Every period in the history of a country differs not only in a number and sequence of events happening, people playing critical roles in it, or culture which defines people’s attitudes and behaviors. They also differ in perception of things and events by people, hence the variety of meanings people associate with certain ideas. It is true that meaning of an idea changes with the flow of time depending on historical environment, on the complex of events which happen in the given period. Therefore, the idea of freedom has been changing through American history, and the goal of this paper is to consider these changes in four periods of the 20th century – the Second World War, the Cold War, the 1960-s, and the era of neoliberalism.
In the times of WWII the understanding of freedom was closely connected with American traditional values. President Roosevelt emphasized on the universal number of human rights which should have been available for people of any race, country, opinions and beliefs (Foner 904). The inspiration for President Roosevelt, and all American people participating in WWII one way or another was the painting by Norman Rockwell The Four Freedoms depicting freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. All people in the world, in the opinion of a common American of the time, should have had access to all these freedoms.
It is true that WWII united the nation as much as a war could. Before November 1941 American Government preferred isolation to intervention, while supporting the Allies and gunning for Europe. But the bombing of Pearl Harbor changed the course of American politics. In the meantime inside the country people’s opinions, values and position regarding freedom strengthened, and, what is more, people believed that ‘the Four Freedoms’ were to be shared and introduced in every part of the world (Foner 918). The first two freedoms – of speech and worship – guaranteed by the First Amendment – were conventional wisdom. Freedom from fear implied the pursuance for peace and security in the contemporary world, hence the necessity to enter the war and help the Allies gain the desired victory. Finally, ‘freedom from want’ and its propagation helped boost American economy at wartime, inspired people who stayed away from the front to make their contribution, and impacted the general vision of freedom greatly in many ways. It implied securing and protecting the particular American lifestyle, prosperity and economic freedom during and after the wartime (Foner 920).
In this context the ‘fifth freedom’ (Foner 920) emerged – the freedom of enterprise, for which opponents of the New Deal pushed, claiming that the Government was supposed to cut down or else eliminate its intrusion in economy. The implementation of the ‘fifth freedom’ was in America’s best interests. Companies assured production, prospered and obtained grounds for their post-war business development, while opening jobs at the same time. People who stayed at home obtained the possibility to fight for freedom at home, contribute to victory through the process of their working. This gave a grounding for immigrant labor under the bracero program (Foner 928) as well as female labor (Foner 922) which eventually resulted in significant social civil rights changes.
Finally, WWII laid foundation for so-called ‘American Dilemma’, the racial issue which gained attention and demanded solution. Racial issue was deeply integrated in the history of American society, but unsolved, it likened white Americans to the Nazis, so much despised and hated by mostly everyone at the time. The nation that saw itself as a carrier and promoter of freedom could not possess racial issues unsolved. This marked the start for the civil rights movements for freedom from racial prejudice, running like a scarlet thread through the entire 20th century. To conclude on the WWII idea of freedom, it consisted of two aspects – the protection and sharing of the Four Freedoms with the rest of the world, in the context of struggle with the Nazi Germany and its co-allies. To these two perspectives the fight for free enterprise and many civil rights could be added.
The second period under discussion is the Cold War. This period is rightfully considered the time of ideological struggle (Foner 961). In this context the understanding of freedom changed, it now embodied an evident confrontation between the communist, totalitarian world and the free American one.
One of the most well-known advocates of great American mission in the postwar world was Henry Luce, the publisher and author of The American Century essay. In this essay Luce defined Americans as responsible for peace and spreading democracy in the new world. He called the second half of the 20th century the ‘American century’, the time when the United States were ought to rise in the global political stage, and share their values as a Good Samaritan with everyone in need (Luce 170). Therefore, the role of the United States in this period of time consisted in anticommunist crusade (Foner 963) and bringing freedom in its canonical meaning, borrowed from the American Declaration of Independence (Foner 961), to other countries.
In this period of time freedom was seen through political prism more than ever (Foner 966), with the need of protection of citizen rights, and human rights not only within the USA but all over the world. The protection of human rights was required by the UN Charter of 1945 (Foner 943), but many considered its bullet points only rhetoric. Their abidance required outside control, which set the stage for global co-operation between the countries.
It is impossible to omit the mention of further development of civil rights movements. Many groups used the Cold War idea of freedom to their own benefit. They believed that American freedom had to equal assurance of civil rights in gender, racial, and other aspects. Free American society was positioned as a democratic one, and therefore, within the country it had to be truly democratic, as opposed to totalitarian. Thus, in the Cold War period freedom also had two dimensions: intrinsic, with stressing on the need to assure equal civil rights for all citizens in all environments and conditions, and extrinsic, facing the America’s mission of protecting democracy all over the world and fighting totalitarianism (even in cases when anticommunist foreign policy was quite far from freedom-supporting).
The 1960-s brought a fresh approach to the idea of freedom in the United States. In this period ‘freedom’ became quite a multifaceted concept. It implied not only civil freedom and equality for all citizens of the country, but also many other freedoms people longed for, which manifested themselves in counterculture of the 1960-s.
The 1960-s are seen as the climax of revolution fighting for civil rights (Foner 985). In this period of time active desegregation started. It is known for many high-profile cases such as the Brown case or Plessy v. Fergusson (Foner 1020), or for boycotts and protests like the Montgomery bus boycott (Foner 1022) or events in Birmingham of 1963 or a march to Washington (Foner 1039). Many groups seeking social justice and equality and protecting the rights of the African American citizens (inspired by Martin Luther King Jr.) were encouraged by the slogan “Seek the freedom in 1963 promised in 1863” (Foner 1040). It appealed to freedom as promised after the Civil War with its values and ideas, and this was particularly the vision of freedom from the opinion of the black American people struggling for their rights.
President Kennedy, a new-age, new generation president, could not but pay attention to this issue, and eventually developed opinion that America’s idea of freedom could not imply racial prejudice. President Johnson continued what Kennedy had started, and the year of 1964 brought the Civil Rights Act, a promise for equality for all American citizens regardless of their differences in race, beliefs, actions, or lifestyles. Then followed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 which assure the right to vote for all (Foner 1047). The country started to change, slowly, for many whites accepted the novelties with effort, but it was a significant change in the fight for freedom.
The Vietnam war in the 1960-s also caused much of social protest, especially on the part of young people, united in Students for Democratic Society organizations. They believed, ‘free’ society could not perform any type of military aggression, which contravened with the entire idea of democracy and freedom for all in the world.
Finally, the idea of freedom also manifested itself in counterculture, the rejection of values of previous generations. It publicized free individual development, sexual freedom, freedom to expand one’s consciousness (hence the popularity of LSD drug), feminism and female personal freedom with the right for abortion, and demand for equality in social life and career (Foner 1067). In the 1960-s many minorities also started their crusade for freedom. Latino and Indian citizens longed for equality, and sexual minorities were also ready to assert themselves. This period of American history showed how the idea of freedom changed again, under impact of foreign policy, cultural and societal change.
The era of neoliberalism, the 1980-s, can be characterized by President Reagan’s vision of freedom – with free government without influence by some special interests. Foremost, this period of time was the time of free economics, as Reagan saw it, ‘reaganomics’ (Foner 1110) which only caused creating economic inequality, and the loss of status for those who had just gained it – the African Americans and the Latinos. In means of politics, through the Cold War, President Reagan preferred adhering to the policy of fighting communism in other countries, even if it meant supporting authoritarian anti-communist regimes, which was rather odd to the idea of freedom and democracy previously propagated by the United States. His successors, however, used similar rhetoric while intervening in lives of other countries.
In social field inside the United States, individual, personal freedom gained much more value than any other type of freedom previously defined. The ability and right to self-actualize, regardless of race or gender, was considered prevailing, while so-called ‘industrial freedom’ took a back seat (Foner 1164). It seems that this is the period of time, beginning back in the 1980-s and still continuing, when the vision of freedom by people and by the government differs, and people tend to be interested more in their personal freedom than in the freedom in its global meaning. It is the paradox of individualism in the context of globalization in means of politics and economy, and with the America’s role in the whole process, with Presidents Bush, Clinton and Obama looking for the USA as a creator and warrantor of democracy, freedom, and global free market.
Works Cited:
Foner, Eric. Give Me Liberty! An American History. 3rd ed. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2010. Print.
Luce, Henry R. “The American Century.” Diplomatic History, vol. 23, no. 2, Spring 1999, pp. 159-171.
