Includes bibliographical references (pages 203-257) and index.
Contents:
Introduction -- The unfulfilled promise of cultural globalization. Airplanes, embassies, and educational exchange (or, the fruit of war junk) -- Passports, visas, and the politics of international travel -- Press freedom, propaganda, and the global flow of information -- The fear of foreign culture in Cold War America -- The unfulfilled promise of cultural globalization.
Summary:
"In the years immediately after World War II, the United States broadcast to the world not just its power but its values. Sam Lebovic here focuses on one of those professed ideals: the free flow of information. That trope became a proxy for America's special brand of imperial democracy, and it both abetted and constituted the spread of American culture and values worldwide. By studying visa and passport policy, funding for educational exchange and school construction, the purchase of land for embassies, the rights of international correspondents, and other mundane matters, Lebovic reveals globalization as a consequence of "quotidian world-ordering," not of high-minded abstractions like liberal internationalism"-- Provided by publisher. "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." -- Publisher's description
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.