The paper sums up the efforts to establish a restrained emotional style in the United States toward the middle of the 20th century, particularly in work settings and in child rearing. The paper then focuses on adjustments and elaborations in this culture during the past five decades. It deals with efforts to modify undue restraint, in areas like grief; with social and cultural divisions based on power relationships and ethnic subcultures; with the vital trend of greater media guidance for emotional experiences – the »mediaization« of emotion. At the same time, efforts to maintain or even increase the rigor of emotional control also developed, confirming the basic culture of cool even with the additional complexities. »Cool« remains a successful watchword in American emotional culture both in private life and in public discourse.