| "Reel Relations" is an innovative, original, and important contribution to the so-called "new international history" that explores the interplay between popular culture/the mass media, in this case film, and foreign affairs. Based upon multiarchival research in the United States, Great Britain, and Russia, it examines the ways in which American, British, and Soviet policymakers sought to hasten victory in the Second World War by mobilizing cinematic propaganda to unify what was a disparate alliance of capitalist, socialist, democratic, and authoritarian states. These efforts were somewhat successful in shaping attitudes. But this study shows that they also added previously unknown layers of complexity to growing inter-allied tensions, as propagandists exploited expanded cultural ties to promote divergent ideologies and ways of life and to capture media markets not only in allied countries, but across liberated Europe as well.; By profiting from, and interacting with, the methodologies, theories, and concerns of both social/cultural and diplomatic historians, my work bridges boundaries separating historical subfields. While others have often ignored the state and issues of (inter)national power, the dissertation is significant in that it demonstrates that culture can be a weapon of high politics and a means for achieving the state's domestic and foreign goals. That is, through empirical evidence, "Reel Relations" illustrates the linkages between culture and power, a nexus that previously has seemed elusive. While showing how U.S. policymakers, who increasingly appreciated cultural diplomacy's utility, forged a corporatist relationship with Hollywood, promoted its products overseas, and thus hastened the global spread of American culture, the work also makes an important contribution to our understanding of Americanization. Finally, using recently opened Soviet archives, this pioneering research adds to the academy's emerging grasp of Soviet-American cultural interaction and broadens historical scholarship about Big Three relations that has traditionally been limited to military, diplomatic, or economic issues. |
