Boston’s liberation energized American confidence and anti-British rhetoric justifying independence.

Evidence

We were a “can do” people, who accomplished whatever we set out to do. We had licked the Depression, turned the tide in World War II, and rebuilt Europe after the war…. Freedom Summer was an audacious undertaking consistent with the exaggerated sense of importance and potency shared by the privileged members of America’s postwar generation. — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 31 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

The importance of American music for a whole generation is summed up in a story told by Juliette Gréco. She had been arrested by the Gestapo in 1943, held in a cell, and then, to her surprise, freed again. She walked eight miles home through wintry streets in a thin cotton dress, and as she walked, she defiantly sang an American song at the top of her voice: ‘Over the Rainbow’. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 536 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Propaganda and military means arrived together to enable the push for American independence. — Edward J. Larson, Declaring Independence, 97; Postwar Americans’ collective confidence came from remembered shared accomplishments. — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 31; American culture signified freedom and defiance during the Occupation. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 536

Broader Connections

• Postwar Americans’ collective confidence came from remembered shared accomplishments. #corroborates (0.85) — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 31
• American culture signified freedom and defiance during the Occupation. #corroborates (0.80) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 536