Creating consensus: Chicago and United States foreign relations during the early Cold War, 1945--1950

This dissertation examines the impact of U.S. foreign commitments in the aftermath of World War II on the Chicago area. Particularly, my research looks for the ways the emerging Cold War influenced Chicagoans, especially those involved in organized political and cultural interest groups. This study further examines how local Chicago interests were enlisted to support the growing Cold War consensus against communism and the Soviet Union.;This study shows that foreign relations have had profound implications for American urban areas in general and, in the case of the emerging Cold War, for Chicago in particular. In order to better understand how the global relates to the local the researcher needs to examine the specific interests and motivations of local communities in response to international developments. This dissertation explores that relationship and concludes that while local communities had limited influence upon policy formation they often had to adapt in significant ways to the new Cold War context.