La otra Guerra Fría : Cómo el capitalismo y el comunismo convirtieron la cultura en un campo de batalla

During the Cold War, two irreconcilable worldviews clashed: capitalism and communism. It was a political, economic, and military conflict—but also a cultural and symbolic one. Both sides, led by Washington and Moscow, sought to win the battle of ideas. To this end, they devoted vast resources—in the form of money, espionage, diplomacy, and coercion—to promoting the arts and literature that championed their respective worldviews. The arenas where this cultural battle played out were as varied as they were curious. While the U.S. government promoted Abstract Expressionism as the aesthetic of liberal democracy, Stalin imposed rules requiring the realist novel to broadcast the virtues of the Communist Party; while the CIA subsidized literary magazines, the socialist bloc fostered its own equivalent of James Bond. Louis Armstrong, Dmitri Shostakovich, "Doctor Zhivago", the Beatles, avant-garde cinema, John Wayne, the Latin American Boom, Franco-era art biennials, and even the star of "Knight Rider" were all subject to the logic of warfare. Blending chronicle and essay, and moving between high culture and pop culture, "The Other Cold War" reconstructs numerous episodes of this confrontation. It demonstrates that during those decades—when humanity stood on the brink of total war and nuclear apocalypse—politicians believed in the seductive power of culture and manipulated it. It is an experience whose lessons remain relevant today, now that propaganda and the battle for information have shifted to social media.