknowledgementsIntroduction 1. Cold War, Hot Commodities: Gendering Consumer Culture Post-WWII 2. Spheres of Influence: Building Credibility and Theory in Woman Against Myth, 1948 3. Voice and Visibility: Building Black Feminism in the Postwar Communist Party United States 4. “Articulate and Organized”: Peace Petitions, Working-Class Motherhood, and Transnational Witnessing 5. “Long Range Propositions”: Justifying Activism and Building Commitment 6. “The 100-Hour Work Week”: The Housewife Ethos and Changes to the CPUSA Conclusion Bibliography About the Author

Jennifer Keohane’s new book offers a counterhistory of the early Cold War that goes much deeper than the usual mix of Ike, bomb shelters, and McCarthyism. Here is a groundbreaking and well-researched look at the rhetorical dynamics of the American Communist Party, particularly its Cold War-era struggles over women’s roles and their rightful place in society. Anyone interested in this crucial period in American history—or in the incomplete history of the feminist movement—will find in Communist Rhetoric and Feminist Voices an invigorating new vantage point.