International Harmony: Threat or Menace? U.S. Youth Services Librarians and Cold War Censorship, 1946-1955

The Greatest Subversive Plot in History? The American Radical Right and Anti-UNESCO Campaigning

“…On 26 August 1952, over 500 people attended a subsequent meeting to voice their concerns. While some attendees again vocalized their support for UNESCO’s textbook, by far the predominant opinion was that the textbook was un-American, written by communist agents, and ought to be banned (Benemann, 1977; Jenkins, 2001; Mediavilla, 1997; Zimmerman, 2002).…”

“…Florence Fowler Lyons drew on her experiences organizing a similar campaign in 1947 against the textbook series Building America . A radical anticommunist writer and activist, Lyons wrote and circulated a pamphlet, ‘The Menace of UNESCO’, in which she warned of the organization’s plot to brainwash the country’s children (Jenkins, 2001). When the 1953 Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Government Operations asked Lyons how she became interested in UNESCO, she stated: The first interest became in preparing to do a book against world government, and I was looking through the library files under the United Nations, and came across a course of study designed for a course called the E and S course.…”

“…With success in California, anti-UNESCO censorship campaigns were organized throughout the nation, and similar instances of censorship occurred (Janson and Eismann, 1963; Olsen, 2006). Of course not all school boards, library associations, and individual librarians were persuaded that UNESCO was a domestic threat, and many refused to ban or to remove the organization’s books from their shelves (Jenkins, 2001). But even the smallest victory motivated anti-UNESCO textbook campaigns further and brought more publicity to, and interest in, the Radical Right, which allowed them to continue their campaigns with zeal.…”

“…As noted above, Florence Lyons had organized a Los Angeles campaign to ban Building America in 1947 and similar campaigns against that textbook series occurred throughout the country that year. In Pasadena, California right-wing activists had campaigned successfully in 1950 to ban another textbook, American Government , and succeeded in having the superintendent of schools fired (Heale, 1986; Jenkins, 2001; Mediavilla, 1997; Olsen, 2006; Zimmerman, 2002).…”

“…The Hearst-owned Chicago Tribune published lists of subversive books culled largely from Cain’s magazine, and national conservative radio commentators like Fulton Lewis Jr. and John T. Flynn similarly publicized the issue in their radio broadcasts. The US Chamber of Commerce distributed anticommunist literature instructing patriotic Americans on how to organize and oppose communism in all its forms (Benowitz, 2009; Jenkins, 2001; Zimmerman, 2002). It was through this print and radio culture that Radical Right activists learned about threats and tactics, as well as campaign failures and successes around the country; and it was through this media that common meanings and culture were framed and disseminated.…”