Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction -- "Let's not be suckers again" : propaganda analysis, progressivism, and American foreign relations between the world wars -- "Enlightened and far-sighted leadership" : cultural diplomacy : Latin American precedents and wartime expansion -- Journalist or diplomat? : wartime broadcasting at the Voice of America -- "A forum is also a battleground" : the founding of UNESCO -- The limits of reciprocity : cultural diplomacy in the post-war world order -- "Threats to our virtue" : propaganda, information and the Cold War -- Cultural democracy and the Iron Curtain : UNESCO, multilateralism and the Cold War -- Conclusion.

"Covering the crucial period between 1936 and 1953, this book explains how new notions of propaganda as reciprocal exchange, cultural engagement, and enlightening information paved the way for innovations in U.S. diplomatic practice. Through a comparative analysis of the State Department's Division of Cultural Relations, the government radio station Voice of America, and drawing extensively on U.S. foreign policy archives, this book shows how America's liberal traditions were reconciled with the task of influencing and attracting publics abroad"--