Gary McDonogh. Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture

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the familiar, with the re-discovery of tonality Many composers are returning to the roots

of classical music, quoting music from the great masters. For example, in Ellen Taaffe’s

(b. 1939) “Zwilich’s Concerto Grosso 1985,” the composer quotes passages from a

Handel sonata. The revisiting of preceding styles started in the 1960s with the works o

Virgil Thomson (1896–1989), William Albright (1944–98) and William Bolcom (b.

1938) reviving earlier popular music, most notably ragtime. To the current composers,

such as David Del Tredici (b. 1937), educated in the atonal, twelve-tone system, tonality

is the “new” form.

The tercentenaries of J.S.Bach (1685–1750) and G.F.Handel (1685–1759) in the mid-

1980s also contributed to a search for roots in classical music. More performing arts

groups started to explore historically accurate performance practices, using reconstructed

“period” instruments of the Baroque and Classical periods.

Classical music today must also relate to the changing American audiences.

Traditionally classical music had been supported by patrons, whether wealthy individuals

or institutions. Fundamentally this support structure has not changed— composers and

erforming arts groups are funded mostly by their audiences, benefactors and institutions,

such as

foundations

and government agencies. However, classical music activities have

been shifting from the traditional centers like

New York, Boston, MA, Chicago, IL,

Philadelphia, PA

and

Los Angeles, CA,

where there has been a great tradition o

classical music for nearly over a century. Regional performing arts groups have sprung

up with great success in the postwar era in cities like

Phoenix,

Raleigh, Omaha

(Nebraska) and

Dallas

On the whole, classical music organizations have found that their income is

consistently increasing more than their expenses. The total income of American

orchestras was nearly $1,087 million in 1997–8, an increase of 8.2 percent ($82 million)

from the previous year. Total expenses for the same year were $1,077 million, an

increase of 6.5 percent ($66 million) over 1996–7. This was due mostly to increased

ticket sales (up 7 percent between 1996–7 and 1997–8), individual giving (up 17 percent)

and corporate and foundation grants (up 17 percent).

Recording technology has not only changed the way music is created, but also the way

in which it is presented and appreciated. Long-playing records,

radio

and

television

allowed for the recording and broadcasts of historical performances. Audiences no longer

had to travel to live performances.

Video, cable,

CD and DVD have added new

dimensions to home enjoyment and potential support. Currently, performing arts

organizations are embracing the

Internet,

with many in the process of setting up live

“web-casts” of performances, as well as putting up audio files to promote new music and

composers, and posting of educational materials for outreach projects. In these ways,

American classical music has renewed its audience in the early twenty-first century.

Further reading

Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture 246

American Symphony Orchestra League (1999)

UpTo-Date Orchestra Facts:

http://www.symphony.org

Chase, G. (1987)

America’s Music,

Urbana: University of Illinois Press.

Kamien, R. (1992)

Music: An Appreciation,

New York: McGraw-Hill.

Morgan, R.P. (ed.) (1993)

Modern Times,

Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall.

Salzman, E. (1974)

Twentieth Century Music,

Engle wood Cliffs: Prentice Hall.

SUSANNA PROUGH

Cleveland, OH

When the Cuyahoga river caught fire and burned on June 22, 1969, it seemed a nadir for

this industrial port on the Great Lakes. Yet Cleveland has also shown resilience in

cleaning up its environment and rebuilding identities around downtown sports and

cultural attractions, including the Rock and Roll

Hall of Fame,

while reexamining its

complex ethnic heritages and relations to surrounding

suburbs

. Metropolitan population

has grown again, to reach 2,911,683 in 1999. The

Drew Carey Show

(ABC, 1995–) has

made it a weekly setting for a sitcom about work and neighborhoods that asserts

Cleveland’s identity as a working-class city.

GARY McDONOGH

Clift, Montgomery

b. 1920; d. 1966

Beautiful, sexually ambiguous and hungry Clift embodied a troubled and introspective

masculinity

at odds with conventional representations of 1950s

family

and

gender

roles—a tension apparent as he plays off John

Wayne

Red River

(1948). In

consummately American settings like this Western, the army (

From Here to Eternity,

1953 and

The Young Lions,

1958) or the inter-class drama of

A Place in the Sun

(1951),

Clift haunts us with powerful acting and uncertain meaning. His last decade was

overshadowed by a devastating

automobile

accident and consequent deterioration.

Further reading

McCann, G. (1993)

Rebel Males,

New Brunswick: Rutgers.

GARY McDONOGH

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Clinton, William Jefferson

b. 1946

Bill Clinton, first

baby-boomer

US president (1993–2001) and three-time Arkansas

governor, defeated incumbent George

Bush

and the eccentric Ross

Perot

in the 1992

campaign, despite controversies concerning extra-marital affairs (Gennifer Flowers),

charges of financial corruption

(Whitewater)

and allegations about draft evasion. Clinton

presented himself as “a different kind of

Democrat,

” a New Democrat, more in line with

the centrist Democratic Leadership Council, which he had headed.

Clinton’s campaign mantra—“It’s the economy stupid”—embodies his

administration’s strengths and accomplishments as the United States’ economy has

adapted to globalization more successfully than its competitors in terms of economic

growth, low inflation and low unemployment. Clinton’s Secretary of the Treasury Robert

Rubin, succeeded in dominating domestic policy over more liberal voices like Robert

Reich in implementing moderately progressive tax increases, significant cuts in the

budget and, following the 1994

Republican

congressional victories, the achievement o

budget surpluses.

Clinton, a superlative politician with a seemingly infinite capacity to come to the brink

of selfimposed disaster and then rebound and even flourish, began his first administration

with impressive appointments to establish “a government which looks like America.”

Despite retreats on gays in the military and immigrant-bashing sections on

welfare

reform,

Clinton has remained a cultural liberal, “mending but not ending”

affirmative

action,

making moderate to progressive court appointments, initiating a

race

dialogue

and passing a modest Family Leave Act.

As a “New” Democrat, he has sought to woo white,

middle-class, suburban

voters

with tougher positions on crime, including subsidies for more

police,

targeted programs

education

and protection of middle-class entitlements. In addition, in foreign policy he

has attempted to combine a human rights agenda—which led him to send US troops into

Haiti

—with military responses to Iraq’s evasion of inspections and Serbia’s ethnic

cleansing in Kosovo. At the same time he remains haunted, as were his predecessors, by

the

Vietnam War

legacy of an aversion to risking significant US lives in combat and,

consequently is subject to charges of inconsistency and ineffectiveness.

The 1994 congressional elections, which produced Republican majorities in both

Houses and led to the speakership of Newt

Gingrich

and his “Contract With America,”

rought Clinton to his lowest point, as did in part a response to the defeat of his efforts to

pass universal, or at least more comprehensive,

healthcare

. However, the Grand Old

Party (GOP) threat of a government shutdown, skillfully manipulated by Clinton,

revitalized his political fortunes, although at the cost of the passage of a welfare reform

Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture 248

ill, which recklessly eliminated federal entitlements to the poor in devolving most

decision-making to the states through block grants, caps on spending, more stringent

work requirements and ceilings on eligibility

Clinton’s second term has been a rollercoaster driven by his

impeachment

following

the revelation of an affair with Monica Lewinsky, a White House intern, his continuing

popularity as the US economy’s boom continues and a series of international crises, most

notably in the former Yugoslavia. Clinton’s “bridge to the twenty-first century” seemed

to rest on a not always consistently framed, often opportunistic, blending of old New

Deal and “Great Society” economic liberalism with modified, calibrated versions o

identity politics, a determination to appear strong both domestically and internationally, a

laser-like attention to the now majoritarian suburbs and a comfort with a multi-national,

global, confident capitalism, tempered with not “big,”

ut government nevertheless. His

legacy remains problematic: a resilient, if not great, politician with a seriously flawed

character.

Further reading

Dionne, E.J., Jr., (1996)

They Only Look Dead,

New York: Simon &S chuster.

Maraniss, D. (1995)

First in His Class,

New York: Simon & Schuster.

Drew, W. (1997)

Whatever It Takes,

New York: Penguin Books.

Greenberg, S. and Skocpol, T. (eds) (1997)

The New Majority,

New Haven: Yale

University Press.

PAUL LYONS

clubs, city and country

Clubs emerged as elite meeting places in the nineteenth century along the male, upper-

class and highly segregated lines of comparable British institutions. Some of these,

ensconced in landmark buildings, continue to play a role in the social organization and

business of cities like

New York

(Metropolitan Club),

Philadelphia, PA

(Union Club)

and

San Francisco, CA

(Union Pacific Club). Other clubs also handle issues of elite

reproduction, like debutante balls, although these declined after the 1960s; some

specialized in athletic events like rowing, cricket and yachting. Professional associations

(National Press Club or Army and Navy Club in

Washington, DC

) and alumni

organizations represented similar prestige associations and edifices.

automobiles

moved people away from urban centers, country clubs emerged as

complementary institutions, promoting social cohesion but adding on such features as

more spacious clubhouses, golf, tennis and other recreational events, dining rooms and

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accommodations. In some cases, these clubs served to stimulate growth and define elite

suburban

districts. While these clubs tended to incorporate women and families (often

around a male member or proprietor), they remained exclusive—not permitting

African

Americans, Jews

or Catholic ethnics, depending on their locations. Some of these

groups, in fact, organized alternative clubs delineating new suburban geographies.

After the Second World War and the Depression, many country clubs faced economic

straits and pressures from development that engulfed them. This forced movements,

consolidations, rebuilding and expanding membership to incorporate a broader

middle

class

. Changing tastes in recreation meant crowding on

golf

courses and demands for

pools,

tennis

and fitness facilities, as well as dining and dancing (while facilities were

adapted for air-conditioned indoor spaces). Modernist clubhouses set the scene for many

1950s and 1960s depictions of suburban life and rites of passage such as

weddings

and

anniversaries.

By the 1960s, social pressures also challenged exclusionary rules. Single women and

usinesswomen sued for access to both urban and country clubs, which they saw as

locations for deal-making as well as recreation. Ethnic and racial barriers fell more

slowly and bitterly—in 1990 the Professional Golf Association threatened Birmingham

(Alabama)’s Shoals Country Club with loss of the PGA championship in order to open

the club to blacks. Politicians also came under scrutiny for exclusive policies, forcing

either changes in the clubs or loss of influential members.

While the economic expansion of the late twentieth century renewed many clubs, they

remain exclusive because of entrance fees and annual payments as well as waiting lists

for memberships. Hence, in many metropolitan areas, they still indicate gradations within

the upper and middle classes based on heritage (old versus new money as well as

lingering ethnic divisions).

Further reading

Mayo, J. (1998)

The American Country Club,

New Brunswick: Rutgers.

GARY McDONOGH

clubs/fraternal organizations

Americans, despite their

individualism,

are often described as a nation of “joiners.” For

many organizations, this produces a relatively passive pool of members who offer

economic support in lobbying issues of the environment, ethnic heritage issues, or

community

organization. Others focus on service—volunteers in troubled areas or with

special populations. Still others represent professional identities—doctors,

veterans,

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teachers—whose national assemblies may shape policy issues for the group and influence

national policy.

College

alumni associations are important in fundraising and recruitment,

while other educational institutions may also promote sociability and support. Still other

clubs are more loosely defined civic or interest groups, which may nonetheless, sponsor

important initiatives. Some of these, as well as other groups, offer social and recreational

spaces—whether

middle-class

country clubs or local ethnic and religious groups. Joining

thus also divides Americans according to

race, class,

gender, ethnicity

and locale, even

as it may bring them together with cross-cutting identities.

Among the most widespread associations are those that offer broad civic and fraternal

appeal. Of these, some are clearly offspring of older European Masonic movements or

similar ritualized organizations—the 1950s sitcom

The Honeymooners

stressed the

importance of lodge meetings, which was echoed in the later

Flintstones

and even

The

Simpsons

. Ritual elements are also important in religiously affiliated associations like the

Catholic Knights of Columbus and the Jewish Hadassah.

The Rotary Club, Kiwanis, Optimists and other groups foster civic involvement in

schools, reform and international connections, while also offering regular social functions

for urban movers. Many of these have been adult and male-dominated, although offering

female auxiliaries and

high-school

affiliates; this division has been challenged since the

1960s.

Women’s organizations, however, have also played important organizational roles. The

League of Women Voters, for example, has been active in sponsoring political debates

and voter information. Garden clubs—traditionally but not exclusively a woman’s

domain—have been involved in civic beautification. Book clubs, service clubs, and

religious and charitable organizations have channeled generations of women’s

involvement in public life. In some cases, however, this has been marked by class

exclusion based on history—Daughters of the American Revolution or Daughters of the

Confederacy for example.

Many of these clubs, female and male, have been organized around divisions of race

and class.

African American

clubs, including Colored Women’s Clubs,

fraternities

and

sororities and religious associations also exercised strong parapolitical functions in eras

segregation,

while they have delineated the associations of a distinctive black

middle

class

. New immigrants have also formed new associations around religious and family

organizations.

Such a list of American associations might stretch to include fan clubs, hobby and

interest groups, pet owners, amateur athletics, motoring, institutional support and a

myriad of other reasons Americans find to come together and be different. In literature

and

mass media,

moreover, these associations map out other meanings of class,

sociability and interest—from the bored housewife to the person on the move in politics,

reinforcing the complex geography of American identities.

GARY McDONOGH

CINDY WONG

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CNN

International television news organization that broadcasts news and features worldwide

through local

cable

television companies, satellite providers and the

Internet

. Founded

by businessperson Ted

Turner

and headquartered in

Atlanta, GA,

CNN began

continuous broadcasts of news stories to cable television subscribers on June 1, 1980.

The network initially lost money and was dismissed as a farce by the three other

American television networks. Live

Gulf War

coverage vaulted it into a more respected

osition, which was sustained by numerous local affiliates and advancements in satellite

technology. Now owned by media conglomerate

Time Warner,

the network consists o

various stations that broadcast on particular topics, such as sports and finance, to specific

arts of the world. CNN currently has over 70 million subscribers in the United States

alone.

BRIAN LEVIN

Coast Guard, US

Founded in 1790 as the Revenue Marine with the primary mission of protecting the

United States from smugglers. The USCG acquired its current name in 1915 when the

Revenue Cutter Service and the Life Saving Service merged into a single organization.

The smallest of the armed services, it is controlled by the Department of Transportation

during peacetime and by the Department of Defense during wartime. Individuals who

oin the USCG are subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice and receive the same

pay as members of the other armed services. Its primary missions include maritime

search and rescue, maritime law enforcement, maintenance of aids to navigation,

icebreaking, environmental protection, port security and military readiness. The USCG

employs 38,000 active duty personnel and almost 43,000 reserve and auxiliary personnel.

These “Coasties” (as members of the USCG are often called) operate over 1,000 vessels

and over 200 aircraft.

People volunteer to join the Coast Guard for many reasons. In addition to the work,

enefits, training and educational opportunities, many people feel that a job in the USCG

offers the chance to work along the coast and an opportunity to protect the environment.

On a typical day the Coast Guard will seize illegal drugs, rescue people offshore and

investigate marine accidents. All of this activity contributes to an atypical career that

Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture 252

many Coasties enjoy throughout their work life.

LAURA L.COOGAN

Coca Cola

soda

Coen, Joel and Ethan

b. 1958 (both)

With Joel as the

director-screenwriter

and Ethan as the producer-screenwriter, the

rothers have a uniquely skewed vision of ordinary life which permeates and complicates

otherwise simple tales of murder, kidnapping and fraud with the human frailties of the

characters themselves. As NYU trained independent film-makers, deeply critical o

Hollywood

legends in

Barton Fink

(1991), they have gained increasing budgets and

acceptance, including a screenwriting Oscar for

Fargo

(1996), which also garnered a Best

Actress Award for Joel’s wife, Frances McDormand (b. 1958).

GARY McDONOGH

CINDY WONG

coffee

mass media

and everyday life, coffee has been part of the background of American

life. Generally prepared in a weaker form than European expresso, this drink (with or

without sugar and cream) can be consumed by the cupful during the work day at social

gatherings (as in the earnest conversations of television

soap operas)

and with dinner—

during the meal as well as after. Many diners or

roadside

restaurants even place large

ots of coffee on each table prior to customers ordering. Down from its height o

opularity in the 1930s, coffee remains a very visible cultural landmark with the ongoing

Starbucking of America and the development of designer coffees as well as new spaces

for consumption.

Through the early twentieth century leading coffee companies like Folger’s, Hills

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Brothers, Maxwell House and A&P roasted coffee beans and supplied coffee in cans.

Later, with the popularity of “instant” coffee, Folger’s crystals were marketed as

indistinguishable from the coffee “served in the finest restaurants,” while Maxwell House

“remained good to the last drop.” Meanwhile, growing concerns at the beginning of the

physical fitness

fad that strong coffee might represent a health problem led to the

popularity of (Sanka) decaffeinated instant coffee, followed by other brands.

During the 1950s, dissatisfied with coffee that didn’t fit the advertised billing, William

Black founded his own brand, Chock Ful ’o Nuts, in

New York

. Black was followed in

Berkeley

California,

by Alfred Peet, who dark-roasted quality beans at Peet’s Coffee and

Tea in Berkeley As these better quality beans hit the market, new delivery systems—Mr

Coffee and those of the German producers, Krups and Braun—

ecame available, making

the freshly brewed coffee more convenient than previous methods of percolation, and

bringing lattes, expressos and cappuccinos out of the “finest” restaurants and into the

yuppie

home. Coffee-houses in New York, meanwhile, also offered more European

expressos with beat poetry and smoky conversations.

These set the stage for three students in

Seattle

in the 1970s to establish Starbucks.

When Starbucks’ specialty brand went national it benefited from the increased demand

for freshly brewed coffee made from quality beans at a time when the overall demand for

coffee was declining. New chain stores began to push the smaller, local-owned cafés out

of the market, while bookstores opened their own cafés for their customers.

FBI

Agent Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) seemed to represent the shift in American culture

from quantity to quality in

Twin Peaks

(ABC, 1990–1), revealing his partiality for the

Pacific Northwest town’s “damn fine coffee.” However, scandal revealed that some o

the Starbucks’ coffee had not been so fine—Robusta beans had surreptitiously been

substituted for Arabica beans. Concerns over labor and environmental conditions have

also shaped consumer preferences, perhaps giving some smaller cafés a new lease of life.

Some believe their coffee purchases can help Haitians recover from economic turmoil, or

express solidarity with

Cuba;

others see coffee growing as a way to save the rainforest.

Further reading

Pendergast, M. (1999)

Uncommon Grounds,

New York: Basic.

ROBERT GREGG

Cold War

From 1945 until 1989 the United States and the Soviet Union engaged in what came to be

called a “Cold War.” Although characterized as “cold” rather than “hot”

ecause it

Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture 254

involved little direct military engagement between the two parties, this conflict

nevertheless proved enormously costly to not only the two primary countries involved,

but also to the numerous surrogate nations who bore the struggle’s most severe effects.

This period of extreme tension had a monumental impact on both the international

geopolitical scene and American domestic life and thought.

The Cold War dates from the collapse of the victorious Second World War alliance.

ever particularly happy bedfellows, the United States and Western European allies had

temporarily joined forces with the Soviet Union in order to defeat their common enemy

Germany. Having successfully repelled Germany from its soil, the Soviet army drove

Hitler’s troops back to

Berlin

and occupied the eastern half of Germany, including the

capital. During their western sweep, the Soviets also recaptured much of Eastern Europe,

and proved reluctant to release their prizes. The Cold War emerged from this struggle to

reshape the postwar political map.

Whatever sense of alliance America felt with the Soviet Union during the war rapidly

disappeared after it ended. At the Yalta Conference of the major successful powers in

February 1945, Joseph Stalin, the Soviet leader, had agreed in principle to hold free

elections in the liberated countries as soon as possible. None happened, however, and

within two years the Eastern European bloc—countries whose connection lay primarily

in their shared political and economic allegiance to the Soviet Union—had solidified. The

former British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, coined the phrase “Iron Curtain” in

1946 to describe the Soviet Union’s hold over Eastern Europe.

In 1947 President Harry

Truman

declared an American responsibility to respond to

the yearnings of “free peoples” around the world. This “Truman Doctrine” was aimed

specifically at countries with a perceived potential for “becoming” communist. In the

same year, policy expert George Kennan wrote an article in the journal

Foreign Affairs,

which encouraged the United States to counter what it viewed as Soviet expansionism by

engaging the Soviet Union in local conflicts. This policy known as “containment,” came

to dominate American foreign policy for the next forty years. It called for American

involvement in countries throughout the world if a threat of communism was identified. It

was this policy of “containment” that most profoundly determined the “Cold War.”

This policy was first played out on the Korean Peninsula from 1950 until 1953. The

Cold War became “hot” as the Americans, Russians and Chinese engaged in the first o

several “surrogate” conflicts that pitted the Americans against communist enemies—

some real, some less so. Although a “surrogate” conflict, over 33,000 American soldiers

died in Korea and a precedent for armed intervention was set.

America’s containment imperative drove it to many other controversial policy

decisions. For example, the

Eisenhower

administration toppled leaders in

Iran

and

Guatemala with whose policies they disagreed. “Containment” also provided American

leaders with the ideological justification to fund initially the French efforts to put down

anti-colonial nationalists in Southeast Asia in the 1950s. Ultimately, America took over

that war; between 1963 and 1975, 56,000 American soldiers died in the

Vietnam War

While the international geopolitical impact of this ideological competition became self-

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