
Why America Fights
Patriotism and War Propaganda from the Philippines to Iraq
Susan A. Brewer(Author)
Oxford University Press Inc
Published on 17. March 2011
Book
Paperback/Softback
352 pages
978-0-19-975396-3 (ISBN)
Description
On the evening of September 11, 2002, with the Statue of Liberty shimmering in the background, television cameras captured President George W. Bush as he advocated the charge for war against Iraq. This carefully staged performance, writes Susan Brewer, was the culmination of a long tradition of sophisticated wartime propaganda in America.
In Why America Fights, Brewer offers a fascinating history of how successive presidents have conducted what Donald Rumsfeld calls "perception management," from McKinley's war in the Philippines to Operation Iraqi Freedom. Her intriguing account ranges from analyses of wartime messages to descriptions of the actual operations, from the dissemination of patriotic ads and posters to the management of newspaper, radio, and TV media. When Woodrow Wilson carried the nation into World War I, he created the Committee on Public Information, led by George Creel, who called his job "the world's greatest adventure in advertising." In World War II, Roosevelt's Office of War Information avowed a "strategy of truth," though government propaganda still depicted Japanese soldiers as buck-toothed savages. After examining the ultimately failed struggle to cast the Vietnam War in a favorable light, Brewer shows how the Bush White House drew explicit lessons from that history as it engaged in an unprecedented effort to sell a preemptive war in Iraq. Yet the thrust of its message was not much different from McKinley's pronouncements about America's civilizing mission.
Impressively researched and argued, filled with surprising details, Why America Fights shows how presidents have consistently drummed up support for foreign wars by appealing to what Americans want to believe about themselves.
In Why America Fights, Brewer offers a fascinating history of how successive presidents have conducted what Donald Rumsfeld calls "perception management," from McKinley's war in the Philippines to Operation Iraqi Freedom. Her intriguing account ranges from analyses of wartime messages to descriptions of the actual operations, from the dissemination of patriotic ads and posters to the management of newspaper, radio, and TV media. When Woodrow Wilson carried the nation into World War I, he created the Committee on Public Information, led by George Creel, who called his job "the world's greatest adventure in advertising." In World War II, Roosevelt's Office of War Information avowed a "strategy of truth," though government propaganda still depicted Japanese soldiers as buck-toothed savages. After examining the ultimately failed struggle to cast the Vietnam War in a favorable light, Brewer shows how the Bush White House drew explicit lessons from that history as it engaged in an unprecedented effort to sell a preemptive war in Iraq. Yet the thrust of its message was not much different from McKinley's pronouncements about America's civilizing mission.
Impressively researched and argued, filled with surprising details, Why America Fights shows how presidents have consistently drummed up support for foreign wars by appealing to what Americans want to believe about themselves.
Reviews / Votes
Susan Brewer's meticulously researched and engagingly written book is a strong addition to the burgeoning literature on U.S. propaganda. ... Why America Fights masterfully distills a huge body of work into a narrative that is approachable and thoughtprovoking. In addition to providing a persuasive analysis of U.S. propaganda, it is a marvelous introduction to key events in the history of U.S. foreign relations. * Journal of Cold War Studies *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Illustrations
53 halftones
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
Thickness: 21 mm
Weight
603 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-975396-3 (9780199753963)
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Schweitzer Classification
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Book
08/2009
Oxford University Press Inc
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E-Book
07/2009
1st Edition
OUP eBook
€12.99
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E-Book
07/2009
1st Edition
OUP eBook
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Person
Susan A. Brewer is Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. She is the author of To Win the Peace: British Propaganda in the United States during World War II.
Author
Professor of HistoryProfessor of History, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point
Content
1. The "Divine Mission": War in the Philippines ; 2. Crusade for Democracy: Over There in the Great War ; 3. The Good War: Fighting for a Better Life in World War II ; 4. War in Korea: "The Front Line in the Struggle between Freedom and Tyranny" ; 5. Why Vietnam: More Questions than Answers ; 6. Operation Iraqi Freedom: War and Infoganda