How the Ad Council and federal government influenced America’s perception of socialism after WWII

No country on earth, not even formerly fascist countries, has been so thoroughly injected with anti-communism as the United States.

The Conversation

Oana Godeanu-Kenworthy is an Associate Teaching Professor of American Studies at the Department of Global and Intercultural Studies, Miami University in Ohio. She is a scholar of American culture with an interest in the relationship between political ideologies and popular culture. In her research, she has found that America’s antipathy toward socialism may not be an accident. The Ad Council and American corporate interests produced materials that promoted the virtues of capitalism and free enterprise in America while simultaneously demonizing the alternative -- socialism -- which was often conflated with communism. This video presents clips from two films that were part of that effort, “It’s Everybody’s Business” from 1954 and “Make Mine Freedom” from 1948. The full versions of some of these films are available at the links below- Meet King Joe- https://archive.org/details/meet-king... Why Play Leap Frog?- https://archive.org/details/WhyPlayL1949 It’s Everybody’s Business- https://archive.org/details/ItsEvery1954 Make Mine Freedom- https://archive.org/details/MakeMine1948 Oana Godeanu-Kenworthy’s article at The Conversation US can be found at https://theconversation.com/how-socia...

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