“Approaching an Abyss”: Liberalist Ideology in a Norwegian Cold War Business Paper

• Main Author: Birgitte Kjos Fonn
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cogitatio 2018-02-01
• Series: Media and Communication
• Subjects: business press; Cold War; democracy; liberalism; media; media history; Mont Pèlerin Society; Norway
• Online Access: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1189

The international business press has been a powerful and influential voice in modern societies and, as its formative years took place during the Cold War, a closer look at the ideologies that were promoted in this part of the press is of interest. Until the 1970s, Farmand was the only Norwegian business magazine of any size and standing. Trygve J. B. Hoff, Farmand’s editor from 1935, was part of the Mont Pèlerin Society (MPS), a neoliberal intellectual collective established in 1947 with participants such as Friedrich Hayek and Ludwig von Mises. This article is a study of the ideas that Hoff promoted, particularly in Farmand, from the 1940s to the 1970s.