The journal Cadernos Brasileiros and the Congress for Cultural Freedom, 1959-1970

Abstract

The article reconstructs and analyses the links between the journal Cadernos Brasileiros and the Congress for Cultural Freedom, which involved a relation of both dependency and relative autonomy, between 1959 and 1970. Despite both institutions claiming to be liberal and anti-communist, they did not always fully coincide in their response to decisive historical events of the period, such as the 1964 military coup in Brazil, collaboration with the military regime and resistance to it. The intellectuals involved with the Brazilian journal were active in the ongoing social struggles, shifting from strong anti-communist positions, favourable to what they called the '1964 revolution,' to the later formulation of criticism of the military regime, opening up the journal to collaboration of social scientists considered left-wing, without losing the opportunity to accommodate the demands of the regime in power.