Propaganda Technique in World War One

This classic book on propaganda technique focuses on American, British, French, andGerman experience in World War I. The book sets forth a simple classification of variouspsychological materials used to produce certain specific results and proposes a general theory ofstrategy and tactics for the manipulation of these materials.In an introduction (coauthored byJackson A. Giddens) written for this edition, Harold Lasswell notes that this study was partially anexercise in the discovery of appropriate theory. It raised the crucial questions of how to classifythe content of propaganda--for instance, a distinction is made between "value demands" (war aims,war guilt, and casting the enemy as evil personified) and "expectations" (the illusion ofvictory)--and how to summarize the procedures employed in organizing and carrying out propagandaoperations. Propaganda Technique in World War I deals primarily with problems of internaladministration and lateral coordination rather than with the relationship between policymakers andpropagandists. However, Jackson Giddens enumerates procedures in the book that illustrate anunderlying assumption that decision makers were deeply involved in propaganda and influenced byconsiderations of public opinion. He takes the study of propaganda further by elaborating on thenature and meaning of the category of "war aims" and its relation to the propagandist, for this,more than any other category of content, "is the catalyst of transnational political action."Giddens's exploration of the development of a comprehensive theory of propaganda adds anotherdimension to Lasswell's study while confirming its value as outstanding groundwork for continuingresearch.