Sticky reputations [electronic resource] : the politics of collective memory in midcentury America / Gary Alan Fine.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ch. 1. The chaining of social problems : solutions and unintended consequences in the age of betrayal -- ch. 2. The cultural frameworks of prejudice : reputational images and the postwar disjuncture of Jews and Communism -- ch. 3. Erasing the Brown Scare : referential afterlife and the power of memory templates -- ch. 4. The construction of historical equivalence : weighing the Red and Brown Scares -- ch. 5. Resurrecting the red : Pete Seeger and the purification of difficult reputations -- ch. 6. Notorious support : the America First Committee and the personalization of policy -- ch. 7. The isolationist blacklist? : Lillian Gish and the America First Committee -- ch. 8. Honest brokers : the politics of expertise in the 'who lost China?' debate -- ch. 9. Sticky reputations : Adolf Hitler and the stigma of memory work.

"Sticky Reputations focuses on reputational entrepreneurs and support groups shaping how we think of important figures, within a crucial period in American history - from the 1930s through the 1950s. Why are certain figures such as Adolf Hitler, Joe McCarthy, and Martin Luther King cemented into history unable to be challenged without reputational cost to the proposer of the alternative perspective? Why are the reputations of other political actors such as Harry Truman highly variable and changeable? Why in the 1930s was it widely believed that American Jews were linked to the Communist Party of America but by the 1950s this belief had largely vanished and was not longer a part of legitimate public discourse? This short, accessible book is ideal for use in undergraduate teaching in social movements, collective memory studies, political sociology, sociological social psychology, and other related courses"-- Provided by publisher.

Also available in print edition.

Mode of access: World Wide Web.