1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910787526103321

Autore

Belmonte Laura A

Titolo

Selling the American way [[electronic resource] ] : U.S. propaganda and the Cold War / / Laura A. Belmonte

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Philadelphia, : University of Pennsylvania Press, [2010], c2008

ISBN

0-8122-0123-X

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (272 p.)

Disciplina

973.918

Soggetti

Propaganda, American - History - 20th century

Nationalism - United States - History - 20th century

Cold War

United States Foreign relations 1945-1953

United States Foreign relations 1953-1961

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. [187]-241) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Front matter -- Contents -- Abbreviations -- Chronology -- Introduction -- Chapter One. The Truman Years -- Chapter Two. The Eisenhower Years -- Chapter Three. Defining Democracy: Images Of The American Political System -- Chapter Four. Selling Capitalism: Images Of The Economy, Labor, And Consumerism -- Chapter Five. "The Red Target Is Your Home": Images Of Gender And The Family -- Chapter Six. ''A Lynching Should Be Reported Without Comment": Images Of Race Relations -- Conclusion: The Costs And Limits Of Selling ''America" -- Notes -- Index -- Acknowledgments

Sommario/riassunto

In 1955, the United States Information Agency published a lavishly illustrated booklet called My America. Assembled ostensibly to document "the basic elements of a free dynamic society," the booklet emphasized cultural diversity, political freedom, and social mobility and made no mention of McCarthyism or the Cold War. Though hyperbolic, My America was, as Laura A. Belmonte shows, merely one of hundreds of pamphlets from this era written and distributed in an organized attempt to forge a collective defense of the "American way of life."Selling the American Way examines the context, content, and reception of U.S. propaganda during the early Cold War. Determined to protect



democratic capitalism and undercut communism, U.S. information experts defined the national interest not only in geopolitical, economic, and military terms. Through radio shows, films, and publications, they also propagated a carefully constructed cultural narrative of freedom, progress, and abundance as a means of protecting national security. Not simply a one-way look at propaganda as it is produced, the book is a subtle investigation of how U.S. propaganda was received abroad and at home and how criticism of it by Congress and successive presidential administrations contributed to its modification.