History Commons^™

Promoting Unity Through Propaganda: How The British Government Utilized Posters During The Second World War, Elizabeth Tate Goins

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Comprised of four separate countries, the United Kingdom is a state unlike any other. England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland all have distinct identities, which has been a cause for discord throughout British history. However, during the Second World War the Ministry of Information, under the guidance of the Conservative government and Prime Minister Winston Churchill, launched a poster-based propaganda campaign aimed towards unifying the UK under a common national self-identity. By emphasizing shared qualities such as resilience, pragmatism, humor, patriotism and even the concept of unity itself, the Ministry of Information fostered a sense of national self-identity with the …

Propaganda And The 21st Century Student, Miguel Martinez-Saenz , Provost, Academic Affairs, Tammy M. Proctor

Administrators/Executives/Staff Scholarship

This short piece provides a way of thinking about the Enlightenment’s legacy and the strength of modern propaganda in order to enable world history teachers to use these themes in their classes, both for teaching history and for helping students to reflect on their own lives. The authors provide background on the ideas of 1930s critical theorists and their impact on the interwar period, then suggest practical ways that world history instructors (in high schools and universities) can use these insights in developing lectures, lesson plans, and assignments for their classrooms.

Art+Politics, Shannon Egan, Jenna L. Birkenshock, Hillary B. Goodall, Tessa M. Sheridan, Josiah B. Adlon, Megan E. Hilands, Emily A. Francisco, Molly E. Reynolds, Shelby P. Glass, Colleen L. Parrish, Francesca S. Debiaso

Schmucker Art Catalogs

For the exhibition Art + Politics, students worked closely with the holdings of Gettysburg College's Special Collections and College Archives to curate an exhibition in Schmucker Art Gallery that engages with issues of public policy, activism, war, propaganda, and other critical socio-political themes. Each of the students worked diligently to contextualize the objects historically, politically, and art-historically. The art and artifacts presented in this exhibition reveal how various political events and social issues have been interpreted through various visual and printed materials, including posters, pins, illustrations, song sheets, as well as a Chinese shoe for bound feet. The students' …

Studies Of Editorials Of Chinese Newspapers In Regard To Anti-Japanese War (1937-1945)., Kuangyi Pei

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

More than sixty years have passed since China's Resistance War against Japan in 1937-1945 ended. Chinese people made a significant contribution to winning the victory over Japan. Chinese newspapers and magazines, especially editorials at that time, played a key role in the propaganda of the War of Resistance, boosting national morale, and exposing war crimes of Japanese aggressors.

Chinese newspapers and magazines included many important incidents and issues regarding the War of Resistance. This thesis selects editorials of three representative topics: the future of the War of Resistance, the defensive combat of the Chinese nationalist army in the front lines, …

The Olympic Games And The Secret Cold War: The U.S. Government And The Propaganda Campaign Against Communist Sport, 1950-1960, Toby C. Rider

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In the aftermath of the Second World War, the Soviet Union and its East European satellites used international sport as a diplomatic tool to convince the world that communism was a vibrant and superior political ideology. This study explores the U.S. government’s effort to counter the communist “sports offensive.” In particular, it is demonstrated that the U.S. government harnessed the Olympic Games as a platform to wage a propaganda campaign against communist sport during the early years of the Cold War. Based on declassified documents and a range of previously unexamined archival material, this dissertation argues that the United States …

Tactics, Politics, And Propaganda In The Irish War Of Independence, 1917-1921, Mike Rast

History Theses

This thesis examines the influences on and evolution of the Irish Republican Army‘s guerrilla war strategy between 1917 and 1921. Utilizing newspapers, government documents, and memoirs of participants, this study highlights the role of propaganda and political concerns in waging an insurgency. It argues that while tactical innovation took place in the field, IRA General Headquarters imposed policy and directed the conflict with a concern for the political results of military action. While implementing strategies necessary to effective conflict of the war, this Headquarters staff was unable to reconcile a disjointed and overburdened command structure, leading its disintegration after the …

The Image Of The Enemy: To Auschwitz With Righteousness., David Crabtree

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis is a study and analysis of Nazi propaganda, specifically focusing on the medium of film. Throughout Hitler’s Third Reich, propaganda played a vital role in maintaining popular support for the party platform in addition to fueling the convictions of the Nazi elite. There are three main divisions to this study. First, an overview of the structure and organization of Nazi Germany and particularly The Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda will be given, followed by an exploration of the origins and evolution of anti-Semitism in the Third Reich. Last, two Nazi anti-Semitic propaganda films will be analyzed to …

Tactics, Politics, And Propaganda In The Irish War Of Independence, 1917-1921, Mike Rast

M. C. Rast

This thesis examines the influences on and evolution of the Irish Republican Army’s guerrilla war strategy between 1917 and 1921. Utilizing newspapers, government documents, and memoirs of participants, this study highlights the role of propaganda and political concerns in waging an insurgency. It argues that while tactical innovation took place in the field, IRA General Headquarters imposed policy and directed the conflict with a concern for the political results of military action. While implementing strategies necessary to effective conduct of the war, this Headquarters staff was unable to reconcile a disjointed and overburdened command structure, leading its disintegration after the …

Cold War Educational Propaganda And Instructional Films, 1945-1965, Claire Hope

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis will examine the response of educators to the use of the American public school system for ideological management during the early Cold War period. Through an assessment of instructional films, this work will show that the objectives of educational propaganda fell into three main categories: to promote Americanism as the national ideology, to deter students from communism or communist sympathy, and to link the potential for nuclear warfare to ideological lassitude. It will be argued that although the majority of educators accepted these goals, as films became increasingly extreme in their presentations, a critical minority revealed discontent with …

Body Of Lies, Ananda Boardman

Honors Theses

The idea that the government rarely tells the whole truth, and usually only communicates with the general public through propaganda, is not a new one. However, the idea that they now do so using specific terms that call into question the truthfulness of anything and everything is a more modem idea. "Framing" is one of the terms used to describe this new type of propaganda, and it is active in all aspects of communication, from the mainstream media to the White House, and everywhere in between. People use frames when they tell stories to each other, newspapers use frames when …

Atoms For Peace, Us Foreign Policy And The Globalization Of Nuclear Technology, 1953-1960, Mara Drogan

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This dissertation analyzes the bilateral agreements for cooperation on the peaceful uses of nuclear energy enacted under President Eisenhower's Atoms for Peace program from 1953 to 1960. It challenges previous representations of Atoms for Peace that depict it as a legitimate attempt at arms control or dismiss it as a mere propaganda campaign. Atoms for Peace was not intended to be a disarmament measure. Instead, it united nuclear, economic, and foreign policy objectives in a synergistic program intended to fulfill a number of postwar aims: blunting nuclear fears in order to quiet criticisms of the American nuclear project, supporting postwar …

"The Prince And His People": A Study Of Edwardian Propaganda, 1547-1549, Allison Claire Cooper

LSU Master's Theses

One of the most important events of Edward VI’s reign, the 1549 rebellions, has been intensely studied by historians of the period. However, most monographs of the rebellions pinpoint the enclosure commissions or Edward Seymour’s inability to govern effectively as the reasons behind the riots. What is ignored is the intimate relationship between the eastern rebels’ language in their petitions and the rhetoric employed in evangelical propaganda from Edward’s accession in January 1547 to the outbreak of the rebellions in May 1549. My research in Edwardian propaganda during Somerset’s protectorate reveals a dialogue established between evangelicals and Catholics concerning doctrine …

The Effectiveness Of Nazi Propaganda During World War Ii, Michael J. Stout

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

This thesis examines Nazi propaganda’s overall effectiveness during Adolf Hitler’s rise to power in the 1930s through the end of World War II in 1945. Historians have had mixed opinions of the overall potency of the propaganda. The questions in consideration are why Nazi propaganda received so much support from the Nazi leadership if it didn’t work and whether or not it was a primary reason Germany continued to resist until the end of the war. Using the diaries of Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi Propaganda Minister, soldiers’ letters from the front lines, the propaganda itself, and a variety of secondary …