The Propaganda of Freedom: JFK, Shostakovich, Stravinsky, and the Cultural Cold War

Eloquently extolled by President John F. Kennedy, the idea that only artists in free societies can produce great art became a bedrock assumption of the Cold War. That this conviction defied centuries of historical evidence—to say nothing of achievements within the Soviet Union—failed to impact impregnable cultural Cold War doctrine.

Joseph Horowitz writes: “That so many fine minds could have cheapened freedom by over-praising...