Manipulating the Masses: Woodrow Wilson and the Birth of American Propaganda

by John Maxwell Hamilton

Manipulating the Masses tells the story of an enduring threat to American democracy that arose out of World War I: the establishment of pervasive, systematic propaganda as an instrument of the state. During the Great War, the federal government exercised unprecedented power to shape the views and attitudes of American citizens. Its agent for this was the Committee on Public Information (CPI), established by President Woodrow Wilson one week after the United States entered the war in April 1917.

Driven by its fiery chief, George Creel, the CPI established a national newspaper, cranked out press releases, and interfaced with the press at all hours of the day. It spread the Wilson administration’s messages through articles, cartoons, books, and advertisements in newspapers and magazines; through feature films and volunteer Four Minute Men who spoke during intermission; through posters plastered on buildings and along highways; and through pamphlets distributed by the millions. It enlisted the nation’s leading progressive journalists, advertising executives, and artists. It harnessed American universities and their professors to create propaganda and add legitimacy to its mission.

Even as Creel insisted that the CPI was a conduit for reliable, fact-based information, the office regularly sanitized news, distorted facts, and played on emotions. Creel extolled transparency but established front organizations. Overseas, the CPI secretly subsidized news organs and bribed journalists. At home, it challenged the loyalty of those who occasionally questioned its tactics. Working closely with federal intelligence agencies eager to sniff out subversives and stifle dissent, the CPI was an accomplice to the Wilson administration’s trampling of civil liberties.

Until now, the full story of the CPI has never been told. John Maxwell Hamilton consulted over 150 archival collections in the United States and Europe to write this revealing history, which shows the shortcuts to open, honest debate that even well-meaning propagandists take to bend others to their views. Every element of contemporary government propaganda has antecedents in the CPI. It is the ideal vehicle for understanding the rise of propaganda, its methods of operation, and the threat it poses to democracy.

Genres: History, Politics, American History, Biography, Nonfiction, Sociology

664 pages, Hardcover

First published October 21, 2020

About the author

John Maxwell Hamilton is the Hopkins P. Breazeale Professor in Manship School of Mass Communication, Louisiana State University, and a senior scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. Before that he was a journalist for the Milwaukee Journal, the Christian Science Monitor, and ABC radio. His work was also published in The Washington Post Foreign Affairs, The Nation, and the New York Times.

He served in the military as a Marine Corps platoon commander in Vietnam and as a reconnaissance company commander in Okinawa. As a public servant he served as an advisor to the head of the U.S. foreign aid program in Asia during the Carter administration and was working on nuclear non-proliferation issues for the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Reviews

[Kevin Kosar · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really terrific book that was the product of an enormous amount of research. When we see Presidents tweeting today and government agencies encouraging Americans to do or not do various things---all these activities blossomed under Woodrow Wilson's administration. These various doings raise vexing issues for representative democracy: should government shape the opinions of the public? How much of the truth can government withhold from voters? Is government propaganda to encourage collective action (to fight a war or virus) o.k.? To what degree? Hamilton's book is a rich history of the Wilson era and the journalists and advertising men and women who were on the cutting edge of propaganda, and who founded the modern Information State.

[barb howe · Rating 4 out of 5]

By laying out the history of the US’s first systematized attempt at controlling communications (the Committee on Public Information), Hamilton makes the reader grapple with the double edged-sword of propaganda: how it both helps and hurts democracy. That something so universally condemned as bad has its roots in such (Wilsonian) idealism is a stark reminder of how easily our best laid plans, even when we act in good faith, can have awful unforeseen consequences. But maybe it’s beside the point to try to come to some blanket opinion or judgement about the goodness or badness of states using propaganda. It is a thing that states do for better or for worse. Maybe we should judge the message rather the medium.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book covers a mix of Wilson's second term in office along with the propaganda agency formed during the first World War to affect domestic and foreign opinion. It was interesting to see how the agency worked, along with its many failures. It was interesting how the press took the project with such hostility rather than be pushed around so easily.

I did find the book a bit too long and that it dragged on a little. It's an interesting piece of history.

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exceptional treatment of a complex topic

I highly recommend this book to those seeking to obtain and understanding of how public opinion is influenced by propaganda with real world examples beginning with WW 1

[Derek Kreider · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book odd REALLY dry, but that’s because it’s so comprehensive. If you read the first 100 pages and the last chapter I think you’d walk away with a pretty clear picture. It’s a very informative book, but tough to get through.

[Derek Moser · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oh, that Woodrow.