Connected in Print: Selecciones del Reader’s Digest, U.S. Cultural Relations, and the Construction of a Global Middle Class, 1940-1960

Abstract

From 1940-1980 the magazine The Reader’s Digest gained a global readership with over 40 editions in 21 languages. Throughout this period, Reader’s Digest was known for its simplistic, varied stories on a range of topics, its repetitive “common sense” approach—and its staunch anti-communist message, which reflected the perspective of its editors as well as a longstanding collaboration between those editors and the U.S. government’s various cultural relations programs. Among the most commercially successful editions of the magazine was its Spanish Language Latin American monthly, launched not as a part of an anti-communist campaign, but in coordination with the U.S. government to counter Axis propaganda in the region. This article takes a closer look at this story, using documents from the U.S. National Archives, the magazine itself, as well as a variety of other press sources. This article takes a closer look at this story, using documents from the U.S. National Archives, the magazine, as well as a variety of other press sources, to untangle the connections between the first truly-global U.S. consumer magazine, the U.S. geopolitical project, and the evolution of the idea of a global middle class. First, it describes the relationship between the launch of Reader’s Digest’s Latin American edition and U.S. cultural campaign’s wartime initiatives; Second, it examines the magazine’s content, illustrating how the notion of a global connection was depicted in its pages. Taken together, these sections illustrate how the transnational mass media not only normalized the notion of a righteous middle class but also narrated group’s globality, seeking to implicate the reader in its scope.