The Cold War, which started in the aftermath of World War ii and ended with the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 and the subsequent dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991, was more than a confrontation of economic systems and political convictions backed with military power and technological rivalries: it was a clash between cultures and ideologies. Both the communist East and the capitalist West cultivated their interpretations of the world, including the promise of a definitive break with the human tragedies of the past and exclusive access to universal happiness, social harmony, equality and freedom in the future. However, these collective interpretations were constantly challenged, not only by the opposing camp but also from within. Despite the evident overall differences between political systems and everyday experiences, both power blocs had a lot in common and were less secluded than one might think. The ‘dreamworlds’ of East and West were never completely divided.

We all have dreams, and our dreams inspire us to organise our lives. It is through stories, beliefs and fantasies that we as individuals give meaning to the world around us, creating ‘dreamworlds’ to help us translate the apparent chaos of everyday life into a meaningful and purposeful order. However, unlike their nocturnal counterparts, these ‘daydreams’ can shape our everyday life. Daydreams are limited and directed by our environments, as we form our thoughts, hopes, fears and desires in relation to what we experience as living reality. At the same time, our daydreams motivate our responses and actions, and therefore have tangible real-world consequences. Individual lives were shaped by the realities of Cold War cultures and societies in East and West, but these cultures and societies were no less shaped by the thoughts, feelings and actions of their inhabitants.

The concept of ‘dreamworlds’ is illuminating in the context of Cold War cultures as it suggests that power is never uncontested or self-evident. Capitalism and communism can be seen as collective dream projects, as thought systems or ideologies supported by ‘dream communities’ which share a common interpretation of the world.

The present volume is the result of a conference held in Utrecht on 26-27 September 2008. The aim of the conference was to investigate the cultural interchange across the East-West border during the Cold War, as a counterbalance to the more traditional academic approaches that study the two power blocs exclusively in the light of their antagonistic power interests or political ideals. The impressive response to our call for papers suggested positively that we had addressed a topical issue. From the many proposals we received we had to select a limited number for the conference, and for the present volume we then had to make a second selection in order to strengthen the book's coherence around three sections: ‘Arts and Science Between the Blocs’, ‘Modernity East and West’, and ‘Post-1989 Perspectives on the Cultural Cold War’. This by no means implies any negative qualitative judgment on the papers we had to leave out.

The conference, an initiative of its three editors, was supported by our academic institutions: the Roosevelt Study Center in Middelburg, the Netherlands Institute for War Documentation (NIOD) in Amsterdam and the Research Institute for History and Culture (OGC) in Utrecht, all of which generously contributed both in terms of organisation and financial support. We are very grateful that the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences (KNAW) sponsored our conference as part of its 200th anniversary celebrations. Without the enthusiastic and resourceful support of our student interns Helen Grevers, Maaike Hensing and Lieke de Jong, the conference would never have been the success it turned out to be. We also would like to thank our special guests who made important contributions to the conference: keynote speakers David Caute and Ruud van Dijk, Sarah Wilson of the Courtauld Institute who participated in our concluding panel of experts, and Thomas Lindenberger, who chaired one of our sections. A special word of gratitude is due to Thomas Lindenberger and Annette Vowinckel, who generously shared with us their experiences from organising the conference ‘European Cold War Cultures? Societies, Media and Cold War Experiences in East and West (1947-1990)’ held at the Zentrum fur Zeithistorische Forschung (ZZF) in Potsdam on 26-28 April 2007.