In 1946, Europe s leading artists, philosophers and writers formed a transnational society designed to defuse the tensions left by World War II. The Society of European Culture was founded by some of Western Europe s most well-known intellectuals, including Albert Camus, Andre Gide, J.B. Haldane, Thomas Mann, Henri Matisse, Karl Jaspers, Carl Jung, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Schweitzer amongst others. Much like the American-funded Congress for Cultural Freedom, the SEC created an informal but powerful political and cultural network across the world seeking to enable...

In 1950, nearly 300 of Europe's leading artists, philosophers and writers formed an international society intended to end the Cold War. The European Society of Culture was composed of many of Western Europe's best-known intellectuals, including Theodor Adorno, Julien Benda, Albert Camus, Benedetto Croce, Andre Gide, J. B. Haldane, Karl Jaspers, Carl Jung, Thomas Mann, Henri Matisse, Francois Mauriac, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Jean-Paul Sartre, Giuseppe Ungaretti and Albert Schweitzer, among many others; over the next twenty years it would also include many luminaries from the East, such as...