McLaine, I. Ministry of Morale: Home Front Morale and the Ministry of Information in World War Two London: George Allen & Unwin, 1979

A key work for this project which fully considers the administrative history of the Ministry of Information, the lead government department for propaganda. He argues that for two years, the measures taken by government propagandists were:

• Unnecessary and inept
• Based on misunderstanding and distrust of the British public
• Products of the class and background of the propagandists themselves.
• He feels that after two years:
• The Germans were still characterised as irretrievably wicked.
• Efforts were made to separate Communism from the ‘Russian’ (not Soviet) war effort.
• Propaganda was intermittently prompted by doubts about people’s martial stamina and devotion to Parliamentary democracy.

McLaine felt that the achievements of the Ministry of Information were that:

• The MOI realised importance of full and honest news as a factor
• They recognised that in the fight against totalitarianism, it was important not to disregard one of its main weapons, although within a democratic context.
• With benefit of Home Intelligence, the MOI came to regard the British people as sensible and tough, and so entitled to be taken into the government’s confidence

See if you can get hold of a copy on Amazon.}

Doherty, M. Nazi Wireless Propaganda: Lord Haw-Haw and British Public Opinion in the Second World War Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2000

This  is the first book devoted exclusively to the analysis of the Nazis’ radio effort against the United Kingdom during the Second World War. It traces the development of the German propaganda service and looks to erode the myth surrounding Lord Haw-Haw -the ‘superpropagandist’. Propaganda is presented in context: the purposes behind it, the changing patterns, themes, styles, and techniques employed, and the impact upon the target audience and its morale. An analysis of the Nazi wireless broadcasts to Britain for the whole of the Second World War reveals a sophisticated and intelligent propaganda assault on the social and economic fabric of British society. In the end the British failed to succumb to the stupefying effects of Nazi propaganda and they traditionally congratulate themselves upon the national unity which immunised them against it. The author argues that this traditional view disguises a more complex, less appealing reality.

Edinburgh University Press Review. Further Details

The book looks at the organisation behind the broadcasts to the United Kingdom during the Second World War: the RMVP (German Propaganda Ministry). It considers the subjects used in broadcasts during the `Phoney war`, including the type of social problems in Britain upon which the Nazis focused. It also discusses the subject matter used during a time of seemingly `unstoppable victories` for the Nazis, and also reflects upon how they dealt with the issue of defeat. The book also considers how the British, including the state, the media, and the people, reacted to the broadcasts.

People often felt that they were not being given enough facts by their own government, so turned to `Lord Haw-Haw` for information. Along with other recent books by James Chapman ‘The British at War: Cinema, State and Propaganda’ (1998) and Mariel Grant ‘Propaganda and the Role of State in Interwar Britain’ (1994) this book is a converted, well-researched, PhD thesis dealing with an otherwise under-researched area in the ever-widening field of British propaganda studies, with a particular focus upon the highly mythologized figure of `Lord Haw-Haw`

An interesting extra to the book is a CD which contains a selection of wartime broadcasts by `Lord Haw-Haw` and other broadcasters from Germany, spanning January 1940 to April 1945. It is interesting that new media has allowed a wider circulation of such topics, with a reasonable sound quality.

Buy from Amazon.

Clark, T. Art and Propaganda London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1997

Aimed largely at the undergraduate market (unfortunately un-referenced), the book beings with a brief discussion of the connotations of the word ‘propaganda’: “For some ‘propaganda art’ is a contradiction in terms: ‘propaganda’ suggests government-sponsored censorship, intimidation and deception, while ‘art’ implies the pursuit of beauty, truth and freedom.”

Clark argues against this negative and unbalanced view, examining the complex relationship between art and politics, demonstrating how works of art can have a political purpose, and considering how particular art styles become associated with political systems.

Clark considers not only the state propaganda produced by the dictatorship states, but also deals with the question of propaganda as produced by democratic states, from the late 19^th century to the 1990s

The image used on the front cover is one of the best remembered posters from the Second World War, and is contrasted in the book with a poster used in the First World War which highlights the differing roles of women during the world wars.

Buy from Amazon.

Chapman, J. The British at War: Cinema, State and Propaganda, 1939-1945 London: I.B. Tauris, 1997

This work is converted from Chapman’s PhD, and is described as a “comprehensive history of the role, nature and organisation of film propaganda in Britain during the Second World War.” Chapman challenges the received wisdom that WW2 propaganda was shambolic and disorganised.

He shows how film propaganda was more successful than alleged. He examines the roles of both commercial film industry and government film units; through an analysis of government and trade sources he explores the relationship between the Ministry of Information & sectors of the film industry. He discusses the role of the cinema as a vehicle for propaganda – set within the context of a country at war. He identifies themes and images through the analysis of key films, whilst exploring their competing entertainment and propaganda values.

Chapman investigated a wide range of different sources including government records, the trade press, newspaper reviews, Mass-Observation surveys & some private letters, memoranda and committee minutes to produce a thorough, well-written, analytical work.

Buy from Amazon.

The Centre for the Study of Propaganda & War

The Centre for the Study of Propaganda & War (CSPW) was established at the University of Kent in 1994: “In recent years the study of propaganda has assumed an increasing importance both in the academic world and in the mass-media. As electorates and audiences have become more sophisticated, they have begun to question the use of propaganda in history and its role in contemporary society. However, propaganda has become a portmanteau word which can be interpreted in a number of different ways. Propaganda has invariably come to mean different things to different people. Despite the controversy over definition, the subject continues to grow and attract widespread interest.”

Visit the Centre, its associated resources, and check out the MA in War, Media and Modernity

Templeman Library at the University of Kent therefore has a great collection of material: there’s over 500 entries for the keyword ‘propaganda’.

Propaganda Critic

It is great to see that the site ‘propagandacritic.com‘ is still alive and well, as I found it’s material drawn from The Institute of Propaganda Analysis very helpful. Here’s a taster of the infromation on the site:

“This site is inspired by the pioneering work of the Institute for Propaganda Analysis (IPA). In 1937, the IPA was created to educate the American public about the widespread nature of political propaganda. Composed of social scientists and journalists, the IPA published a series of books, including:

• The Fine Art of Propaganda
• Propaganda Analysis
• Group Leader’s Guide to Propaganda Analysis
• Propaganda: How To Recognize and Deal With It

The IPA is best-known for identifying the seven basic propaganda devices: Name-Calling, Glittering Generality, Transfer, Testimonial, Plain Folks, Card Stacking, and Band Wagon. According to the authors of a recent book on propaganda, “these seven devices have been repeated so frequently in lectures, articles, and textbooks ever since that they have become virtually synonymous with the practice and analysis of propaganda in all of its aspects.” (Combs and Nimmo, 1993)”

Euphemism

“When propagandists use glittering generalities and name-calling symbols, they are attempting to arouse their audience with vivid, emotionally suggestive words. In certain situations, however, the propagandist attempts to pacify the audience in order to make an unpleasant reality more palatable. This is accomplished by using words that are bland and euphemistic.

Since war is particularly unpleasant, military discourse is full of euphemisms. In the 1940′s, America changed the name of the War Department to the Department of Defense. Under the Reagan Administration, the MX-Missile was renamed “The Peacekeeper.” During war-time, civilian casualties are referred to as “collateral damage,” and the word “liquidation” is used as a synonym for “murder.”

The comedian George Carlin notes that, in the wake of the first world war, traumatized veterans were said to be suffering from “shell shock.” The short, vivid phrase conveys the horrors of battle — one can practically hear the shells exploding overhead. After the second world war, people began to use the term “combat fatigue” to characterize the same condition. The phrase is a bit more pleasant, but it still acknowledges combat as the source of discomfort. In the wake of the Vietnam War, people referred to “post-traumatic stress disorder”: a phrase that is completely disconnected from the reality of war altogether.”

Propaganda

For many years people have discussed what propaganda is. See propaganda models that were defined for the PhD project, and some propaganda links.

Origins of Propaganda

The term propaganda originated from the ‘Congragatio de propaganda fide’ (congregation for propagating the faith), a Roman Catholic organisation founded in 1622 for the purposes of missionary work. By the end of the First World War, it had become an unsavoury term: the Americans believed that they had been ‘lured’ into the war through the use of British propaganda. The Nazis appeared to believe the same, as Goebbels had a great admiration for British propaganda, and modelled the German Propaganda Ministry upon it. Note that the British had a ‘Ministry of Information’, not a ‘Ministry of Propaganda’ – and a great deal of thought was put into naming the Ministry, with Persuasion not thought to be strong enough, and Propaganda thought to be too strong!

Defining Propaganda

The word ‘propaganda’ is defined as “The systematic propagation of nformation or ideas by an intrested party,  esp. in a tendentious way to encourage or instil a particular  attitude or response. Also, the ideas, doctrines, etc., disseminated thus; the vehicle of such propagation.” (OED Online, Accessed 11^th April 2000)

Encarta defines propaganda as the “dissemination of ideas and information for the purpose of inducing or intensifying specific attitudes and actions. Because propaganda is frequently accompanied by distortions of fact and by appeals to passion and prejudice, it is often thought to be invariably false or misleading. This view is relative, however. Although some propagandists may intentionally distort fact, others may present it as faithfully as objective observers. A lawyer’s brief is as much propaganda as a billboard advertisement. Education, whatever its objective, is a form of propaganda. The essential distinction lies in the intentions of the propagandist to persuade an audience to adopt the attitude or action he or she espouses.” [Encarta]

And of course, these days, no “description” would be complete without Wikipedia and Dictionary.com!

Propaganda Parodies

Subverted images are always fascinating, and tell us a lot about connections with the time that the original poster was produced, and the time that the subverted image appears - in this example at a time of attempted re-election for George Bush.

“View a collection of anti-war cartoons, remixed propaganda posters, and other parody art expressing political dissent” on anti-war cartoons and propaganda parodies.

Hitler Getting Punched

Translation: Every Hit of the Hammer is a Hit on the Enemy

Alternate Translation: Big Red Dude Bombs the Hell Out of Hitler With a Magic Anvil.

See the original post, where the author is looking for contributions to his blog, essentially anything showing “Hitler getting punched!”

Shanghai Propaganda Poster Art Centre

“This collection of posters serves as a valuable historical document providing a remarkable glimpse into a critical period in the history of twentieth-century China.

As Winston S. Churchill famously said, “The Empire of the future will be the empire of the mind.” In the days before CNN and Fox News, a still image truly was worth a thousand words and these posters were how Mao and his group informed and restored the collective mind of the Chinese people. It was a time of a heroic saga of countless victories over momentous struggle. Even so, behind the cheerful faces beaming from the posters, one can sense the true-life anxieties and hardships of the people they are purported to represent. Indeed, each poster is both a work of art and an insight into the events of those times.

These Chinese propaganda posters are most rich in content and style. The early posters had a surreal cartoon-like style reminiscent of European early forays into the new medium of large-scale industrial print propaganda. As the Korean war drew to a close you can see the emergence of more socialist-realism influences with the idealized and heroic worker in their utopian communities. An interesting side note was the influence of the 1930s Shanghai calendar girl posters on some of these 1950s pieces. Big Leap Forward and Cold War posters, of the later 1950s and early 1960s, saw the creation of quite a few interesting folk art paintings. The change to the red-art style, of the Cultural Revolution and the violent and militaristic themes, represents a sudden shift that reveals the mood of the time.  There is great power in the red and black woodcut style posters made by the art school student rebellion groups.

Posters were designed to not only meet the demand of the government but to also be embraced by the masses. In striving to achieve these works, many artists reached deep inside themselves, producing extraordinary poster designs perfectly capturing the indomitable nature of the human spirit, the transformational power of unbridled industriousness, and the soaring spirit of the people’s optimism. Even considered among works of fine art a large number of these posters will prove of exceptional quality and forever hold significance in the history of Chinese art.

Today China’s economic path to prosperity is well defined. With a shift toward a more modern and forward-thinking society it would be a mistake to forget the events of our recent history and therefore our art center is very proud to be the only place in China to offer the most comprehensive collection of poster art.

Due to political changes in the past years many posters had been destroyed. With more than 5000 pieces produced between 1949 and 1979, this is the greatest collection in the world. It is an art treasure and a part of our culture heritage.

May it inspire creativity and ignite the imagination of the generations to come.

Yang Pei Ming

Director of Shanghai Propaganda Poster Art Center“

Podcast by a visitor