Cold War Confrontations: US Exhibitions and Their Role in the Cultural Cold War.


By Jack Masey and Conway Lloyd Morgan.

New York and London: Lars Müller Publishers, November 2008. Cloth: ISBN 978-3037781234, $49.95. 423 pages.

Review by Antonio Thompson, Austin Peay State University

Cold War Confrontations: US Exhibitions and Their Role in the Cultural Cold War, by Jack Masey and Conway Lloyd Morgan, examines the conflicts and events of the unfolding Cold War through a unique lens, that of American exhibitions. In ten chapters and 423 pages the authors examine U.S. displays from 1948 with the Marshall Plan Traveling Caravans, through the present, concluding with the abolishment of the United States Information Agency (USIA) in 1999 and Congressional talks proposing recreating it in 2007.

The author’s aim is to demonstrate that “the World’s Fairs . . . provided key opportunities for confrontation between the Free West and the Communist East, each trying to upstage the other” (6). This is not their only goal, however; the authors are equally interested in the changes in design and technology over the nearly fifty years of the Cold War as emphasized at these fairs. Masey was a former member of the USIA (1951 to 1979), part of this time as Director of Design. After leaving he formed his own company that helped design the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island Museums. Morgan is a Senior Lecturer at the Newport School of Art, Media, and Design, at the University of Wales, Newport.

The book is a mixture of architecture, technology, history, and memoir. The authors place each of the World’s Fairs within the greater context of the Cold War. Each chapter has a brief introduction describing the status of the Cold War, while subheadings describe relevant changes in technology, medicine, and architecture. Each chapter is set up with numerous photographs and copies of documents relevant to the exhibition. Text and quotes of varying size are interwoven throughout the work and in between the pictures and documents. Although the book could easily fit on a book shelf, the heavy stock paper, weight of the book, and layout loan itself to be used as a coffee table book.

One of the strengths of this work is also its weakness: the book is heavily illustrated. Although each picture has captions, the sheer number of photographs virtually allows the story to be told through the images. The varying text sizes and placement of text, while informative, can also be distracting. One must remember that the authors are not professional historians, but are telling history through the lens of the World’s Fair exhibits. Those interested in the World’s Fairs or the cultural and architectural side of the Cold War would enjoy this work.