Title Hot books in the Cold War : the CIA-funded secret Western book distribution program behind the Iron Curtain / Alfred A. Reisch

Published Budapest ; New York : Central European University Press, 2013 ©2013

Click on the following:
ProQuest Ebook Central
EBSCO eBooks
ACLS Humanities E-Book

Copies

Description 1 online resource (xxviii, 549 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates) : illustrations (some color), portraits (some color) Contents Origins, objectives, and launching of the book project under Sam Walker -- Titles, contents, numbers, targets, and aims of the mailings -- The man in the grey suit : George C. Minden and his concept of cultural and ideological competition -- The New York Book Center : books, books, and more books -- The book project reaches new heights : the golden age of the 1960s -- Western and émigré books and periodicals published with covert support -- New opportunities through East-West contacts -- The early 1970s : the international advisory council -- A lasting enemy -- The communist regimes on the defensive : criticisms, warnings, and attacks -- The person-to-person distribution program : a direct way to reach East Europeans, the early Polish program 1958-1959 -- Another vehicle for reaching the people of eastern Europe : the person-to-person distribution program and personalized mailings -- The most important book distribution point : Vienna -- Letters from Poland, the crucial country -- Letters from Czechoslovakia before and after 1968 -- Letters from Hungary under goulash communism -- Letters from Romania under the Ceausescu regime -- Letters from Bulgaria despite very strict censorship -- The last seventeen years : International Literary Centre, Ltd., East Europe, and the USSR -- The impact of the book distribution project and its contribution to the ideological victory of the West Summary This book tells the story of the secret book distribution program financed by the CIA to Eastern Europe during the Cold War. The book program, at its height between 1957 and 1970, was one of the least known but most effective methods of penetrating the Iron Curtain, and reached thousands of intellectuals and professionals in the Soviet Bloc. The author conducted thorough research on the key personalities involved in the book program, especially the two key figures: S.S. Walker, who initiated the idea of a "mailing project," and G.C. Minden, who developed the program into one of the most effective political and psychological tools of the Cold War. The book includes chapters on the vagaries of censorship and on the interception of books by communist authorities based on personal letters and accounts from recipients of Western material Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 527-535) and index Notes Print version record Subject Books and reading -- Europe, Eastern -- History -- 20th century Books and reading -- Communist countries -- History -- 20th century Book distribution programs. Publishers and publishing -- Political aspects Censorship -- Europe, Eastern -- History -- 20th century Censorship -- Communist countries -- History -- 20th century Propaganda, Anti-communist. Propaganda, International. Cold War. LITERARY CRITICISM -- Books & Reading. HISTORY -- Modern -- 20th Century. Book distribution programs Books and reading Censorship Propaganda, Anti-communist Propaganda, International Publishers and publishing -- Political aspects Communist countries Eastern Europe Genre/Form History Form Electronic book ISBN 9786155225352 6155225354

  Permalink