Blake Scott Ball's book is called Charlie Brown's America, the Popular Politics of Peanuts. This episode was edited and produced by me Benjamin Walker. The theory of everything is a proud founding member of Radiotopia,. home to some of the world's best podcasts. Find them all at radiotopia.fm.
Cartoonist Charles Schulz wrote and drew Peanuts every day for half a century. In his new book Charlie Brown's America, Historian Blake Scott Ball uses the strip (and the fan mail archive at the Schulz museum) to illuminate the Wishy-Washy politics of Cold War America.