A Cultural Empire? American Marshall Plan Propaganda in Europe
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2019-04-05
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en
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This thesis explores the potential of the United States as Cultural Empire during the Marshall Plan years by analyzing three selected posters from the poster competition in 1950 and the well-known emblem of the aid program. To be able to do so, this thesis presents a historic and political overview of the intentions of the Marshall Plan and subsequent American influence in Europe. This includes the discussion of the impact of the Marshall Plan in academic research over the past four decades, an overview of new developments in public diplomacy and public policy, the necessity for soft power, and importance of the positive projection of the ‘image’ of a nation in the ideological context of the Cold War. Juxtaposing the traditional meaning of empire to the newly suggested definition of Cultural Empire, with characteristics ascribed to Americanization, the myth of American Exceptionalism, and subsequent formation of cultural memory, makes for a coherent argument of how the Marshall Plan contributed to the status of America as Cultural Empire.
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