The Cold War was about dreams and nightmares: dreams for a better world and a better way of life, and nightmares of catastrophic destruction. It was a global conflict that began in the wake of the Second World War and ended with the peaceful revolutions in 1989/90 and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The Cold War was fought as a contest over a way of life as much as it was an armed confrontation. The Cold War combined the ideological contest between capitalist liberal democracies and communist dictatorships with unprecedented levels of armaments and military conflicts worldwide. As such, the Cold War had a significant impact on society and culture.
Materialising the Cold War was a partnership between the University of Stirling and National Museums Scotland that explored how the Cold War, its global experience and its heritage are described in museums and how museums can adapt to tell this story in future (Autumn 2021-January 2025). It achieved this in two ways: first, by evaluating existing displays and collections together with key partners in the UK, in Germany and in Norway, and second, by creating a new, ground-breaking special exhibition at NMS on the basis of our findings.
Funded by a major grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (Project Reference: AH/V001078/1), our three-year project leaves a legacy of ideas and practices developed through academic research, events, a schools programme, a major exhibition and publications.