Books As Weapons : Propaganda, Publishing, and the Battle for Global Markets in the Era of World War II / John B. Hench.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hench, John B., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Book industries and trade--United States--History--20th century.

Book industries and trade.

Publishers and publishing--United States--History--20th century.

Publishers and publishing.

Propaganda, American--Japan--History--20th century.

Propaganda, American.

Propaganda, American--Europe--History--20th century.

World War, 1939-1945--Propaganda.

World War, 1939-1945.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xviii, 333 p. :) ill. ;

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Ithaca, NY : Cornell University Press, [2016]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Only weeks after the D-Day invasion of June 6, 1944, a surprising cargo-crates of books-joined the flood of troop reinforcements, weapons and ammunition, food, and medicine onto Normandy beaches. The books were destined for French bookshops, to be followed by millions more American books (in translation but also in English) ultimately distributed throughout Europe and the rest of the world. The British were doing similar work, which was uneasily coordinated with that of the Americans within the Psychological Warfare Division of General Eisenhower's Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force, under General Eisenhower's command.Books As Weapons tells the little-known story of the vital partnership between American book publishers and the U.S. government to put carefully selected recent books highlighting American history and values into the hands of civilians liberated from Axis forces. The government desired to use books to help "disintoxicate" the minds of these people from the Nazi and Japanese propaganda and censorship machines and to win their friendship. This objective dovetailed perfectly with U.S. publishers' ambitions to find new profits in international markets, which had been dominated by Britain, France, and Germany before their book trades were devastated by the war. Key figures on both the trade and government sides of the program considered books "the most enduring propaganda of all" and thus effective "weapons in the war of ideas," both during the war and afterward, when the Soviet Union flexed its military might and demonstrated its propaganda savvy. Seldom have books been charged with greater responsibility or imbued with more significance.John B. Hench leavens this fully international account of the programs with fascinating vignettes set in the war rooms of Washington and London, publishers' offices throughout the world, and the jeeps in which information officers drove over bomb-rutted roads to bring the books to people who were hungering for them. Books as Weapons provides context for continuing debates about the relationship between government and private enterprise and the image of the United States abroad.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations and Acronyms

Introduction: Books on the Normandy Beaches

Part I: CULTIVATING NEW MARKETS

1. Modernizing U.S. Book Publishing

2. War Changes Everything-Even Books

Part II: BOOKS AS "WEAPONS IN THE WAR OF IDEAS"

3. Publishers Organize for War and Plan for Peace

4. "Books Are the Most Enduring Propaganda of All"

5. Seeking "an Inside Track to the World's Bookshelves"

6. "Everyone but the Janitor" Selected the Books

7. Books to Pacify and Reeducate the Enemy

8. Making the "Nice Little Books"

Part III: U.S. CULTURAL POWER ABROAD

9. Liberating Europe with Books

10. The Rise and Fall of the United States International Book Association

11. The Empire Strikes Back

12. Books for Occupied Germany and Japan

Epilogue: American Books Abroad after 1948

Appendix A. Overseas and Transatlantic Editions

Appendix B. Titles in the Bücherreihe Neue Welt Series

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 08. Jul 2019)

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9781501727276

1501727273

OCLC:

1080551528