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Cold War modernists : art, literature, and American cultural diplomacy, 1946-1959 / Greg Barnhisel ; cover design, Lisa Force.
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Barnhisel, Greg, 1969- author.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Modernism (Aesthetics)--Political aspects--United States--History--20th century.
- Modernism (Aesthetics).
- Propaganda--United States--History--20th century.
- Propaganda.
- Cold War--Political aspects--United States.
- Cold War.
- Art--Political aspects--United States--History--20th century.
- Art.
- Politics and literature--United States--History--20th century.
- Politics and literature.
- United States--Cultural policy.
- United States.
- United States--Intellectual life--20th century.
- United States--Politics and government--1945-1953.
- United States--Politics and government--1953-1961.
- Physical Description:
- 1 online resource (337 p.)
- Edition:
- 1st ed.
- Place of Publication:
- New York, [New York] : Columbia University Press, 2015.
- Language Note:
- English
- Summary:
- European intellectuals of the 1950's dismissed American culture as nothing more than cowboy movies and the A-bomb. In response, American cultural diplomats tried to show that the United States had something to offer beyond military might and commercial exploitation. Through literary magazines, traveling art exhibits, touring musical shows, radio programs, book translations, and conferences, they deployed the revolutionary aesthetics of modernism to prove-particularly to the leftists whose Cold War loyalties they hoped to secure-that American art and literature were aesthetically rich and culturally significant. Yet by repurposing modernism, American diplomats and cultural authorities turned the avant-garde into the establishment. They remade the once revolutionary movement into a content-free collection of artistic techniques and styles suitable for middlebrow consumption. Cold War Modernists documents how the CIA, the State Department, and private cultural diplomats transformed modernist art and literature into pro-Western propaganda during the first decade of the Cold War. Drawing on interviews, previously unknown archival materials, and the stories of such figures and institutions as William Faulkner, Stephen Spender, Irving Kristol, James Laughlin, and Voice of America, Barnhisel reveals how the U.S. government reconfigured modernism as a trans-Atlantic movement, a joint endeavor between American and European artists, with profound implications for the art that followed and for the character of American identity.
- Contents:
- Front matter
- CONTENTS
- Abbreviations and Note on Unpublished Sources
- Acknowledgments
- INTRODUCTION
- 1. FREEDOM, INDIVIDUALISM, MODERNISM
- 2. "ADVANCING AMERICAN ART"
- 3. COLD WARRIORS OF THE BOOK: AMERICAN BOOK PROGRAMS IN THE 1950's
- 4. ENCOUNTER MAGAZINE AND THE TWILIGHT OF MODERNISM
- 5. PERSPECTIVES USA AND THE ECONOMICS OF COLD WAR MODERNISM
- 6. AMERICAN MODERNISM IN AMERICAN BROADCASTING: THE VOICE OF (MIDDLEBROW) AMERICA
- CONCLUSION
- Notes
- Index
- Notes:
- Includes index.
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
- Description based on print version record.
- ISBN:
- 9780231538626
- 0231538626
- OCLC:
- 905916993
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