The Nervous Liberals: Propaganda Anxieties from World War I to the Cold War

by Brett Gary

Overview

Today few political analysts use the term "propaganda." However, in the wake of World War I, fear of propaganda haunted the liberal conscience. Citizens and critics blamed the war on campaigns of mass manipulation engaged in by all belligerents. Beginning with these "propaganda anxieties," Brett Gary traces the history of American fears of and attempts to combat propaganda through World War II and up to the Cold War.

The Nervous Liberals explores how following World War I the social sciences—especially political science and the new field of mass communications—identified propaganda as the object of urgent "scientific" study. From there his narrative moves to the eve of WWII as mainstream journalists, clerics, and activists demanded greater government action against fascist propaganda, in response to which Congress and the Justice Department sought to create a prophylaxis against foreign or antidemocratic communications. Finally, Gary explores how free speech liberalism was further challenged by the national security culture, whose mobilization before World War II to fight the propaganda threat lead to much of the Cold War anxiety about propaganda.

Gary's account sheds considerable light not only on the history of propaganda, but also on the central dilemmas of liberalism in the first half of the century—the delicate balance between protecting national security and protecting civil liberties, including freedom of speech; the tension between public-centered versus expert-centered theories of democracy; and the conflict between social reform and public opinion control as the legitimate aim of social knowledge.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231113656
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	10/20/1999
Series:	Columbia Studies in Contemporary American History
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	332
Product dimensions:	7.70(w) x 11.50(h) x 1.10(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Brett Gary is associate professor of Media, Culture and Communication at New York University. He is the author of The Nervous Liberals: Propaganda Anxieties from World War I to the Cold War (CUP, 1999).

Table of Contents

1. Dangerous Words and Images: Propaganda's Threat to Democracy
2. Harold D. Lasswell and the Scientific Study of Propaganda
3. Mobilizing for the War on Words: The Rockefeller Foundation, Communication Scholars, and the State
4. Mobilizing the Intellectual Arsenal of Democracy: Archibald MacLeish and the Library of Congress
5. The Justice Department and the Problem of Propaganda
6. Justice at War: Silencing Foreign Agents and Native Fascists

What People are Saying About This

Steven M. Gillon

In this provocative, lucid, and thoughtful book, Gary highlights the tensions within liberal thought -- between free-speech liberals and the 'nervous liberals'who supported repressive measures -- and shows that the liberal impulse that emerged after World War II was in many ways philosophically weaker than it had been before the war.

— Steven M. Gillon, Carol E. Young Professor of History and Dean of Honors College, University of Oklahoma

Maurice Isserman

Brett Gary's exhaustively researched and well-argued work is a very useful addition to the literature on the rise of the national security state and the travails of civil libertarians in the era of total war and totalitarian ideology. The Nervous Liberals is a significant and original contribution to the new history of American liberalism.

— Maurice Isserman, William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of History, Hamilton College

Editorial Reviews

Brett Gary´s exhaustively researched and well-argued work is a very useful addition to the literature on the rise of the national security state and the travails of civil libertarians in the era of total war and totalitarian ideology. The Nervous Liberals is a significant and original contribution to the new history of American liberalism.

Maurice Isserman

In this provocative, lucid, and thoughtful book, Gary highlights the tensions within liberal thought -between free-speech liberals and the 'nervous liberals´ who supported repressive measures -and shows that the liberal impulse that emerged after World War II was in many ways philosophically weaker than it had been before the war.

Steven M. Gillon

Well-researched and gracefully written, Brett Gary's book provides valuable intellectual context for understanding how so many critics of First World War oppression became tough government warriors against fascism and communism.

Canadian Journal of History

Gary finds that two main problems faced liberal intellectuals and government officials during the period. The first revolved around the question of how to resuscitate democratic theory in an age of propaganda. The second, more concretely focused on security concerns, was how to protect US society from anti-democratic ideas and activities. While focusing on the intellectual debates, he also describes the institutional response to propaganda, especially the Justice Department's protective barrier between the American people and ideas deemed to be dangerous. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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