The Best of All Possible Worlds. USA 1949-1959: God’s Own Country

Ugo Rossi

doi:10.6092/issn.2611-0075/9667

Authors

Ugo Rossi Iuav University of Venezia http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0048-0537

Ugo Rossi, trained as architect in Venice and Milan. After his Master Degree, at the Polytechnic of Milan, he furthered his education at Venice Iuav University, achieving a Ph.D. with a thesis on Bernard Rudofsky. Rossi’s theoretical and practice interests are focused on the investigation of the different meanings of modernity and the intersections between history and culture in the critical practice of modern and contemporary architecture. His es- says and articles were published in books, exhibition catalogues, national and international journals. He edited Tradizione e Modernità, l’influsso dell’architettura ordinaria nel moderno (LetteraVentidue, Macerata, 2015).
He is the author of Bernard Rudofsky. Architect (CLEAN, Naples, 2016). Currently he is working on a new book: “Visions of Modern Architecture”.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.2611-0075/9667

Keywords:

Marshall Plan, Cold War, Peter Harnden, The Caravan of Peace Exhibition, Atoms for Peace Exhibition

Abstract

After the 1945 atomic bombings over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the awareness of the two world super powers – USA-URSS – that conventional arm would have not been adequate anymore for political confrontation, led the two opposite blocks to the Cold War, fought almost exclusively on the basis of persuasion. Following WWII, the US, having to face the quick and unwanted unfolding of communism over the rubles and ruins of Europe, decided to organize their own propaganda machine to contrast the Soviet “soft power”. This paper intends to deal with the persuasive intent delivered by the US – with Shows, Exhibitions, International Fair and the help of the whole government apparatus – in order to convincingly popularize the advantages of their way of living throughout the world. It will be pointed out how, in cultural and anthropological terms, such initiatives led to the penetration of American culture, a sort of colonization, all over the world. An enormous endeavor of persuasion aimed to inform and convince that what the American way of life could secure to everybody would have been, amongst other things, a prosperous world of freedom, the best of all possible worlds.

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The Best of All Possible Worlds. USA 1949-1959: God’s Own Country

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