Confronting America

“Brogi masterfully examines US efforts to counter influence of the French and Italian communist parties throughout the Cold War.” — CHOICE

“Confronting America adds significantly to our understanding of Washington’s successful post-World War II policies in Western Europe and its ability to forge a Western alliance.” — David F. Schmitz, Journal of American History

“Critically important. . . . Brogi has told us a unique and fascinating story and illuminated an otherwise unexplored yet critical aspect of the Cold War.” — Irwin Wall, University of California, Riverside, H-Diplo Roundtable

“Impressive. . . . A significant contribution to the historiography of the Cold War, and illustrates the possibilities of multi-archival research for U.S. foreign relations and international history.” — Cercles

“One would be hard pressed to find a more suitable candidate than Alessandro Brogi to write a comparative account of the Cold War relationship(s) between France, Italy, and the United States. . . . [A] testimony to the fact that work in Western archives continues to bear rich fruit.” — Kaeten Mistry, University of East Anglia, H-Diplo Roundtable

“An extremely rich survey of forty years of transatlantic relations, trespassing the limits of the Cold War and delving into cultural history, theories of modernization, patterns of Americanization and much more. . . . Insightful and very useful.” — Leopoldo Nuti, Università degli Studi Roma Tre, H-Diplo Roundtable

“Particularly valuable. . . . Exhaustive, thoroughly researched, and reflective.” — Charles Cogan, Harvard University, H-Diplo Roundtable

“This is a genuine tour de force. Brogi shows brilliantly how the powerful Communist Parties of Italy and France threatened American hegemony in postwar Europe and how Washington tried to forge an integrated diplomatic, economic, and cultural response. America emerged victorious in the psychological cold war, however, as a result of spontaneous modernizing, democratic, and self-critical forces within itself.” — Irwin Wall, University of California, Riverside, and author of The United States and the Making of Postwar France, 1945–1954

“Alessandro Brogi’s impressively researched and convincingly argued book will furnish readers with a comparative dimension from the recent past for today’s varieties of anti-Americanism. Confronting America is an extraordinary work of scholarship and deserves the highest praise.” — Richard Drake, University of Montana

“The struggle that emerged in Western Europe — specifically in France and Italy — with the onset of the Cold War is the subject of this sound and original analysis. Particularly striking is its demonstration of the vigor and efficiency of the communist propaganda operation.” — Charles Cogan, Harvard University