Along with the the 'masses' in politics, mass media and increasing literacy with which it was closely associated, modern propaganda was one of the major historical developments of the twentieth century. It was first used systematically in the attempt to shape the opinion of allies and enemies and to maintain morale at home during the First World War. This produced a body of theory and a cadre of practitioner. But the embedding of propaganda as a technique of political management at the end of the war, caused by the grave weakening of pre-war Liberalism around the world, ensured that it would play a major and increasing role globally over the rest of the century.
Propaganda was indispensable to the development of 'propaganda states' - Lenin's and Stalin’s Soviet Union, Mussolini’s Italy, Hitler’s Third Reich, and, after the Second World War, Mao Zedong’s China. It was also used increasingly as an instrument of the state in Liberal democracies. Liberals reacted against it. But in Western Europe and North America, it was used increasingly by politicians to engage with mass electorates. From print in all its forms, cinema and poster art, a step change took place over the interwar years with the development of broadcasting. By the Second World War, propaganda was ubiquitous, and was accepted by ordinary people as an inevitable part of everyday life.
Even before the end of the Second World War it was becoming clear that in a world dominated by superpowers, propaganda threatened the very idea of the truth. In the Cold War, each sides' propaganda was aimed at least as much at its own side as at the enemy. When the Cold War ended in the early 1990s, propaganda had transformed the politics and culture not just of the totalitarian states but also of 'free world'.
We will look during the course not just at the historical role of propaganda, but also at propaganda artefacts, in the press, books and leaflets, cartoons, art, films, events and monuments. We will explore the role of popular culture as a means of disseminating propaganda, which at the same time reshaped culture.
Propaganda studies is an exciting new area of historical enquiry which has produced many new insights since it began in the 1970s. We will start by looking at the special tools historians need to study propaganda, and conclude by considering whether the twentieth century should be considered 'the age of propaganda'.