“Spending the Hopes of Our Children”: The Military-Industrial Complex in Comparative Local Perspective, 1941-1964 (Research Brief)

My project seeks to understand how a largely parallel process of weapons build-up functioned within two economic and political systems that saw themselves as diametrically opposed. It examines how the defense complexes shifted the distribution of power and shaped growth in Los Angeles and Novosibirsk, and how constituents within these cities influenced national and international politics. Through a comparative examination of living and working conditions, political decision-making, local attitudes to international conflicts, and development of scientific institutions, I explore the social costs and economic consequences of the early Cold War arms race.

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Anita Seth, of Yale University, was a 2002-03 Individual Advanced Research Opportunities (IARO) fellow.