Propaganda

This volume traces the origins, ethos, and workings of modern propaganda, which now permeates all institutions in our society. Essays by scholars such as Hans Speier, C. Wright Mills, and Walter Lippmann explore the social and institutional groundwork of modern propaganda. The book then examines the axial age of propaganda, from the Great War through the Cold War, focusing on key propaganda organizations, such as the Committee on Public Information, the Nazi propaganda machine, and the group of Hollywood directors that produced propaganda films for the armed services during the Second World War. This section also details the wizardry of the master propagandist, Joseph Goebbels. Finally, the volume examines the ubiquity of propaganda in contemporary society, with essays on bureaucratic propaganda, advertising, public relations, and politics and language.

The series works in the classical tradition of social theory. In this view, theory is the historically informed framing of intellectual problems about concrete social issues and the resolution of those problems through the analysis of empirical data.