Cold Warriors of the Book: American Book Programs in the 1950s

In the early years of the Cold War, programs run by the United States Department of State and, later, the United States Information Agency attempted to provide opinion-makers in foreign nations with books about the U.S. that would counter Soviet propaganda claims. An overview of these programs and of the titles included shows that their portraits of the U.S. mirrored those of Cold War liberals generally: the U.S. was a society not without flaws, but one whose strength came from its democratic system of governance and its valuation of the principles of “freedom,” both political and economic.