Books Across Borders: UNESCO and the Politics of Postwar Cultural Reconstruction, 1945-1951 is a history of the emotional, ideological, informational, and technical power and meaning of books and libraries in the aftermath of World War II, examined through the cultural reconstruction activities undertaken by the Libraries Section of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The book focuses on the key actors and on-the-ground work of the Libraries Section in four central areas: empowering libraries around the world to acquire the books they wanted and needed; facilitating expanded global production of quality translations and affordable books; participating in debates over the contested fate of confiscated books and displaced libraries; and formulating notions of cultural rights as human rights. Through examples from France, Poland, and surviving Jewish Europe, this book provides new insight into the complexities and specificities of UNESCO's role in the realm of books, libraries, and networks of information exchange during the early postwar, post-Holocaust, Cold War years.

Highlights the history of the postwar reconstruction of libraries via UNESCO Provides insight into the impact of WWII on access to books, translations, and libraries Frames the shaping of the idea of cultural rights

Autorentext

Miriam Intrator is Special Collections Librarian responsible for rare books at Ohio University, USA. She received her PhD in Modern European History from the Graduate Center, City University of New York, USA, in 2013, and received the 2015 Phyllis Dain Library History Dissertation Award.

Inhalt

Chapter One - Introduction: The UNESCO Libraries Section.- Chapter Two - Wartime Planning, Postwar Response.- Chapter Three - Books between Libraries: Sharing, Exchange, and Purchasing.- Chapter Four - Books across Borders: Translation and Cheap Books.- Chapter Five - The Contested Fate of Confiscated Books and Objectionable Literature.- Chapter Six - Non-Restitutable Books and The Library That Never Was.- Chapter Seven - Access to Books, Libraries, and Information: Cultural Right, Human Right.- Chapter Eight - Conclusion: From the Postwar to Today.

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