Final answer:
Harper Lee's 'To Kill a Mockingbird' was written in the tense political climate of the 1950s, influenced by the Cold War, civil rights movements, and social changes. The book reflects issues such as the Red Scare, the civil rights movement, and the Southern Literary Renaissance.
Step-by-step explanation:
The political climate during the time To Kill a Mockingbird was written (the late 1950s and published in 1960) was tense and charged with various social and political issues. The author, Harper Lee, was writing against the backdrop of the Cold War, which greatly influenced the domestic political climate in the United States. This period was marked by anti-communist sentiment, known as the Red Scare, along with the Lavender Scare, which targeted the LGBT community under the guise of national security concerns.
Internationally, there were no major wars involving the United States directly during the exact time she was writing, but the aftermath of World War II and the tensions of the ongoing Cold War were pivotal. Domestically, the civil rights movement was gaining momentum, leading to confrontations over segregation, highlighted by the landmark Brown vs. Board of Education case in 1954, which ruled that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. Additionally, this period witnessed the beginning of the Southern Literary Renaissance, reflecting the changing roles of women and African Americans in society, as well as the struggle between maintaining traditional Southern values and the pressure to progress socially and economically.
Thus, the 1950s could indeed be considered a time of social, political, economic, and cultural prosperity and challenge simultaneously. Within this era, 'To Kill a Mockingbird' emerged as a literary reflection of the issues of race, class, and the rule of law in the American South.