Selling the Great War: The Making of American Propaganda

This volume is the story of maverick journalist George Creel and the epoch-making government agency he built and led using the emerging industries of mass advertising and public relations to convince isolationist America to join World War I. Authorized by President Woodrow Wilson and created and run by Creel, the Committee on Public Information had one goal: to monopolize every medium and avenue of communication in order to forge a nation of warriors for democracy. Forging a path that would later be studied and retread by such characters as Adolf Hitler, the Committee revolutionized the techniques of governmental persuasion, changing the course of history. The author offers a fascinating investigation of America on the cusp of becoming a world power and how its first and most extensive propaganda machine attained unprecedented results.