Introduction
Fear has been an influential factor in America throughout its history and has manifested itself in a variety of ways. Fear may have never been more pervasive than during the tremendous political, social, and cultural transformations that followed World War II (Spears). Fears of atomic attack, communist subversion, crime, and physical danger from strangers, in particular, have influenced social standards, election outcomes, governmental programs, and day-to-day life. Since the beginning of the Cold War, this anxiety has led to the surveillance state that characterizes the position of the United States in the global community. In addition, it has helped the nation develop a culture of security and a climate of fear. This book reads much differently in today’s world, as life in the US is thriving, and people do not remember the post-war era; however, to prevent consequences, such books must be given attention.
Analysis
May begins by stating the obvious, pointing out that throughout American history, fear has manifested itself in a variety of ways. These have been addressed through explicitly or implicitly killing, confinement, persecution, and other forms of discrimination. According to May, the post-World War II era saw the most significant amount of terror in American society. The wave of terror was fueled by the Cold War and its fears of communism, the atomic bomb, and its immense capacity for destruction, crime, and the upsetting of the social order. May makes the sobering conclusion that neither the warnings of dangers nor the exhortations for Americans to take precautions assuaged concern as she finishes chapter 1 (May). Additionally, for a variety of reasons, the current crop of politicians has knowingly and purposefully fueled Americans’ concerns.
The surveillance state grew as a result of people’s fears of communism, and people began to believe that communists were pervasive in American culture. This led to distrust being cast at anybody and anything unfamiliar. The anti-communist witch hunt in many spheres of life and the Truman loyalty tests set the stage for it. The idea of community, which is essential to democracy, was undermined by the fact that no one was safe from suspicion. Fear grew as a result of the bomb’s threat. The government supported civil defense training. The government supported the construction of bomb shelters, while private businesspeople promoted their use. As a result, questions about the bomb shelter movement’s morals and ethics served to exacerbate anxiety.
May examines all of these mechanisms of fear once again and then follows their development throughout the latter half of the 20th century. The hue of danger in the 1960s and 1970s changed from the red of communists to the black of African Americans, as May discusses in chapter 2 (May). Terror of crime and of African Americans, particularly young guys, was transferred from the fear of communists. Mistrust of crime and fear of African Americans created a white suburban environment that eventually turned into a gated neighborhood and resulted in a type of self-incarceration.
These growing anxieties gave rise to the politics of law and order, which in more modern iterations prompted the massive construction of prisons. Young African American males are disproportionately overrepresented among those who are incarcerated due to mandatory sentencing. As a consequence, a sizable number of residents are now without voting rights. Additionally, it has contributed to an increase in gun ownership, which has had a variety of adverse effects.
In the Cold War’s privatized society, male vigilante justice flourished. In Chapter 3, the history of vigilante justice in the 1970s and 1980s is retold, focusing on the impact of the Cold War’s culture of self-defense and, precisely, the function that masculinity performed in it (May). Americans expected to be able to defend themselves and others from criminality when required, just as they had to train to identify and eliminate communists to defend themselves and their neighborhoods. The same administration that spent billions on law enforcement and imprisonment was represented by lawmakers and in movies as irresponsible.
May closes the chapter by establishing a connection between vigilantism and the expanding rights of gun owners, spanning from the legislation allowing concealed carry in the 1980s to those in place now. In order to increase revenues, gun manufacturers and supporters tapped into the growing male vigilantism culture.
Another essential issue that May handled with tremendous talent and power is how all of this has affected women in society. Although it may seem obvious to connect violent masculinity and the climate of fear, May expands her gender analysis in chapter 4 by making connections between women, femininity, and feminism and the long-standing Cold War culture of fear (May). The stereotypes that women are weak that males must defend women, and that rape and other violent crimes are to be feared are only a few of these social myths.
Then, in a shocking conclusion to her case, May demonstrates how all this fear increased despite the fact that crime, especially violent crime, was on the decline; how there is always a rising enemy as the old ones fade away; and how, in reality, the most significant threats come from the people who are closest to and most acquainted to the average American. Household participants are more likely than random onlookers to have assaulted victims of violent crime.
In Chapter 5, May discusses the history of what she terms “self-incarceration,” bringing the security culture narrative right up to the front doors of everyday Americans. The alarm-equipped housing projects that dotted the American landscape in the 1980s and 1990s were an inevitable result of the privatized culture of fear’s forty-year reign (May). If the home functioned as a place that protected people in the 1950s, as May’s first book explained, it had changed in the decades following the Cold War into a location that required protection. Here, May lists the various ways that the American home is secured, from its design and planning to its sensors and safety equipment.
Modern View
May’s criticisms of paranoia and the white counterattack are not ground-breaking, nor is her perspective on the abortion controversy and other women’s issues. More generally, from the country’s founding, ideologues of all stripes have spread terrifying jeremiads announcing or prophesying the end of American democracy. Based on the asserter’s ideological preferences, several factors are the cause of this catastrophe.
The nation continues to advance in the meantime, despite the fact that regular elections demoralize some elements of the political system. Meanwhile, some residents who had previously grown weary of the nation’s drift are now suddenly filled with new optimism and joyous anticipation (Cooley and Nexon). In her conclusion, May implies that she understands this and accepts that a few glimmers of optimism dot an otherwise Stygian landscape. These include the victory of the Obama campaign for president, the advancement of LGBT rights, the Black Lives Matter movement, and the anti-Trump press media.
The 9/11 attacks brought about fresh worries, and the war against terror eventually had a similar impact on them, with Americans once again being in charge of their own safety. May contends that despite the fact that Americans are more in danger from familiar people than from foreigners and are probably safer than ever from violent crime, the dread of the unfamiliar still holds sway over society. More people were moving into walled compounds and privatized, guarded homes, which actually take away from any sense of true community and are not considerably safer.
Conclusion
In this excellent analysis of social history, Elaine Tyler May shows how the nation’s fixation with security has reduced safety and democracy by instilling fear and mistrust among its people. In Fortress America, the development of a solid national culture that undermines the common good is depicted. People have transformed into a paranoid, hunkered down, militaristic, and fragmented vigilante country instead of a functioning democracy with involved citizens.
Anyone who lives in a gated neighborhood or who has a home security system will not be persuaded to reconsider those decisions by “Fortress America.” Those who agree with May’s pessimistic assessment of contemporary America will value and welcome her work. Everyone else, on the other hand, should not or will not be alarmed by this book, which is understandable.
In my opinion, today, the United States has ceased to be intimidated by factors like communism or the potential for nuclear war. The government and citizens feel their own power and weight in solving many world issues. Of course, there are still people who believe in the return of post-war times, but most of them are people who have already experienced such a moment in their lives and do not want to repeat it. Unfortunately, new generations do not think that a stable life will change due to a few rash actions.
Works Cited
Cooley, Alexander, and Daniel Nexon. Exit from hegemony: The unraveling of the American global order. Oxford University Press, 2020. Web.
May, Elaine Tyler. Fortress America: How We Embraced Fear and Abandoned Democracy. Basic Books, 2017.
Spears, Ellen. Rethinking the American environmental movement post-1945. Routledge, 2019. Web.