History Commons^™

Book Review: Mind Over Media: Propaganda Education For A Digital Age, Faith Rogow

Journal of Media Literacy Education

No abstract provided.

Ocon At War: The Oconomowoc Home Front During The Second World War, Erika L. Laabs

Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

OCON AT WAR:THE OCONOMOWOC HOME FRONT DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR

This thesis will examine the local home front propaganda in and around Oconomowoc, Wisconsin (Waukesha County) during the Second World War and compare the Oconomowoc area propaganda to Wisconsin overall and to the national experience. Enlistments, war bond sales, USO events, parades, radio programs/speeches, films, music, popular books/comic books, and images, are the main types of “cultural locations” that I am using as propaganda. I have found solid examples of posters and advertisement images from local newspapers that provide a wealth of information about the way fear, love, …

Terrortimes, Terrorscapes: Continuities Of Space, Time, And Memory In Twentieth-Century War And Genocide, Volker Benkert, Michael Mayer

Purdue University Press Books

Terrortimes, Terrorscapes: Continuities of Space, Time, and Memory in Twentieth-Century War and Genocide investigates interconnections between space and violence throughout the twentieth century, and how such connections informed collective memory. The interdisciplinary volume shows how entangled notions of time and space amplified by memory narratives led to continuities of violence across different conflicts creating “terrortimes” and “terrorscapes” in their wake. The volume examines such continuities of violence with the help of an analytical framework built around different themes. Its first part, spatial and temporal continuities of violence, looks at contested spaces and ideas of national, ethnic, or religious homogeneity that …

Modern American Propaganda: An Institutional History, Douglas Morrow

War, Diplomacy, and Society (MA) Theses

The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Public Affairs and Public Diplomacy is the primary government institution in charge of overt, foreign-directed propaganda. This paper argues that the institutional culture of this institution was born and came to fruition in the period 1941-1953, and has not significantly changed since. That institutional culture includes a fierce adherence to a “strategy of truth,” with aesthetic norms being reserved and largely unemotional as a result of positioning themselves in moral and aesthetic opposition to Nazi and early Cold War Communist propaganda. Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s decision to staff these nascent institutions with artists, poets, …

Intellectual Freedom, Cultural Exchange, And Nazi Germany: The Relationship Between The Deutsch-Ausländischer Buchtausch, University Of Denver, And Other Cultural Heritage Institutions, David Fasman

University Libraries: Staff Scholarship

Shortly after Hitler’s rise to power, the Prussian State Library was restructured, birthing a new entity – the Deutsch-Ausländischer Buchtausch (German Foreign Book Exchange, DAB). The DAB was responsible for exchanging books and serials with scholarly institutions worldwide. In 1936, the University of Denver (DU) received a gift of books from the DAB. Nearly fifty percent of the books would be categorized as Nazi propaganda or eugenics literature by current standards. Upon further research, it was discovered that the DAB’s relationships included Stanford, Yale, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the …

The Marriage Between Art And Politics: Propaganda, Rebecca J. Counen

The Purdue Historian

During the first half of the twentieth century Europe, Asia, and the United States faced many political/social changes and challenges amid both ideological wars and revolutions. This research paper works to analyze films from this era in order to convey the somewhat unorthodox, yet nonetheless influential and compelling, relationship between the arts and politics and how creativity is oftentimes manipulated for power and influence.

Russia's Agenda For Ukraine: An Examination Of Putin's Media Propaganda Narratives, Gillian Grace Littleton

Honors Theses

This thesis explores Russian discourse about Ukraine as reflected in Russian popular media since 2014’s Euromaidan Revolution. The thesis provides an overview of Russia’s historic denial of Ukrainian statehood and it argues: Russian historians and politicians have seen Ukraine as a “little-brother” nation to Russia, with a shared Slavic heritage, and that any attempts by Ukrainians to separate themselves from Russia are Western influence movements. The thesis examines three types of mass media in order to demonstrate the interaction between history, politics and popular culture. Chapter 1 explores the public speeches of key Russian political figures including Vladimir Putin himself, …

From The Stars To The Headlines: The Propaganda Of Yuri Gagarin, Peyton Edelbrock

The Purdue Historian

There were no haphazard decisions made by the Soviet Union when it came to choosing the first man to be sent to space. Months of training, careful planning, and well-hidden secrets eventually led to the decision of Yuri Gagarin. This led to the mass production of propaganda to spread, from Yuri Gagarin touring around the world to music being written about him, all centered around his trip to space and Soviet excellency. This propaganda still stands today in Russia, and its God-like idolization of cosmonauts is forever present.

Popular Culture And World War Ii Propaganda, Baillie Victoria Catherine Bryan

Masters Theses

Popular culture in relation to World War II has been explored by various scholars over the years. They have deeply examined how radio, film, and other forms of media helped the war effort along and how Hollywood became engaged in the war effort, but there has been a lack of in-depth analysis of the major themes across the mediums. This thesis will examine how film, radio, cartoons, and comic books came together to become a powerful tool of propaganda and public information for the American home front and military. It is an in-depth examination of the major themes that were …

Jackson, Harry Lucellus, 1907-1985 (Mss 171), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid for Manuscripts Collection 171. Correspondence and papers of Harry L. Jackson, a Warren County, Kentucky native and Cleveland, Ohio executive. Includes his World War II correspondence, genealogical research, and papers of his wife Evelyn’s family, the Minshalls of Ohio. A sampling of Jackson's World War II letters to sisters Sallie and Bernice can be viewed under "Additional Files" below.

Keep Calm And Carry On: Uncovering The True Blitz Spirit, Lauren Niedergeses

Honors Theses

First shown by Britain’s civilian population during the Blitz, this Blitz Spirit is widely understood today as a heroic display of courage, cheerfulness, unity, and the ability to “keep calm and carry on” in the face of danger and discomfort. Drawing from radio broadcasts, photographs, propaganda posters and films, and the wartime morale reports of Mass-Observation, I seek to uncover the true Blitz Spirit and how it became an integral – if somewhat mythicized – element of Britain’s modern identity. First, I explore the emergence of the Blitz Spirit during World War II, identifying gaps between reality and propagandistic myth. …

Information Warfare: Lessons In Inoculation To Disinformation, Meghan Fitzpatrick, Ritu Gill, Jennifer F. Giles

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

While propaganda and disinformation have been used to destabilize opposing forces throughout history, the US military remains unprepared for the way these methods have been adapted to the Internet era. This article explores the modern history of disinformation campaigns and the current state of US military readiness in the face of campaigns from near-peer competitors and proposes education as the best way to prepare US servicemembers to defend against such campaigns.

From The Editor, Antulio J. Echevarria Ii

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

No abstract provided.

Parameters Spring 2022, Usawc Press

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

No abstract provided.

Nazi Propaganda Collection (2020.01), Robyn Conroy

Strassler Center Archival Collection Finding Aids

This collection contains images, newspapers and magazines related to the Nazi Party's control of Germany.

Soft Power And Polite Propaganda: Public Diplomacy In The Early Cold War, Coby Aloi

Departmental Honors Projects

In the Aftermath of the Second World War, the United States and The USSR stood as the only true superpowers. Both states held their own spheres of influence, with interests in spreading that influence. With the fear of nuclear war and the still looming shadow of global conflict, a new brand of diplomacy began to take hold as the preferred method of international relations between adversarial states. Soft power was beginning to become an influential means to accomplishing the goal of nations abroad.

The careful curation of print media, literature, and informational campaigns became an important element to how the …

Barry Hoffman Nazi Postcard Collection, Robyn Conroy, Lamisa Muksitu

Strassler Center Archival Collection Finding Aids

This collection is comprised of postcards that are connected to the Nazi Party in Germany. The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor, the German Workers' Party (Deutsche Arbeiterpartei; DAP), existed from 1919 to 1920. The Nazi Party emerged from the extremist German nationalist, racist and populist Freikorps paramilitary culture, which fought against the communist uprisings in post–World War I Germany. The party was …

Les Six Continents: An Exploration Of Political Visual Rhetoric In Public Sculpture, Olivia Liu Guillotin

Senior Projects Spring 2022

Les six continents series stands as remnants of the 1878 Exposition Universelle and as a visual marker of the cultural, social, and economic culture of the time period. The series, serving as public art, continues to inform and participate in its environment and space, as it is on display by the entrance of the Musée d’Orsay today. Personified representations of Europe, Asia, Africa, North America, South America, and Oceania as allegorical female figures, the series offers insight into the colonial world where it emerged, and how its impact has visually been ingrained in contemporary society. By using these six statues …

A Prosaic People? Literature, Propaganda, And National Identity In Second World War Britain, William L. Maines

Honors Theses

During the early years of the Second World War, a typically unofficial and loose coalition of British newspapers, publishers, propagandists, and booksellers mobilized Britain’s imagined literary past and present as a part of the war effort. They defined the nation through its imagined literary proclivities— its penchant for literary production and consumption, and its “unique” attitude toward literary freedom— and in opposition to the literary tyranny of Nazi Germany. Marshaling the nation’s mythological literary heritage, they enlisted Shakespeare and Milton in the war effort, portraying them as temperate and civilian English heroes. While the rhetoric of “British bookishness” hardly went …