ABSTRACT
In its closing thoughts, the book returns to the political origins of the thesis as expressed in the Introduction, reconsidering the role of the sublime in generating political apathy, regressive and conservative political movements, the stifling of progress, and the promotion of nostalgia and violence. It does this by way of an analysis of contemporary nostalgia for the Cold War and its simplistic political rhetoric of good and evil. This is supported by a reading of a number of contemporary television shows including The Americans, The Man in the High Castle, and Deutschland 83. The conclusion considers recent political movements in both the United States and the United Kingdom in this light, from the election of Donald Trump to the UK’s referendum decision to leave the European Union, or so-called ‘Brexit.’ In so doing, the book recasts the cultural nostalgia explored throughout as political and warns of the potential consequences of searching for the solutions to the challenges we face in our pasts rather than in our futures.
