When Americans talked about politics in the 1950s they always seemed to be talking about sex. Political discourse was inundated with refernces to soft and hard, to masochism and impotency, to thrusts and ecstacies. Cuordileone argues that the gendered and sexualised language of Cold Warriors was produced by specific anxieties about masculinities. To support this interpretation she offers subtle readings of figures like Norman Mailer, Arthur Schlesinger and JFK.

When Americans talked about politics in the 1950s they always seemed to be talking about sex. Political discourse was inundated with refernces to soft and hard, to masochism and impotency, to thrusts and ecstacies. Cuordileone argues that the gendered and sexualised language of Cold Warriors was produced by specific anxieties about masculinities. To support this interpretation she offers subtle readings of figures like Norman Mailer, Arthur Schlesinger and JFK.