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Empire of Ideas: The Origins of Public Diplomacy and the Transformation of U. S. Foreign Policy
Covering the period from 1936 to 1953, Empire of Ideas reveals how and why image first became a component of foreign policy, prompting policymakers to embrace such techniques as propaganda, educational exchanges, cultural exhibits, overseas libraries, and domestic public relations.
Drawing upon exhaustive research in official government records and the private papers of top officials in the Roosevelt and Truman administrations, including newly declassified material, Justin Hart takes the reader back to the dawn of what Time-Life publisher Henry Luce would famously call the "American century," when U.S. policymakers first began to think of the nation's image as a foreign policy issue. Beginning with the Buenos Aires Conference in 1936--which grew out of FDR's Good Neighbor Policy toward Latin America--Hart traces the dramatic growth of public diplomacy in the war years and beyond. The book describes how the State Department established the position of Assistant Secretary of State for Public and Cultural Affairs in 1944, with Archibald MacLeish--the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and Librarian of Congress--the first to fill the post. Hart shows that the ideas of MacLeish became central to the evolution of public diplomacy, and his influence would be felt long after
his tenure in government service ended. The book examines a wide variety of propaganda programs, including the Voice of America, and concludes with the creation of the United States Information Agency in 1953, bringing an end to the first phase of U. S. public diplomacy.
Empire of Ideas remains highly relevant today, when U. S. officials have launched full-scale propaganda to combat negative perceptions in the Arab world and elsewhere. Hart's study illuminates the similar efforts of a previous generation of policymakers, explaining why our ability to shape our image is, in the end, quite limited.
Drawing upon exhaustive research in official government records and the private papers of top officials in the Roosevelt and Truman administrations, including newly declassified material, Justin Hart takes the reader back to the dawn of what Time-Life publisher Henry Luce would famously call the "American century," when U.S. policymakers first began to think of the nation's image as a foreign policy issue. Beginning with the Buenos Aires Conference in 1936--which grew out of FDR's Good Neighbor Policy toward Latin America--Hart traces the dramatic growth of public diplomacy in the war years and beyond. The book describes how the State Department established the position of Assistant Secretary of State for Public and Cultural Affairs in 1944, with Archibald MacLeish--the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and Librarian of Congress--the first to fill the post. Hart shows that the ideas of MacLeish became central to the evolution of public diplomacy, and his influence would be felt long after
his tenure in government service ended. The book examines a wide variety of propaganda programs, including the Voice of America, and concludes with the creation of the United States Information Agency in 1953, bringing an end to the first phase of U. S. public diplomacy.
Empire of Ideas remains highly relevant today, when U. S. officials have launched full-scale propaganda to combat negative perceptions in the Arab world and elsewhere. Hart's study illuminates the similar efforts of a previous generation of policymakers, explaining why our ability to shape our image is, in the end, quite limited.
296 pages, Hardcover
First published December 27, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
September 27, 2022
I found Empire of Ideas a deep dive on an aspect of US foreign policy I was largely ignorant of the roots of, but one that was a frustrating and tedious read. To be certain, Hart has clearly done an incredible amount of research, and has certainly captured the multiple sea changes that occurred between FDR and Eisenhower. However, I'm not sure if Hart sufficiently transformed the material from the scholarly to the nonfiction realm to be serviceable to the average reader. Academics will likely appreciate the reference material, but I'm afraid the average practitioner/lay reader may struggle to appreciate the work that has gone into Hart's work.
A summary as follows:
The roots of public diplomacy were sown after the end of the first world war, in a field tilled by the rise in American hegemony, shifting global trends of how diplomacy is conducted and the rising importance of the "common" man, and the tail end of U.S. isolationism. Hart identifies the Buenos Aires conference of 1936 as the first sprout of Public Diplomacy wherein FDR pioneered educational exchanges (of just 2 graduate students!) amounts the contries of the americas. This quickly also encompassed academic, professional, and cultural exchanges as part of FDR's "good neighbor" policy. The distinctions between "diplomacy" "foreign Policy" and "foreign relations" began to be appreciated and crystallized.
With the advent of WWII, propaganda played a critical role and the government developed a professional class of bureaucrats more skilled in information warfare than before. The encroachment of Axis propaganda (television, radio, broadcasters, etc) raised U.S. policymaker's understanding that "projecting America" was an important aspect of competition.
After the end of WWII, USG began introducing the use of ad techniques, notably public opinion polling, and policy makers began to understand that foreign perceptions are foreign relations. For a while, the status quo of private companies (eg, NBC) being responsible for content delivery and the USG merely "greasing the wheels" where content delivery may be difficult with transponders and other technical equipment was maintained, but after a series of scandals the production of information was entirely housed under USG auspices and offices. Propagandists consistently debate the need to provide a flattering picture of America VS. the value of truth telling.
A real sea change began with the specter of communism in Europe. Faced with the potential collapse of Greece and Turkey following the imminent retreat of British support, state department propagandists sold foreign affairs to a domestic audience for the first time in an echo of future PIO efforts. Cold war fears continued as the USSR set up a communist information bureau and U.S. policy makers turned hawkish on psychological operations, particularly out of the NSC. Joseph McCarthy pummels the state department for alleged communist sympathies, which signaled the death knell of the state department's public diplomacy efforts and the passing of the baton to the US Information Agency until the USIA's end in the 90s.
A summary as follows:
The roots of public diplomacy were sown after the end of the first world war, in a field tilled by the rise in American hegemony, shifting global trends of how diplomacy is conducted and the rising importance of the "common" man, and the tail end of U.S. isolationism. Hart identifies the Buenos Aires conference of 1936 as the first sprout of Public Diplomacy wherein FDR pioneered educational exchanges (of just 2 graduate students!) amounts the contries of the americas. This quickly also encompassed academic, professional, and cultural exchanges as part of FDR's "good neighbor" policy. The distinctions between "diplomacy" "foreign Policy" and "foreign relations" began to be appreciated and crystallized.
With the advent of WWII, propaganda played a critical role and the government developed a professional class of bureaucrats more skilled in information warfare than before. The encroachment of Axis propaganda (television, radio, broadcasters, etc) raised U.S. policymaker's understanding that "projecting America" was an important aspect of competition.
After the end of WWII, USG began introducing the use of ad techniques, notably public opinion polling, and policy makers began to understand that foreign perceptions are foreign relations. For a while, the status quo of private companies (eg, NBC) being responsible for content delivery and the USG merely "greasing the wheels" where content delivery may be difficult with transponders and other technical equipment was maintained, but after a series of scandals the production of information was entirely housed under USG auspices and offices. Propagandists consistently debate the need to provide a flattering picture of America VS. the value of truth telling.
A real sea change began with the specter of communism in Europe. Faced with the potential collapse of Greece and Turkey following the imminent retreat of British support, state department propagandists sold foreign affairs to a domestic audience for the first time in an echo of future PIO efforts. Cold war fears continued as the USSR set up a communist information bureau and U.S. policy makers turned hawkish on psychological operations, particularly out of the NSC. Joseph McCarthy pummels the state department for alleged communist sympathies, which signaled the death knell of the state department's public diplomacy efforts and the passing of the baton to the US Information Agency until the USIA's end in the 90s.
March 11, 2018
Well written, well researched account of the origins of public diplomacy in US foreign policy. The author based his definition of public diplomacy on contemporary models, including everything from the Voice of America’s propaganda campaigns to Fulbright exchanges. Do note that the author explicitly limits his account to overt programs—you will not learn about the CIA’s role in cultural diplomacy here. Chronology focuses on the 1930s to the early 1950s, as author explicitly argues for continuity across WWII.
This book is definitely intended for specialists, but is written clearly enough, with enough background information, to be read by anyone interested in the history of US foreign policy.
This book is definitely intended for specialists, but is written clearly enough, with enough background information, to be read by anyone interested in the history of US foreign policy.
February 6, 2015
I really enjoyed that book, a very very detailed information, may sounds a bit hard to go through it, especially if English is not you native language but definitely worth the trouble. hart talkes about diplomacy Vs propaganda during the cold war, and he present this different range of ideas, institutions, departments, organizations and persons who contributed in building standards of public diplomacy in the United States
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews