Objective:

This article analyzes the context and motivations that underlie the subsidies for editorial projects of the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs in the 1940s to find intersections with the programs financed by the Rockefeller Foundation since the 1930s, particularly the ones coordinated by the American Library Association.

Methodology:

A comparative analysis of the primary sources that can be found in these institutions was completed: National Archives and Records Administration II; Rockefeller Foundation; American Library Association; and American Council of Learned Societies.

Originality:

The article focuses on the us actions targeted at showing their superiority and neutralizing "the subversive activities" and "anti-Americanism" in the American continent using books, one of the cultural products still little explored in the historiography of the so-called Good Neighbor Policy.

Conclusions:

The analysis demonstrates that the growing distribution of books was conveniently used as a strategy for a wider ideological influence in the target countries besides battling against subversive activities and anti-Americanism in the 1940s.