Selling the American Way - by Laura A Belmonte (Paperback)

About the Book

Selling the American Way documents how U.S. officials defined and defended the American Way of Life in a quest to promote democratic capitalism and discredit communism, but faced great difficulties in reconciling their symbolic America with the complex political, economic, and strategic realities of the Cold War.

Book Synopsis

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.

Review Quotes

"Belmonte has produced an invaluable contribution that should be examined by everyone interested in understanding public diplomacy and in building an effective public diplomacy campaign."-- "American Historical Review"

"Well researched and clearly written, Selling the American Way is a welcome addition to a fast-growing body of literature on propaganda and the 'cultural Cold War.'"-- "Journal of American History"

About the Author

Laura A. Belmonte is Associate Professor of History at Oklahoma State University.