“We are Propagandists for Democracy”: The Institute for Propaganda Analysis’ Pioneering Media Literacy Efforts to Fight Disinformation (1937–1942)

Abstract

The Institute for Propaganda Analysis (IPA) advocated for “propaganda literacy” against the backdrop of rising nationalism before and during World War II (1937–1942). Through a historical analysis of unpublished archival papers, notes, correspondence, newspaper articles, and the Institute’s publications, this article shows how the IPA raised awareness and highlighted the need for information literacy during a time that precedes modern attempts to promote critical thinking and counter one-sided views. Supported by a network of public opinion scholars, educators, and editors, these anti-propaganda efforts gained momentum. Initially, the IPA’s monthly newsletter Propaganda Analysis and its educational programs, specialized leaflets, and publicity campaigns were received favorably by the public. But critics in government and the press attacked the IPA’s platform. By early 1942, the IPA could neither overcome its financial struggles nor thwart social and political pressures to cede its work, perceived as “un-American” in light of the US’s war mobilization.

Notes

1 “Propaganda Technique of the Nazis,” New York Times, September 1, 1937. Institute for Propaganda Analysis Records [hereinafter IPA Records], Box 1, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library [hereinafter NYPL], New York.

2 For example, see Kevin Stoker and Brad L. Rawlins, “The ‘Light’ of Publicity in the Progressive Era: From Searchlight to Flashlight,” Journalism History 30, no. 4 (Winter 2005): 177–188.

3 Erin Coyle, Elisabeth Fondren, and Joby Richard, “Advocacy, Editorial Opinion, and Agenda Building: How Publicity Friends Fought for Louis D. Brandeis’s 1916 Supreme Court Confirmation,” American Journalism 37, no. 2 (2020): 165–190; Erin Coyle, “The Moral Duty of Publicity,” Journalism History 35, no. 3 (Fall 2009): 162–167.

4 Frank Heywood Hodder, Propaganda as a Source of American History (Lawrence: University of Kansas Department of Journalism Press, 1922), 3.

5 Leonard W. Doob, “Propaganda,” in International Encyclopedia of Communications, ed. Erik Barnouw et al. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989), 374–378.

6 Stanley Baran and Dennis Davis, Mass Communication Theory: Foundations, Ferment and Future (Boston: Cengage Learning, 2011), 46.

7 J. Michael Sproule, “The Propaganda Analysis Movement since World War I” (paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Speech Communication Association, Chicago, 1–4 November, 1984).

8 Ibid.

9 Elisabeth Fondren, “Fighting an Armed Doctrine: The Struggle to Modernize German Propaganda during World War I (1914-1918),” Journalism & Communication Monographs (forthcoming 2021).

10 Benno Nietzel, “Knowing the Enemy: Propaganda Experts, Intelligence, and Total War (1941–1945),” KNOW: A Journal on the Formation of Knowledge 4, no. 2 (2020): 203–230.

11 J. Michael Sproule, “The Critical Paradigm in Propaganda,” Quarterly Journal of Speech 73, no. 1 (1987): 62.

12 Elizabeth Briant Lee and Alfred McClung Lee, “The Fine Art of Propaganda Analysis – Then and Now,” ETC: A Review of General Semantics 36, no. 2 (1979): 119.

13 Cayce Myers, “Reconsidering propaganda in US public relations history: An analysis of propaganda in the popular press 1810–1918,” Public Relations Review 41, no. 4 (2015): 551–561; Cayce Myers, “Early US Corporate Public Relations: Understanding the “Publicity Agent” in American Corporate Communications, 1902–1918,” American Journalism 32, no. 4 (2015): 412–433.

14 Edward Bernays, Propaganda (New York: Ig Publishing, 1928), 37.

15 Ibid.

16 Edward Bernays, Crystallizing Public Opinion (New York: Open Road Media, 1923), 212.

17 In the United States, social scientists and statistically oriented communication researchers argued to replace classic propaganda analysis as the paradigm for the academic study of persuasion with quantitative, empirical methodologies borrowed from natural sciences.

18 J. Michael Sproule, “Propaganda Studies in American Social Science: The Rise and Fall of the Critical Paradigm,” Quarterly Journal of Speech 73, no. 1 (1987): 68.

19 Harold D. Lasswell, Propaganda Technique in World War One (Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 1971); Harold D. Lasswell, “The Theory of Political Propaganda,” The American Political Science Review 21, no. 3 (1927): 627–631.

20 Hadley Cantril, “Propaganda Analysis,” The English Journal 27, no. 3 (1938): 220.

21 Walter Lippmann, Public Opinion (New York: Transaction Publishers, 1922); Walter Lippmann, The Phantom Public (New York: Transaction Publishers, 1927).

22 John Dewey, Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1922), 225; John Dewey, The Public and Its Problems (Athens, OH: Swallow Press, 1927), 98.

23 John Dewey, The Public and Its Problems; Dewey discusses his methods in: John Dewey, Studies in Logical Theory (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1903).

24 Ibid.

25 “Preface,” Propaganda Analysis, Volume 1 of the Publications of the Institute for Propaganda Analysis, Inc. (October 1937-October 1938), iv.

26 Timothy Glander, Origins of Mass Communications Research During the American Cold War: Educational Effects and Contemporary Implications (New York: Routledge, 1999). Also see: Rockefeller Archive Center, Rockefeller Foundation Records, Administration, Program and Policy, RG 3.1, series 911, Box 5, Folder 50, Memorandum, January 22, 1936, 1.

27 Donald Slesinger, “The Film and Education,” The Journal of Educational Sociology 13, no. 5 (1940): 263-267. Slesinger was the director of the American Film Center and warned that the modern film maker would “become a dictator by persuasion” (265).

28 Renee Hobbs and Sandra McGee, “Teaching about Propaganda: An Examination of the Historical Roots of Media Literacy,” Journal of Media Literacy Education 6, no. 2 (2014): 56–67.

29 The authors further argue, “Just as Clyde Miller and Edward Filene forged a strategic alliance using the publication of a magazine and curricular materials to help nurture a discourse community of people dedicated to understand, evaluate and critique the propaganda that surrounded them, media literacy educators today continue to deepen reflective thinking about media and technology through collaboration, conferences, webinars, publications, professional development programs, and the development and sharing of curricular materials,” Ibid., 64.

30 Renee Hobbs, Mind over Media: Propaganda Education for a Digital Age (New York: WW Norton & Company, 2020).

31 Hobbs and McGee, “Teaching about Propaganda,” 56–67.

32 Anya Schiffrin, “Fighting Disinformation with Media Literacy – in 1939,” Columbia Journalism Review, October 10, 2018, accessed June 29, 2020, https://www.cjr.org/innovations/institute-propaganda-analysis.php.

33 J. Michael Sproule, “Authorship and Origins of the Seven Propaganda Devices: A Research Note,” Rhetoric & Public Affairs 4, no. 1 (2001): 139.

34 Several leaders of the IPA were progressive reformists who believed in the value of consumer and adult education.

35 The IPA records have been located at the New York Public Library Archives and Manuscript Division since 1984, when former IPA director Alfred McClung Lee gifted the records to the NYPL. The collection consists of two large boxes of materials and includes press releases, circular letters, ballots for board elections, certificates of copyright registration, drafts of IPA publications, and correspondence with news editors and administrators.

36 Norman Fairclough, Analysing Discourse: Textual Analysis for Social Research (London: Psychology Press, 2003).

37 James D. Startt and Wm. David Sloan, Historical Methods in Mass Communication (Northport, AL: Vision Press: 2003); Michelle T. King, “Working With/in The Archives,” in Research Methods for History, ed. Simon Gunn and Lucy Faire (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2011): 13–29.

38 “Preface,” Propaganda Analysis, October 1937, iv.

39 Tim Klein and Elisabeth Fondren, “The Lippmann/Dewey Debate: Roles and Responsibilities of Journalists in a Democratic Society,” in Journalism’s Ethical Progression: A 20^th- Century Journey, ed. Gwyneth Mellinger and John P. Ferré (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2019), 45–72.

40 Hobbs and McGee, “Teaching about Propaganda,” 58.

41 On the Committee on Public Information (CPI) and World War I propaganda, see: John Maxwell Hamilton, Manipulating the Masses: Woodrow Wilson and the Birth of American Propaganda, (Baton Rouge: LSU Press, 2020); and James D. Startt, Woodrow Wilson and the Press: Prelude to the Presidency, (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004). On Roosevelt’s press management, see: Betty Houchin Winfield, “The New Deal Publicity Operation: Foundation for the Modern Presidency,” Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 61, no. 1 (1984): 40–48, 218.

42 Kenneth Heineman, “Media Bias in Coverage of the Dies Committee on Un‐American Activities, 1938–1940,” The Historian 55, no. 1 (1992): 37.

43 Thomas E. Mahl, Desperate Deception: British Covert Operations in the United States, 1939-44 (Sterling, VA: Potomac Books, Inc., 2000); Jennet Conant, The Irregulars: Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2009).

44 Lee and Lee, “The Fine Art of Propaganda Analysis – Then and Now,” 117–118.

45 Saul Engelbourg, “Edward A. Filene: Merchant, Civic Leader, and Jew,” American Jewish Historical Quarterly 66, no. 1 (1976): 106–122. Filene also gave to a number of organizations which aimed at alleviating the plight of the Jews in Germany as well as the refugees, including: the Non-Sectarian Anti-Nazi League, the Boston United Campaign for Relief of Jews in Germany, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, and the United Jewish Appeal (see Engelbourg, 121).

46 Hobbs and McGee, “Teaching about Propaganda,” 60; Engelbourg, “Edward A. Filene,” 119.

47 Bernays described Filene as “a liberal in the conservative area of business, he had constructive ideas that were years ahead of his time” and had “the canniness of a merchant with the emotions of a social reformer.” Edward A. Bernays, Biography of an Idea: The Founding Principles of Public Relations, (New York: Open Road Media, 1965), 443–444.

48 Bernays, who was present at the meeting, recounted the interaction between Filene and Miller as: “You there – here is ten thousand dollars for the first year. I don’t care how you spend the money. I suggest you and two others appoint a committee.” Bernays, Biography of an Idea, 444.

49 J. Michael Sproule, Propaganda and Democracy: The American Experience of Media and Mass Persuasion, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), 144.

50 Hobbs and McGee, “Teaching about Propaganda,” 60. This description of Miller was published in this editorial: Charles B. Driscoll, “New York Day By Day,” The Miami Daily News, April 4, 1938.

51 Bernays, Biography of an Idea, 443.

52 Correspondence from Clyde R. Miller to W.F. Russell, 30 January, 1928, Gottesman Libraries, Teachers College Columbia University, New York, accessed June 29, 2020, https://pk.tc.columbia.edu/item/C.-R.-Miller-W.-F.-Russell-1.30.1928-40775.

53 Correspondence from Clyde R. Miller to Members of the Progressive Education Association, 15 November 1937, Gottesman Libraries, Teachers College Columbia University, New York, accessed June 29, 2020, https://pk.tc.columbia.edu/item/C.-R.-Miller-Members-Of-The-Pea-11.15.1937-40770.

54 Correspondence from Clyde R. Miller to W.F. Russell, 16 December 1939, Libraries, Teachers College Columbia University, New York, accessed June 29, 2020, https://pk.tc.columbia.edu/item/C.-R.-Miller-W.-F.-Russell-12.16.1939-40778.

55 “Introduction,” Propaganda Analysis, Volume 1 of the Publications of the Institute for Propaganda Analysis, Inc. (October 1937-October 1938), xii.

56 “Preface,” Propaganda Analysis, October 15, 1938, iv.

57 Ibid.

58 “Announcement,” Propaganda Analysis, October 1937, Volume I, No. 1, 2.

59 Sproule, “Authorship and Origins of the Seven Propaganda Devices: A Research Note,” 135–142.

60 “Some ABC’s of Propaganda,” Propaganda Analysis, Volume 1, No., 2, December 1937, 9.

61 “Announcement,” Propaganda Analysis, October 1937, Volume I, No. 1, 2.

62 Correspondence from Clyde R. Miller to Edward Bernays, 17 November 1937, IPA Records, Manuscripts and Archives Division, NYPL.

63 Ibid.

64 Propaganda Analysis, Volume II, Preface, September 23, 1939, signed: Clyde M. Miller, Secretary.

65 Ibid.

66 In October 1937, the IPA collected numerous responses from editors, educators, journalists and politicians, unionists, and labor unions and combined these impressions and reactions in one long (editorialized) document. See Correspondences, IPA Records, Box 1, Manuscripts and Archives Division, NYPL.

67 Ibid.

68 Correspondence from H.S. Sherman to Clyde R. Miller, October 1937, IPA Records, Box 1, Manuscripts and Archives Division, NYPL.

69 “Propaganda Study is Aim of Institute,” The New York Times, October 10, 1937.

70 Ibid. “The IPA announced that study units on how to detect and analyze propaganda would be used this year in Horace Mann and Lincoln Schools of Teachers College, Columbia University, and in the public schools of Bronxville and Gloversville, NY; in Rock Island, Ill. And Newtown, Mass., in the State Teachers College at Milwaukee, and in the University High School, Northwestern University.”

71 Advertisement, “Propaganda Analysis,” Forum and Century 99, no. 1 (1938): III.

72 “What is Propaganda: Definition Given in Editorial Too Broad, Says Writer,” Washington Post, October 10, 1937.

73 Ibid., Miller lamented in his response to the Washington Post on October 6, 1937: “At one point does your editorial seem to be at some variance with the aim of the Institute. We refer to the portion in which you comment upon the democratic principles of the Institute, concluding that these represent a worthy objective, but that the program “implies a bias which outs the organization itself in the class of propaganda agencies.”

74 “What is Propaganda,” Washington Post.

75 The IPA included the seven devices in their second monthly newsletter. “Propaganda Foes Expose Its Tricks: 7 Word-Tools to Fool Public Listed and Defined,” New York Times, October 31, 1937. 

76 “Radio Propaganda of Europe Scored: Prof. Bryson Warns Shortwave Broadcasts Seek to Embroil Americans War ‘Fought on the Air’ Teacher Group Urged,” New York Times, December 12, 1937. 

77 New York Herald Tribune, January 24, 1938, IPA Records, Box 1, Manuscripts and Archives Division, NYPL.

78 Correspondence from Clyde Miller to the New York Herald Tribune, 28 January 1938, Box 1, IPA Records, Manuscripts and Archives Division, NYPL.

79 Correspondence from Clyde Miller to Alfred McClung Lee, 7 February 1938, Box 1, IPA Records, Manuscripts and Archives Division, NYPL.

80 Correspondence from Alfred McClung Lee to Clyde Miller, 10 February 1938, Box 1, IPA Records, Manuscripts and Archives Division, NYPL.

81 “How to Analyze Newspapers,” Propaganda Analysis, Volume 1, Number 4, January 1938, 12.

82 Ibid., 15.

83 Irving Brant, “The Press and Political Leadership,” Propaganda Analysis, Volume 1, Number 5, February 1938, 19.

84 Ibid., 27-28. For that issue, the suggested activities were: List the headlines of various newspapers; devote one hour a day to newspaper reading; compare the different sections; make dictionary of ‘name calling’; and discuss the difficulty of unbiased news gathering.

85 Sproule, “The Propaganda Analysis Movement since World War I,” 14.

86 Lee and Lee, “The Fine Art of Propaganda Analysis—Then and Now,” 120.

87 “Aid to Propaganda in Films Charged: Institute Finds ‘Stereotype’ Screen Stories Fail to Give Realistic View of Life,” New York Times, February 27, 1938. 

88 As a New York Times education reporter and since 1941 as an education editor, Fine covered the American school and college scene, a beat which produced a steady flow of stories. Fine won a public service Pulitzer Prize in 1944 for reporting on teaching history in American schools. See: “Benjamin Fine Is Dead in Korea; Was Education Editor of Times,” New York Times, May 17, 1975.

89 Correspondence from Irving Brant to Clyde Miller, 28 February 1938, Box 1, IPA Records, Manuscripts and Archives Division, NYPL.

90 “Woes of Rural Schools Occupy 10,000 Educators at Convention” New York Times, February 27, 1939.

91 Correspondence from Stuart M. Low to Clyde Miller, 7 March 1938, Box 2, IPA Records, Manuscripts and Archives Division, NYPL.

92 Ibid.

93 Advertisement, New York Times, June 05, 1938. This issue also included a coupon, $2.00 for one year’s subscription to the Propaganda Analysis newsletter.

94 “Hobbies Held Aid to Adult Training: Education Becomes Adventure in Light of Diversions,” New York Times, March 6, 1938.  

95 “Notes of the Local Schools,” New York Times, March 20, 1938. 

96 “Advertising News and Notes: Biow Gets McCallum Account Jersey in Industrial Drive Year's Linage here Off 10.9% Railroads Promote Cut Rates Accounts Personnel Notes Shavemaster in Papers,” New York Times, December 8, 1938; “Advertising News and Notes: Potato Program Advances De Soto's Biggest Drive Yardley Campaign,” New York Times, October 7, 1938. 

97 Elizabeth La Ines, “Peace Group Maps Propaganda Study: Committee on Cure of War to Test Extent of Motivated Sentiment in Nation ‘Yardstick’ for Survey 850 Round Tables Will Apply it to Efforts of Press, Radio and Other Agencies,” New York Times, November 16, 1938. 

98 Correspondence from FORUM to Clyde Miller, 16 May 1938, Box 2, IPA Records, Manuscripts and Archives Division, NYPL.

99 “The Public Relations Counsel and Propaganda,” Propaganda Analysis, Volume 1, Number 11, August 1938, 62–63.

100 “These letters of Bernays annoy me to no end and, in spite of the good article in this week’s Guild Reporter, I think I shall open the issue with Bernays again when he reaches New Haven toward the end of April.” See: Correspondence from Leonard Doob to Clyde Miller, 22 March 1938, Box 2, IPA Records, Manuscripts and Archives Division, NYPL.

101 Correspondence from Clyde Miller to Alfred McClung Lee, 17 March 1938, 23 March 1938, 25 March 1938, 30 March 1938, Box 1, IPA Records, Manuscripts and Archives Division, NYPL.

102 Correspondence from Alfred McClung Lee to Clyde Miller, 18 June 1938, Box 1, IPA Records, Manuscripts and Archives Division, NYPL.

103 Correspondence from Alfred McClung Lee to Clyde Miller, 28 June 1938, Box 1, IPA Records, Manuscripts and Archives Division, NYPL.

104 “The Channels of Communication,” Propaganda Analysis, July 16, 1938, 79.

105 Ibid.

106 “Protest in Westchester,” New York Times, November 16, 1938. 

107 Sproule, Propaganda and Democracy, 144.

108 Miller urged Ford and Lindbergh to return Reich decorations. See “Expects Nazi Propaganda: C. R. Miller says Hitlerites Seek to Divide Americans by Hatreds,” New York Times, November 28, 1938.

109 “800 Groups Linked to Anti-Semitism: Rev. L. M. Birkhead Charges Reich Inspires Them and Subsidies to Most Warns of ‘Danger Ahead’ Kansas City Pastor Reports Findings to Institute for Study of Propaganda,” New York Times, December 14, 1938.  

110 Correspondence from Leonard Doob to Clyde Miller, 5 January 1939, Box 2, IPA Records, Manuscripts and Archives Division, NYPL.

111 “To Speak at New Rochelle,” New York Times, February 12, 1939.

112 “Calls Coughlin ‘National Menace’: Unitarian Minister Likens the Priest to Hitler in Perpetrating a ‘Gigantic Hoax’ Manifesto by Educators Progressive Conference at Detroit Adopts Five-Point Program for Democracy Manifesto is Signed,” New York Times, February 26, 1939. 

113 Ibid.

114 Executive Committee Meeting Notes, 25 May 1939, Box 1, IPA Records, Manuscripts and Archives Division, NYPL.

115 “BOOK NOTES,” New York Times, June 28, 1939. 

116 “Plans Democracy Series: Columbia Group to Hold Six Public Panel Discussions,” New York Times, July 2, 1939.  

117 Ibid. 

118 “Unionism Termed Democratic Weapon: Labor Will Fight Dictatorship Trend, Miss Lewis Says,” New York Times, July 18, 1939.

119 “Preface,” Propaganda Analysis, Volume II, September 23, 1939, signed: Clyde M. Miller, Secretary. Later volumes of Propaganda Analysis looked at specific case studies, including fascist propaganda, Japanese and Chinese relations, and big chain store propaganda.

120 Ibid.

121 “Let’s Talk About Ourselves,” Propaganda Analysis, Volume II, Number 13, September 1939, 1.

122 Ibid.

123 Correspondence from Clyde Miller to Bernard DeVoto, 27 May 1936, Box 1, IPA Records, Manuscripts and Archives Division, NYPL.

124 Ibid., In that letter Miller wrote, “we are pleased to have your criticism and suggestion whether it appears in Harpers or where it comes to us in personal letters. What you write is interesting and challenging,” 1.

125 Correspondence from Clyde Miller to Alfred M. Bingham, 5 February 1941, Box 1, IPA Records, Manuscripts and Archives Division, NYPL.

126 Correspondence from Leonard Doob to Clyde Miller, 18 October 1939, Box 2, IPA Records, Manuscripts and Archives Division, NYPL.

127 Correspondence from Leonard Doob to Clyde Miller, 24 August 1940, Box 2, IPA Records, Manuscripts and Archives Division, NYPL.

128 Correspondence from Clyde Miller to Alfred McClung Lee, 28 June 1938, Box 1, IPA Records, Manuscripts and Archives Division, NYPL.

129 “War Comes,” Propaganda Analysis, Volume III, Number 1, October 1, 1939.

130 Ibid.

131 Ibid.

132 “Dr. Dewey is Hailed on 80th Birthday: 1,000 Educators, Officials of Colleges and Teachers Hold Series of Meeting Here His Philosophy Praised Columbia Veteran, Unable to Attend, Sends Message Advocating Tolerance Sees Clear Choice Due Now,” New York Times, October 21, 1939. 

133 Benjamin Fine, “Tolerance Aim in School Plan: Pupils to Dramatize Cultural Work Under Program of Good-Will each School to have Aim Service Bureau to Lead Teachers Will Confer,” New York Times, December 31, 1939.

134 Ibid.

135 IPA advertisement letter to its members, 30 April 1941, Box 1, IPA Records, Manuscripts and Archives Division, NYPL.

136 Violet Edwards, “Propaganda Analysis: Today’s Challenge,” ALA Bulletin 34, no. 1 (Jan. 1940), 8–10.

137 “Looking at Ourselves,” Propaganda Analysis, Volume II, The Institute’s Study Program, 108.

138 Schiffrin, “Fighting Disinformation with Media Literacy – in 1939.”

139 Leaflet of Ethical Rules adopted by the American Society of Newspaper Editors, 28 April 1923, Box 1, IPA Records, Manuscripts and Archives Division, NYPL.

140 Arno Jewett, “Detecting and Analyzing Propaganda,” The English Journal 29, no. 2 (Feb 1940): 105–115.

141 Ralph Thompson, “Books of the Times,” New York Times, June 18, 1940.

142 C. Hartley Grattan, “Propaganda and America in the Second World War: The Material Assembled by Mr. Lavine and Mr. Wechsler Allows for More than One Interpretation,” New York Times, June 30, 1940. 

143 Correspondence from James Wechsler to IPA, 11 April 1941, Box 1, IPA Records, Manuscripts and Archives Division, NYPL.

144 Advertisement, “For Your Thinking Friends,” Propaganda Analysis, Volume IV, Number 2, December 15, 1940.

145 Internal Memo, Box 1, IPA Records, Manuscripts and Archives Division, NYPL. “Editors, radio commentators, ministers, businessmen, labor leaders, teachers, advertising experts, public relations counselors–opinion molders in all walks of life – subscribe regularly to our Bulletins and carry Institute materials to an ever-expanding audience.”

146 The payment would be two cents a word (Milled was commissioned to write 1280 words). Correspondence from Encyclopedia Britannica to Clyde Miller, 18 August 1940, Box 2, IPA Records, Manuscripts and Archives Division, NYPL.

147 US House of Representatives, Records of the Special Committee on Un-American Activities

Committee (1938–1945), Center for Legislative Archives, National Archives and Records

Administration. Also see: “House Un-American Activities Committee,” Harry S. Truman

Library and Museum, accessed June 29, 2020, https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/education/presidential-inquiries/house-un-american-activities-committee#background.

148 Heineman, “Media Bias in Coverage of the Dies Committee on Un‐American Activities, 1938–1940,” 50.

149 Walter Goodman, The Committee: The Extraordinary Career of the House Committee on Un-American Activities (New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1968), 120.

150 David Schultz, “House Un-American Activities Committee,” In The First Amendment Encyclopedia, 2009, accessed June 29, 2020, https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/815/house-un-american-activities-committee.

151 “Mr. Dies Goes to Town,” Propaganda Analysis, Volume III, Jan 15, 1940, 1.

152 Bruce Lannes Smith, “Propaganda Analysis and the Science of Democracy,” Public Opinion Quarterly 5, no. 2 (1941): 250–259.

153 Clyde R. Miller, “Some Comments on Propaganda Analysis and the Science of Democracy,” Public Opinion Quarterly 4, no. 4 (1941): 657–665.

154 Benjamin Fine, “Propaganda Study Instills Skepticism in 1,000,000 Pupils: Teachers in 3,000 Schools in Nation Instructed in 3-Year Test by Analysis Institute Monthly Bulletins Sent Youths Learning to Think For Themselves, Educator Says, Without Becoming Cynical 3,000 Schools Give Propaganda Study,” New York Times, February 21, 1941.

155 “Let’s Look at Ourselves,” Propaganda Analysis, Volume II, 1938, The Institute’s Study Program, 109.

156 Ibid.

157 “Announcement,” Propaganda Analysis. Volume 1, Number 1, October 1937, 4.

158 Benjamin Fine, “Un-American Tone Seen in Textbooks on Social Sciences—Propaganda Study Decried Un-American Tone Seen in Textbooks,” New York Times, February 22, 1941.  

159 “Dies Scrutinizes Propaganda Study: Inquiry into the Institute for Analysis Follows Alleged Left-Wing Expressions,” New York Times, February 23, 1941. 

160 Goodman, The Committee, 118–120.

161 “Dies Scrutinizes Propaganda Study: Inquiry into the Institute for Analysis Follows Alleged Left-Wing Expressions,” New York Times, February 23, 1941. 

162 “Educators to Form and Inquiry Board: Textbook Dispute Discloses Plan for Group to Guard Democracy in Schools Study of Charges Asked Petition,” New York Times, February 25, 1941. 

163 Ibid. 

164 “Calls for Action by Dies: Propaganda Analysis Group Renews Offer on Inquiry,” New York Times, March 16, 1941.

165 “A Letter to the Dies Committee,” Propaganda Analysis Volume 4, No. 5, March 27, 1941, 11.

166 Anonymous Correspondence (undated) to IPA, Box 2, IPA Records, Manuscripts and Archives Division, NYPL.

167 Correspondence from Miller to members and new subscribers, February 1941, Box 2, IPA Records, Manuscripts and Archives Division, NYPL.

168 Correspondence from Theo F. Lentz to Clyde Miller, 26 June 1941, Box 1, IPA Records, Manuscripts and Archives Division, NYPL.

169 Correspondence from Frank L. Martin to Clyde Miller, 9 July 1941, Box 1, IPA Records, Manuscripts and Archives Division, NYPL.

170 “American Common Sense,” Propaganda Analysis, July 1941, Volume IV, Number 8,

171 Advertisement: Decide-For-Yourself Packet, Propaganda Analysis, July 1941, Volume IV, Number 8.

172 For instance, the IPA created issues on “Labor and National Defense” (April 1941), “War” (May 1941) “Critical Thinking in a Crisis” (June 1941); and “Bias in our Foreign Press” (July 1941). Starting in 1939, the IPA advertised its materials, for instance, the propaganda analysis packet for $10 a year. See: IPA Records, Box 1, IPA Records, Manuscripts and Archives Division, NYPL.

173 Correspondence Good Will Fund to IPA (undated), Box 1, IPA Records, Manuscripts and Archives Division, NYPL.

174 Correspondence from Clyde Miller to Clyde Beals, 19 November 1941, Box 1, IPA Records, Manuscripts and Archives Division, NYPL.

175 Ibid.

176 “We Say Au Revoir,” Propaganda Analysis, Volume IV, Number 13, January 1942, 2.

177 Ibid.

178 Sproule, Propaganda and Democracy, 142.

179 William Garber, “Propaganda Analysis-To What Ends?” American Journal of Sociology 48, no. 2 (1942): 240–245.

180 Sproule, “Authorship and Origins of the Seven Propaganda Devices: A Research Note,” 140.

181 Office of War Information, Bureau of Motion Pictures. Government Information Manual for the Motion Picture Industry (Washington, D.C.: Office of War Information, 1942), 3; Ramon Girona and Jordi Xifra, “The Office of Facts and Figures: Archibald MacLeish and the “strategy of truth,” Public Relations Review 35, no. 3 (2009): 287-290. After World War II, the US government included programs in propaganda education as part of its military training (US Department of the Army, 1954). Cited in Hobbs, Mind over Media.

182 Correspondence from O. A. Crosby to W.F. Russell, 31 January 1945, Gottesman Libraries, Teachers College Columbia University, New York, accessed June 29, 2020, https://pk.tc.columbia.edu/item/O.-A.-Crosby-W.-F.-Russell-41028.

183 Schiffrin, “Fighting Disinformation with Media Literacy – in 1939.”

184 Notes, Clyde R. Miller, Box 2, IPA Records, Manuscripts and Archives Division, NYPL.

185 Klein and Fondren, “The Lippmann/Dewey Debate: Roles and Responsibilities of Journalists in a Democratic Society,” 51.

186 Briant Lee and Lee, “The Fine Art of Propaganda Analysis,” 118.

187 Inger L. Stole, “Advertising America: Official Propaganda and the US Promotional Industries, 1946–1950,” Journalism & Communication Monographs 23, no. 1 (2021): 4–63.

188 Alfred McClung Lee, How to Understand Propaganda (New York: Rinehard, 1952), 268.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Elisabeth Fondren

Elisabeth Fondren is an assistant professor of journalism at St. John’s University in New York. Her research explores the history of international journalism, government propaganda, military-media relations, and freedom of speech during wartime. She received her Ph.D. in Media & Public Affairs from Louisiana State University’s Manship School of Mass Communication.