Books Across Borders: UNESCO and the Politics of Postwar Cultural Reconstruction, 1945–1951

Abstract

The story of UNESCO in the history of post–Second World War internationalism and globalization is one that is increasingly occupying scholars. In Books Across Borders, Miriam Intrator, book and library historian and currently Special Collections librarian at Ohio University, makes an important contribution to this growing body of work. She focuses her attention on the story of the earliest days of UNESCO as the fledgling organization sought to play a guiding role in the cultural reconstruction of war-ravaged Europe. Her primary focus is the work that was undertaken in France and Poland, as well as the overarching politics, activities, and ideologies of UNESCO.As Intrator and others have made clear, the Second World War's catastrophic impact included the looting and destruction of books and printed material, as well as the ideological manipulation and censorship of print by numerous regimes, most notably that of Nazi Germany. During the war, Nazi burning of books was taken as a powerful symbol of totalitarian intolerance of knowledge, democracy, and intellectual freedom. Nazi book burning was also a harbinger of the far more sinister intentions of the regime. In response to this, the Allies mobilized books and libraries as “weapons in the war of ideas,” as the US Council on Book in Wartime put it. Schemes to provide books to the American public, US troops, and ultimately liberated Europe were developed during the war. So the fact that books and libraries should and would form an important part of postwar cultural reconstruction was therefore unsurprising.It is this history that Intrator seeks to uncover. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) had its origins in the Conference of Allied Ministers of Education (CAME), established in 1942. CAME included a Books and Periodicals Commission (BPC), and from 1943 the BPC had a subcommission focused on war-damaged libraries. One of the primary efforts of the BPC was to collect books and printed materials for distribution to war-affected libraries after the war ended.With the establishment of UNESCO in November 1945, surveying the extent of damages and losses to scholarly networks, libraries, archives, publishers, and the printing and bookselling industry became a priority. An International Clearing House for Publications was created to help rebuild collections. UNESCO also developed other schemes for helping reconstruct book and library infrastructure, including introducing a newsletter that became the UNESCO Bulletin for Libraries and a book coupon scheme that allowed countries with soft currencies to more easily purchase books from hard-currency countries. Other UNESCO initiatives were focused on fulfilling its goal of improving the global free flow of knowledge—regarded by UNESCO as a major way in which future peace and human rights could be assured—such as boosting translation activity and ensuring the better distribution of translated works.A major challenge in the immediate aftermath of the war was the status of confiscated and looted Jewish books. For nearly one million books, neither the original owners nor surviving relatives could be located, a legacy of the recent horrors. But there was some dispute over what to do with these collections—should they go to Palestine or stay in Europe? Ultimately, UNESCO would play little role in this, with the American-based Jewish Cultural Reconstruction ensuring that books went primarily to the United States and Israel. Intrator's work on the politics involved here is particularly fascinating. The question of how to define “cultural rights” was another point of contention that UNESCO was keen to help guide yet remained disputed. “Human rights” broadly defined became a guiding principle for UNESCO, yet the Cold War and the interests of national politics would complicate its efforts.Intrator's excellent book is based on extensive research in a variety of archives, including archives in Poland, France, and Denmark, as well as the UNESCO Archives and the American Jewish Archives. Using this material, Intrator weaves together an original and significant chapter in the history of UNESCO and in the history of cultural reconstruction in post–Second World War Europe. It is well written and tells a complex tale in a clear and careful way. It also brings to light the story of a number of librarians, many of whom had experienced the war's traumas first-hand and were determined to rebuild the book collections that they had seen destroyed.Intrator's book is an original contribution that fills a gap in the literature. It complements the work of scholars who have concentrated on the fate of books and libraries during the Second World War, such as the collection edited by Jonathan Rose, The Holocaust and the Book: Destruction and Preservation (2001) and Kathy Peiss's Information Hunters: When Librarians, Soldiers, and Spies Banded Together in World War II Europe (2020). It also bridges a gap between these works focused on the war and studies of books and library work during the Cold War, such as my own Globalizing the Library: Librarians and Development Work, 1945–1970 (2019).While librarians and book historians will find this book of great interest, it also deserves a broader audience. Intrator's study is invaluable for those who are interested in the history of global organizations such as UNESCO and its role in shaping understandings of culture after the Second World War, as well as its successes and failures on the ground. It is also of interest to those who want to know more about the political issues that were at stake in the immediate aftermath of the end of the war. It provides a clear case study of the way international organizations play a role in the provision and distribution of books; as Intrator shows through her argument, the politics and dynamics of the “soft power” of such organizations must be acknowledged.Near the beginning of Books Across Borders, Intrator quotes Polish librarian Helena Więckowska writing in 1946 about the National Library of Poland. (Poland lost over half of its over six million volumes between 1939 and 1945; its special collections were destroyed by the Germans after the Warsaw Uprising.) Więckowska talked about books being the “most essential cell” of the living organism that is a library. Any attempt at reconstruction, she argued, had to treat the library as such, with care and attention. Intrator reflects that “the emotional, practical, symbolic, and intellectual relationships of individuals, institutions, and organizations with books and libraries are fundamental to [the history]” that she seeks to write. Her words capture the power and significance of writing the history of books and libraries, and Intrator has made an essential contribution to this endeavor.