The Free World: Art and Thought in the Cold War

The Free World is a groundbreaking intellectual and cultural history of post-WWII America, offering a sweeping narrative that explores how changing economic, technological, and social forces shaped creations of the mind.

From elitism to freewheeling experimentation, Menand takes readers inside the worlds of Hannah Arendt, Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Merce Cunningham, John Cage, Sam Phillips, and Elvis Presley, revealing how the ideal of "freedom" was applied to a wide range of causes.

With wit and insight familiar to readers of Menand's previous work, The Free World is an engrossing and impossibly wide-ranging project that will leave you in awe of its depth and breadth.

Don't miss out on this must-read for anyone interested in the complexities of post-war American culture.