Improvised Continent: Pan-Americanism and Cultural Exchange (The Arts and Intellectual Life in Modern America)

Synopsis

How Does A Country In The Process Of Becoming A World Power Prepare Its Citizens For The Responsibilities Of Global Leadership? In Improvised Continent, Richard Candida Smith Answers This Question By Illuminating The Forgotten Story Of How, Over The Course Of The Twentieth Century, Cultural Exchange Programs, Some Run By The Government And Others By Philanthropies And Major Cultural Institutions, Brought Many Of The Most Important Artists And Writers Of Latin America To Live And Work In The United States. Improvised Continent Is The First Book To Focus On Cultural Exchange Inside The United States And How Americans Responded To Latin American Writers And Artists. Moving Masterfully Between The History Of Ideas, Biography, Institutional History And Politics, And International Relations, And Engaging Works In French, German, Spanish, And Portuguese, Candida Smith Synthesizes Over Seventy Years Of Pan-american Cultural Activity In The United States. The Stories Behind Diego Rivera's Murals, The Movies Of Alejandro G. Inarritu, The Poetry Of Gabriela Mistral, The Photography Of Genevieve Naylor, And The Novels Of Carlos Fuentes-these Works And Artists, Along With Many Others, Challenged U.s. Citizens About Their Place In The World And About The Kind Of Global Relations The Country's Interests Could Allow. Improvised Continent Provides A Profoundly Compassionate Portrayal Of The Latin American Artists And Writers Who Believed Their Practices Might Create A More Humane World. Machine Generated Contents Note: Ch. 1 Pan-american Culture -- Ch. 2 National Ways Of Looking -- Ch. 3 In The American Grain -- Ch. 4 The Muralists Arrive -- Ch. 5 Responding To Global Crisis -- Ch. 6 Making Latin American Allies Visible -- Ch. 7 Black Cat On A Field Of Snow -- Ch. 8 On The Road For The Good Neighbor Policy -- Ch. 9 Postwar Transitions: From Exchange To Information -- Ch. 10 Taking Sides In The Cold War -- Ch. 11 The New Latin American Novel In The United States -- Ch. 12 I Now Believe That American Imperialism Is Real -- Ch. 13 Exiting Pan-americanism -- Ch. 14 A Twenty-first-century American Epiphany. Richard Cándida Smith. Includes Bibliographical References (pages 281-330) And Index.