Selling War: The British Propaganda Campaign Against American "Neutrality" in World War II - Hardcover

Cull, Nicholas John

3.67

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9780195085662: Selling War: The British Propaganda Campaign Against American "Neutrality" in World War II

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0195085663 ISBN 13: 9780195085662

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1995

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"British propaganda brought America to the brink of war, and left it to the Japanese and Hitler to finish the job." So concludes Nicholas Cull in this absorbing study of how the United States was transformed from isolationism to belligerence in the years before the attack on Pearl Harbor. From the moment it realized that all was lost without American aid, the British Government employed a host of persuasive tactics to draw the US to its rescue. With the help of talents as varied as those of matinee idol Leslie Howard, Oxford philosopher Isaiah Berlin and society photographer Cecil Beaton, no section of America remained untouched and no method--from Secret Service intrigue to the publication of horrifying pictures of Nazi atrocities--remained untried. The British sought and won the support of key journalists and broadcasters, including Edward R. Murrow, Dorothy Thompson and Walter Winchell; Hollywood film makers also played a willing part. Cull details these and other propaganda activities, covering the entire range of the British effort. A fascinating story of how a foreign country provoked America's involvement in its greatest war, Selling War will appeal to all those interested in the modern cultural and political history of Britain and the United States.

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About the Author:

About the Author: Nicholas John Cull is Professor of History at the University of Maryland

Review:

"Nicholas John Cull has made a major study of Britain's potent efforts to get a reluctant United States to fight."--International Herald Tribune

"[T]his is a sensible, thoughtful, and--in revealing the foibles of many key actors--an often amusing book."--Kirkus Reviews

"Cull writes with wit and zest about the efforts of Britons to help Roosevelt to bring the USA into the war....Based on careful research in many archives, this book provides a definitive account of important factors bearing on a decisive moment in world history."--Angus Calder, author of The People's War and The Myth of the Blitz

"Dr. Cull has written a fascinatingly detailed, if triumphalist, account of how the Special Relationship worked, when it was vital for Britain that it should, with America's Anglophiles and Britain's Americophiles working together to bring American opinion to see where America's true interests lay--in meeting tyranny on its own ground rather than sheltering behind a mythical Fortress America. This was as much America's finest hour as it was Britain's."--Donald Cameron Watt, London School of Economics and Political Science

"A valuable study of how British propaganda helped to bring the US into WW II...this is a sensible, thoughtful, and--in revealing the foibles of many key actors--an often amusing book."--Kirkus Reviews

"Well written and impressively researched, the book is a welcome addition to the literature on the "special relationship."--CHOICE

"Nick Cull has turned his important and original historical researches into a gripping read."--Fred Inglis, Institute of Education, University of Warwick

"[T]ells the story with wit and a suitably sceptical detachment...[A]n important tale and a fascinating book, underpinned from the archives on both sides of the Atlantic."--The International History Review

"By adopting an all-encompassing and yet detailed approach to the topic, Cull has bridged a serious gap in academic knowledge."--HISTORY

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