{"id":1366,"date":"2018-09-20T12:20:36","date_gmt":"2018-09-20T12:20:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/?p=1366"},"modified":"2025-09-21T18:32:59","modified_gmt":"2025-09-21T22:32:59","slug":"amanda-laugesen-taking-books-to-the-world-american-publishers-and-the-cultural-cold-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/2018\/09\/20\/amanda-laugesen-taking-books-to-the-world-american-publishers-and-the-cultural-cold-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Amanda Laugesen, Taking Books to the World: American Publishers and the Cultural Cold War."},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Amanda Laugesen, Taking Books to the World: American Publishers and the Cultural Cold War.<\/h1>\n\n
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Kristin L. Matthews<\/a><\/div>\n\n
in <\/span>Book review<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"Cover<\/a><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/div><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Amanda Laugesen. Taking Books to the World: American Publishers and the Cultural Cold War.<\/a><\/em> Boston and Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2017. 192 p. ISBN 9781625343093. $US28.95<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In Taking Books to the World: American Publishers and the Cultural Cold War<\/em>, Amanda Laugesen maps out Franklin Publications\u2019 global initiative, \u201ca kind of American Cold War book empire, one that brought American books and the publishing industry to all corners of the globe\u201d (2). She contends that Franklin is both typical of and unique to Cold War American diplomacy. On the one hand, \u201cFranklin sought to offer a particular image of the United States, one that highlighted the best elements of the nation and of what it had to offer to the world\u201d (3) as a means of creating allies and combatting international communism in what is now called the \u201cGlobal South.\u201d On the other hand, Franklin was committed to local control of book selection, translation, distribution, and management, perpetually rebuffing the U.S. State Department\u2019s propaganda imperatives in efforts to promote an indigenous book culture. Informing both these aims was Franklin\u2019s desire to create new commercial markets for American books and publishing. For these reasons and others, Laugesen argues that Franklin is a particularly useful vehicle for examining the tangled web that was \u201ccultural diplomacy\u201d during the Cold War.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Laugesen\u2019s\nhistory draws from a broad archive\u2014news reports; government\ndocuments; trade publications; personal interviews; Franklin minutes,\nreports, letters, advertisements, and publications\u2014and reads in\npart like a political thriller as it details how Franklin Programs\nhad to navigate complex personalities, tense partnerships, and\never-shifting geopolitics in the volatile postwar world. The book\nbegins with a brief history of twentieth-century American cultural\ndiplomacy and subsequently demonstrates how Franklin both drew from\nand departed from such in its use of books as weapons in the battle\nfor \u201cfreedom.\u201d Founded in 1952, this private and government\nfunded organization was first largely \u201can adjunct to USIA cultural\ndiplomacy programs\u201d (39), but increasingly distanced itself from\ngovernment ties as it sought to establish local book cultures free of\novert American propaganda in the Global South. Chapters two through\nfive explore Franklin\u2019s contradictory vision and how it ultimately\nled to the program\u2019s demise. Franklin\u2019s idealistic bookmen\nbelieved that their attempt to bring American books and literacy to\nthe world was a charitable act free from ideological taint. They\nsincerely thought that reading American books in translation would\nhelp to spread freedom throughout the world. At the same time, the\nprogram\u2019s drive to establish American \u201cvalues\u201d and markets, its\nimposition of a one-way flow of information (American books were\ntranslated into other languages but indigenous books were not\ntranslated into English for American readers), its \u201cmodernization\u201d\nrhetoric and initiatives, and its willingness to work with oppressive\nregimes to gain a foothold in local book markets all smacked of\nimperialism and reinforced problematic Cold War American foreign\npolicies. For that reason, potential South American and African\nmarkets rejected Franklin and its hold in the Middle East became\nincreasingly tenuous with the rise of Arab nationalism. Ultimately,\nFranklin\u2019s competing aims couldn\u2019t be reconciled, and the program\nended in 1978.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taking Books to the World<\/em> is one of the most compelling studies of Cold War cultural diplomacy to date. By studying one organization in-depth, Laugesen is able to highlight the complexities and contradictions which were endemic to Cold War American politics and culture. Her detailed research and nuanced argument make this book a model of responsible book history work. Even more, Laugesen is an excellent storyteller\u2014her narrative is engaging, suspenseful, and always accessible. By bringing together Cold War, postcolonial, and book history studies in such a way, she expands our understanding of books\u2019 geopolitical soft power and adds to the ever-growing field of Global South studies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kristin L. Matthews
Brigham Young University<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

n Taking Books to the World: American Publishers and the Cultural Cold War, Amanda Laugesen maps out Franklin Publications\u2019 global initiative, \u201ca kind of American Cold War book empire, one that brought American books and the publishing industry to all corners of the globe\u201d (2). She contends that Franklin is both typical of and unique to Cold War American diplomacy. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1458,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"wp-custom-template-post-template-reviews","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1888],"tags":[1897,1942,1953],"class_list":["post-1366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book-review","tag-20th-century","tag-north-america","tag-publishing"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1366"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1366\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5707,"href":"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1366\/revisions\/5707"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}