America and the Intellectual Cold Wars in Europe: Shepard Stone between Philanthropy, Academy, and Diplomacy

Abstract

This book's main thesis is that, in addition to the geopolitical Cold War in the wake of World War II, there was another struggle, “the intellectual cold war” (also referred to as “the cold culture war”). The author argues that, while the U.S.-Soviet power struggle had a cultural dimension, “the intellectual cold war” between the United States and its European allies was in some sense even more serious. This was because it antedated the Cold War and went back to the nineteenth century, when European intellectuals became aware of, and expressed their disdain for, American mass culture. The transatlantic misgivings persisted into the post-1945 years, when European intellectuals, while they readily acknowledged their indebtedness to the United States for the defeat of Nazi Germany and the containment of the Soviet Union, became concerned with what they took to be American attempts to impose their habits of thought and ways of life upon the world. From the point of view of American officials and intellectuals, the conflict had somehow to be resolved, in order both to prevent the Communists from taking advantage of the rift and to integrate Europe into a liberal capitalist international system.