The Demise of the Congress for Cultural Freedom: Transatlantic Intellectual Consensus and "Vital Center" Liberalism, 1950-1967

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dc.contributor.advisorGiovacchini, Saverioen_US
dc.contributor.authorKamen, Scott C.en_US
dc.contributor.departmentHistoryen_US
dc.contributor.publisherDigital Repository at the University of Marylanden_US
dc.contributor.publisherUniversity of Maryland (College Park, Md.)en_US
dc.date.accessioned2011-07-08T05:31:37Z
dc.date.available2011-07-08T05:31:37Z
dc.date.issued2011en_US
dc.description.abstractFrom the 1950 to 1967, the U.S. government, employing the newly formed CIA, covertly provided the majority of the funding for an international organization comprised primarily of Western non-communist left intellectuals known as the Congress for Cultural Freedom. The Paris-based Congress saw its primary mission as facilitating cooperative networks of non-communist left intellectuals in order to sway the intelligentsia of Western Europe away from its lingering fascination with communism. This thesis explores how the Congress largely succeeded in the 1950s in establishing a cohesive international network of intellectuals by fostering a transatlantic consensus around "vital center" liberalism as a necessary guardian of the Western cultural intellectual tradition in the face of perceived communist threats. By examining the ways in which developments in the 1960s shattered this transatlantic consensus this thesis demonstrates how the Congress suffered an inevitable demise as Western intellectuals became disillusioned with American liberalism of the "vital center."en_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/11757
dc.subject.pqcontrolledHistoryen_US
dc.subject.pqcontrolledAmerican Historyen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledAnti-Communismen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledCommunismen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledCongress for Cultural Freedomen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledIntellectualsen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledLiberalismen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledTransatlanticen_US
dc.titleThe Demise of the Congress for Cultural Freedom: Transatlantic Intellectual Consensus and "Vital Center" Liberalism, 1950-1967en_US
dc.typeThesisen_US

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