In the 1960s many Americans attempted to redefine their nation's identity both at home and abroad. No institution reflected this attitude better than the Peace Corps. In All You Need is Love Elizabeth Cobbs-Hoffman explores the history of the corps, and reveals, that by tracing its development in the last forty years, one can gain a better understanding on how it became the quintessential institution of social reform in the 1960s. Cobbs-Hoffman begins her narrative by exploring the background of American idealism. She asserts that the United States, since its founding, has perceived itself as a crusading nation whose mission has been to promote the spread of its form of "benevolent" democracy. This idealism, however, has often clashed with the reality that states, like individuals, sometimes act for selfish reasons, and not for the good of others. This contradiction has often made Americans uncomfortable with their role in the world of power-politics, and as a consequence Cobbs-Hoffman asserts that, "Paradoxically when the United States has been at its most expansionist, it has been most subject to idealism. The late 1950's and early 1960's was one such a period. The country, in the twenty years after World War II, experienced an era of unprecedented economic growth, and increased military and political might. This preeminence, however, created conflicting emotions for many Americans, whose pride in this strength, was matched by their historical perception that power corrupted Americans' virtue. Revolted by the consequence of extreme nationalism and racism in Nazi Germany, numerous Americans took to the concept of universalism, and its belief that all humans deserved the same rights, regardless of nationality. McCarthyism, and the overt racism of the 1950's, made Americans grapple with their vision of what kind of country they lived in. Were they becoming just another fascist state; a place where the individual had no power over the vast machinery of an unfeeling state? With the election of the John F. Kennedy in 1960, Cobbs-Hoffman shows how these feelings of unease were coalesced into the foundation of the Peace Corps, a movement that attempted to show the world the altruistic side of U.S. power. Cobbs-Hoffman's history shows that Americans and historians have tendency to divide the world into good and evil, and that the political right and the left have a tedency to percieve each other as diametrically opposed. Cobbs-Hoffman would argue that both are inexorably linked. She calls the Vietnam war the Peace Corps evil twin, and in many ways this is true. Both were initiated with a spirit of naivete and the belief that they could show others American superiority. Each had their view of the world altered by the cultures and realities which they encountered, and often for both it was a humbling experience. In the end, the left's and the right's disdain for the spirit of the sixties reveal that the Peace Corps attained its objective in creating better understanding among Americans and the rest of the world.
