UID:
almahu_9949481291502882
Format:
1 online resource (272 p.)
ISBN:
9780226816098
,
9783110993899
Content:
An examination of how the postwar United States twisted its ideal of "the free flow of information" into a one-sided export of values and a tool with global consequences. When the dust settled after World War II, the United States stood as the world's unquestionably pre-eminent military and economic power. In the decades that followed, the country exerted its dominant force in less visible but equally powerful ways, too, spreading its trade protocols, its media, and-perhaps most importantly-its alleged values. In A Righteous Smokescreen, Sam Lebovic homes in on one of the most prominent, yet ethereal, of those professed values: the free flow of information. This trope was seen as capturing what was most liberal about America's self-declared leadership of the free world. But as Lebovic makes clear, even though diplomats and public figures trumpeted the importance of widespread cultural exchange, these transmissions flowed in only one direction: outward from the United States. Though other countries did try to promote their own cultural visions, Lebovic shows that the US moved to marginalize or block those visions outright, highlighting the shallowness of American commitments to multilateral institutions, the depth of its unstated devotion to cultural and economic supremacy, and its surprising hostility to importing foreign cultures. His book uncovers the unexpectedly profound global consequences buried in such ostensibly mundane matters as visa and passport policy, international educational funding, and land purchases for embassies. Even more crucially, A Righteous Smokescreen does nothing less than reveal that globalization was not the inevitable consequence of cultural convergence or the natural outcome of putatively free flows of information-it was always political to its core.
Note:
Frontmatter --
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Contents --
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Introduction --
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Chapter One. The Birth of UNESCO and the Limits of Postwar Cultural Reconstruction --
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Chapter Two. Airplanes, Embassies, and Educational Exchange (or, the Fruit of War Junk) --
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Chapter Three. Passports, Visas, and the Politics of International Travel --
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Chapter Four. Press Freedom, Propaganda, and the Global Flow of Information --
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Chapter Five. The Fear of Foreign Culture in Cold War America --
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Conclusion. The Unfulfilled Promise of Cultural Globalization --
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Acknowledgments --
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Abbreviations --
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Notes --
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Index
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Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
,
In English.
In:
EBOOK PACKAGE COMPLETE 2022 English, De Gruyter, 9783110993899
In:
EBOOK PACKAGE COMPLETE 2022, De Gruyter, 9783110994810
In:
EBOOK PACKAGE History 2022 English, De Gruyter, 9783110992960
In:
EBOOK PACKAGE History 2022, De Gruyter, 9783110992939
In:
University of Chicago Complete eBook-Package 2021, De Gruyter, 9783110739190
In:
University of Chicago Complete eBook-Package 2022, De Gruyter, 9783110766509
Additional Edition:
ISBN 9780226816081
Language:
English
URL:
https://www.degruyter.com/isbn/9780226816098
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