American performance and the Cold War, 1947--1961

This dissertation investigates the relationship between American performance and U.S. foreign policy from 1947 to 1961. George F. Kennan's theory of containment served as the rationale for a vigorous response on the part of the United States to the Soviet Union's attempts to expand beyond its own borders. However, the theory concealed severe doubts about the ability of the U.S. to withstand the reach and spread of the Soviets into the American domestic sphere. While the policy of containment roused the country to assume a forceful stance overseas, the deep conservatism underlying the theory emboldened domestic forces that were inimical to both popular and avant-garde practices at home. Kennan's theory had as much to do with perceived American moral and social weakness as with actual Soviet strength and growth.;This dissertation argues that the United States bound itself to containment as a foreign policy, and, in doing so, embraced concomitant suspicions of domestic performance. The dissertation further argues that American performance served as a site for the performative articulation of the secret doubts and fears embedded in the theory of containment. This work strives to re-examine Cold War American performance under the influence of U.S. foreign policy.;This interdisciplinary study involves five main topics. The Roller Derby highlighted the gender crisis of post-war American life. Lee Strasberg's Method transformed Russian theatrical practice into a symbol of American nationalism and complemented Abstract Expressionism as a powerful exemplar of U.S. freedom and independence. The U.S. Attorney General created the Freedom Train, an ambulatory museum, and sent it forth to inoculate the American populace against foreign influences. However, the project's greatest success came in raising the aspirations of African-Americans, figuratively shackled by segregation. Live television drama embodied the fears and anxieties of the era before it was swept away by the reassuring formulaic composition of the TV Western. Toward the end of the period, the Twist emerged as the harbinger of the social, cultural, and political upheavals that would roil the 1960s. Each topic corresponds to a distinct permutation of containment theory and relates to a wide variety of popular and avant-garde performance.