Eric R. Crouse - Böcker

In the years 1967-1971, Senator Margaret Chase Smith was the only female member of the Senate and her reputation of integrity and independent thinking attracted the attention of those seeking to understand and voice their opinion on the Vietnam War experience. Dear Senator Smith is an edited collection of letters that shed light on the far-reaching and polarized tensions that exploded on the scene during Lyndon Johnson's government and continued into Richard Nixon's administration. These letters written by ordinary people living in Maine touch on class, race, gender, foreign policy, patriotism, and dissent and provide valuable insight on the impact of the war on the home front, the threat of communism, and the strength of the anti-war movement. By going beyond the circle of political and anti-war elites, Dear Senator Smith shows how ordinary small-town Americans upheld or protested Cold War ideology, offered new paradigms, and generally experienced the new challenges that correlated with the battles being fought both in Southeast Asia and on the home front.

Margaret Chase Smith was the first woman in American history elected in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, the first politician to take a public stand against McCarthyism, and the first woman of a major political party to run for president of the United States. An American Stand: Senator Margaret Chase Smith and the Communist Menace, 1948-1972 explores her engagement with the "masculine" issue of national defense. An unyielding foe of global communism, this Republican senator was the first female Cold Warrior. During the Korean War, she voiced strident anti-communist rhetoric in her newspaper column. Her energetic support for nuclear superiority in the fifties and sixties caused Nikita Khrushchev to describe her as "Satan in the guise of a woman." In the face of growing opposition to America's involvement in Vietnam, Smith remained committed to a clear stand against violent communist expansion. This book examines the exposition of the communist "menace" and the Cold War as a fight between good and evil without sanitization of communist leaders' ruthless actions. For Smith and many others, America's fight against global communism, despite appalling sacrifices of lives and money, made sense because they believed that communism was a vicious, expansionist system with little respect for human life and freedom.

Margaret Chase Smith was the first woman in American history elected in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, the first politician to take a public stand against McCarthyism, and the first woman of a major political party to run for president of the United States. An American Stand: Senator Margaret Chase Smith and the Communist Menace, 1948-1972 explores her engagement with the "masculine" issue of national defense. An unyielding foe of global communism, this Republican senator was the first female Cold Warrior. During the Korean War, she voiced strident anti-communist rhetoric in her newspaper column. Her energetic support for nuclear superiority in the fifties and sixties caused Nikita Khrushchev to describe her as "Satan in the guise of a woman." In the face of growing opposition to America's involvement in Vietnam, Smith remained committed to a clear stand against violent communist expansion. This book examines the exposition of the communist "menace" and the Cold War as a fight between good and evil without sanitization of communist leaders' ruthless actions. For Smith and many others, America's fight against global communism, despite appalling sacrifices of lives and money, made sense because they believed that communism was a vicious, expansionist system with little respect for human life and freedom.

The dominant political theme of the State of Israel is the perpetual quest for security. In its first 25 years, Israel experienced five wars with Arab states declaring their goal to destroy Israel. In American Christian Support for Israel:Standing with the Chosen People, 1948–1975, Eric R. Crouse examines how American Christians responded to Israel’s wars and the persistent threats to its security. While some were quick to condemn Israel as it made difficult and unpopular decisions in its fight for survival in a hostile region, conservative Christians were trustworthy supporters, routinely voicing uplifting reports. Crouse argues that Israel’s embodiment of western ideals and its remarkable economic development gave conservative Christians good reasons to favor Israel in a troubled Middle East, but the main reason for their unconditional support was the key biblical text of Christian Zionism: “I will bless those who bless you [Abraham and his descendants], and I will curse him who curses you” (Genesis 12:3).

The Cross and Reaganomics: Conservative Christians Defending Ronald Reagan, by Eric R. Crouse, offers important insights on why Reaganomics was a major reason conservative Christians supported Reagan at the polls. On election night in November 1980, Americans witnessed the victory of a conservative to the presidency. With the United States experiencing economic stagnation and high inflation, many were hopeful of Ronald Reagan’s deeds matching his optimistic rhetoric of America’s potential. What followed was a decade of economic transformation, military buildup, and a political awakening of conservatism. One story that has not received much attention is the relationship between conservative Christians and Ronald Reagan’s economic policies. Crouse argues that conservative Christians were among the strongest champions of limited government, free enterprise (particularly small business), and anticommunism. A surprising number of conservative Christian leaders discussed the works of major free market economists. Conservative Christians embraced and tapped into the traditional American values of individual opportunity, personal responsibility, and human freedom—all themes they believed were front and center in Reaganomics. Although American pluralism prevented any plan to Christianize the nation by politics, in the sphere of economics conservative Christians did witness political and cultural gains.

Britain experienced two stunning developments in the late 1970s. Post-war Keynesianism and big government fell out of favor, and, for the first time, British voters chose a female prime minister. When Margaret Thatcher became leader of the Conservative Party in 1975, she was the first leader to oppose the consensus views of both the Labour Party and centrist Tories who, in varying degrees, accepted Keynesianism and state ownership of industry. With her traditional conservatism stretching back to her childhood years and her receptiveness to free-market arguments that revealed the economic shortcomings of Keynesianism and socialism, she developed a strong case against government management of the economy. The author explains that Thatcher’s fight for economic change had both dramatic and subtle stages. In the end, the issue of inflation altered British economics and politics and Thatcher was there to take advantage of the moment and score a victory over “socialism.”

This book examines one of the most important economic outcomes in American history—the breakdown of the Keynesian Revolution.