Library:Propaganda Technique in the World War
| Propaganda Technique in the World War | |
|---|---|
| Author | Harold D. Lasswell |
| First published | 1927 |
| ISBN | 978-0-262-62018-5 unverified |
| Role | Analysis |
| Domains | History Politics & Elections |
| Tactics | Propaganda Technique Fabrication |
Propaganda Technique in the World War is a 1927 book by Harold D. Lasswell.
Summary
Harold Lasswell, an American political scientist, based this book on his doctoral research at the University of Chicago. It was one of the first systematic studies of modern state propaganda.
The four aims
Lasswell examined the propaganda of Britain, France, Germany and the United States during the First World War and identified four main objectives: to mobilize hatred against the enemy, to keep the friendship of allies, to win over neutral countries and to demoralize the enemy.
Methods
He documented how governments blamed the enemy for the war, publicized atrocity stories, many of them exaggerated or invented, and presented their own cause as a defense of civilization. He concluded that propaganda had become a basic instrument of modern war, as important as munitions.
Relevance to Bullshitopedia
Lasswell's study documents the atrocity propaganda of 1914–1918, whose later exposure made many people skeptical of genuine reports of Nazi atrocities in the 1940s.
Related entries
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- The Zimmermann Telegram was a British forgery
- Library:Public Opinion