Festivals of Freedom: Culture, Democracy, and the Making of the Free World

The decade following the end of the Second World War witnessed a series of cultural celebrations stretching right across the newly-described 'free world.' Ranging from local civic gatherings through festivals of national renewal to grand international expositions, these were cultural celebrations designed to transform abstract political ideals into concrete social practices. And they did so for the most urgent of reasons. The 'free world' could resist the totalitarianism of the Soviet East, avoid a return to the Fascism of the European past, and overcome the squalor of the depression years, only if the everyday habits and the rituals of the citizenry took on a democratic hue.

This research examines these post-war celebrations concentrating primarily (although not exclusively) on the two most spectacular, publicly successful, and ideologically committed of them all: the Festival of Britain, which ran from May to September of 1951 and transformed the South Bank of the Thames into a celebration of British values visited by almost ten million people, and the American Freedom Train, which ran right across the United States a few years earlier, bringing with it a cargo of original documents that celebrated American democratic institutions and enabling an estimated forty million people to 'rededicate' themselves to democratic values.

The research offers a cultural and ideological history of these two turning points in the political culture of the post-war United Kingdom and United States, combined with comparative insights from related local events, including the 'Rededication Weeks,' 'American Family Days,' and 'Freedom Fashion Shows,' and similar endeavours elsewhere, including early Australia Day celebrations, and the CIA-sponsored musical Festival of Paris in 1952. It analyzes how the sponsors and organizers of these events sought to inspire their audiences, how they understood the core ideals that underpinned their efforts, and how, in particular, their putatively similar underlying values actually differed crucially in contrasting locations. Most importantly of all, it shows how these events helped construct the very idea of a 'free world' at a time of grave, almost existential, crisis, as the world emerged from one war only to be threatened with another, in a way that might inspire present-day conversations as to the meaning of freedom and the ways in which it should be represented.

This research is designed to engage and benefit wide and diverse sections of the public. My strategy for dissemination and for broader impact has three essential components.

First, the book resulting from the research will be written and presented in such a way as to engage the already considerable public interest in the civic celebrations that followed the end of the Second World War. The questions raised by the book are of central import to many in the policy-making and the creative arts communities. The key issues in this regard include, but are not confined to: how free and democratic societies should best seek to represent their core values through cultural celebration during times of potential international crisis; how the story of 'freedom' itself is best told with reference to formal political institutions and protections (as was the case with the American Freedom Train) or whether it is best captured through the creation of experiences intended to engender a broad sense of creativity and eccentricity (as with the Festival of Britain); and how increasing ethnic and racial diversity shapes the self-understandings and representations of the UK and other nations, especially given the history of colonialism and Empire. It is hoped that the book will stimulate debate in all of these areas, as well as related concerns, amongst a broad set of engaged groups many of whom have a direct relationship to public policy and the delivery of public services.

Second, in seeking to develop public debate in these areas, the book will provide the basis of a series of talks to public conferences and events. These will include discussions along the lines of those that I have recently undertaken for my most recent research project, Demanding Democracy: American Radicals in Search of a New Politics. That book has provided the basis for debates on the nature of acceptable political action at open public events such as the New York Review of Books biannual London conference and at closed sessions with business leaders and non-governmental actors. The same network of events will provide even greater opportunities for discussions of the key themes of Festivals of Freedom.

Third, the research for this project will directly inform the organization of a public event to be held in commemoration of the sixtieth anniversary of the Festival of Britain in 2011. This event, to be organized in combination with community groups and sponsors from the commercial sector, will aim to recapture some of the spirit of the Festival and should provoke a wider discussion of the key themes of the project. This event is described in depth in the enclosed Impact Plan.