What Johnny Reads that Ivan Doesn't: Children's Literature as a Cultural Front in the Early Cold War

Books have long been held as powerful ideological and educational tools. Americans have often wrestled with the question of which books may be dangerous and whether they should be available to the general public, especially children. This debate has heightened in recent years with some states and city councils opting to remove books from classrooms and libraries that some people find offensive or indecent. This is not a new national conversation, though. It has been a nearly ongoing one since the mid-twentieth century. For historians, according to Paul Deane, children’s literature can be “one of the most fruitful sources of knowledge about the United States and its citizens, their attitudes, prejudices, values, and institutions” (Mirrors of American Culture vii). This study examines the ways in which children’s literature served as a cultural front during the Cold War.

From the 1940s through the 1960s, the government, religious institutions, and other civic organizations influenced children’s education and literature through initiatives like the National Defense Education Act, the National Organization for Decent Literature, and Citizens for Decency. The American Library Association created a Library Bill of Rights to minimize negative impacts of censorship and curation. Concurrently, authors published exposés on the shortcomings of the American education system like Arther S. Trace Jr.’s What Ivan Knows that Johnny Doesn’t. Trace compared Soviet education with its American counterpart to identify weaknesses, particularly regarding science and math. Literacy rates were also scrutinized. Combined, these kinds of domestic issues and the war against godless communism (and all its moral failings) fostered a unique (and growing) microcosm of the cultural Cold War in children’s literature. However, little has been done to weave a broader tapestry of the impacts these influences had on children’s literature.

This study reveals the values, ideals, morals, and other cultural indicators that were prevalent in children’s reading material between 1947 and 1965. Understanding the influences that made children’s literature and reading material a cultural front, spanning from government initiatives and religious and civic organizations to simple curation by authors, publishers, librarians, schools, and parents, the study sheds light on the broader cultural Cold War, especially given the importance placed on children’s books and the immense power they wield.

By examining a wide variety of children’s reading materials, including children’s books and periodicals, like The Weekly Reader and Highlights, the researcher demonstrates that certain cultural themes, motifs, and ideas were highlighted and encouraged during the Cold War and further explores how those aspects reflect broader American culture and how children’s literature was used as a front in the Cultural Cold War. This study employs interdisciplinary methods, examining not only language, but also images in children’s literature, which makes a poster format especially conducive to sharing this research. It allows participants to finger the pages of some books themselves, see images blown up, and it also allows the researcher to engage more closely with interested parties to improve future iterations of the research.