The Franklin Books Program: Translation and the Projection of the American Soft Power in the Cold Wa...

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" The Franklin Books Program: Translation and the Projection of the American Soft Power in the Cold War "
Asiri, Ali M. Shamma, Tarek

Document Type	:	Latin Dissertation
Language of Document	:	English
Record Number	:	1058786
Doc. No	:	TL57903
Main Entry	:	Asiri, Ali M.
Title & Author	:	The Franklin Books Program: Translation and the Projection of the American Soft Power in the Cold War\ Asiri, Ali M.Shamma, Tarek
College	:	State University of New York at Binghamton
Date	:	2021
Degree	:	Ph.D.
student score	:	2021
Note	:	334 p.
Abstract	:	In the period of Cultural Cod War, mainly in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, the USA government engaged with the Middle East and other developing countries through its cultural diplomacy and modernization efforts. Among the US channels of intervention were book industry activities. American publishers were very keen on promoting their books in postwar translation programs. Franklin Books Program (FBP) represents one of these programs. One of its main tasks throughout its operation was translating American-authored books into several languages, Arabic among them. FBP was conceived of as just one more USA non-governmental organizations (NGO) although it was only able to start its work immediately in 1952 because of a half-million US dollar grant that Mr. Dan Lacy persuaded the State Department to give Franklin Corporation. Eventually the government gave additional large sums of money to the Corporation. Although FBP declared that it was not going to be made into a propagandistic machine for the American government, the kind of its books dissemination was seen as a political and ideological issue. FBP was a typical example of the types of programs that helped disseminate information of a political and ideological nature while concealing governmental origins and funding and not explicitly showing any superiority of the West or deficiency of the Soviet Union. The main interest of the dissertation is to show the extent of the direct involvement of the USA in the FBP-driven cultural projects in Egypt—especially the translation and mass distribution of American-authored books—and the manifestations of America’s soft power projection. Examining these manifestations will show how FBP managed to skillfully execute its projects, achieve its goals, and leaves its legacy in Arabic culture. The researcher resorted to the historical archives and the translation-related materials—including the translations themselves—to conclude that the Franklin activities in Egypt including translation were designed primarily for serving the US’s long-term cultural cold war ends.
Descriptor	:	Management
	:	Political science
	:	Translation studies
Added Entry	:	Shamma, Tarek
Added Entry	:	State University of New York at Binghamton