Propaganda and World War I
Gaining American Support
• How did Americans feel about entering the
War?
• What were some reasons Americans
wanted to remain neutral?
• What were some reasons Americans
wanted to join the war effort?
• Was America really neutral?
Propaganda during the War
• Great Britain
– Presented the
Germans as
cruel and
inhumane
Great Britain
• Patriotic posters for the war effort
France
• Like British, French produced patriotic
posters to support the war effort
Allies
• Use propaganda to compel other countries
to join their cause (especially Americans)
German Propaganda
• Pictured Wilson as falsely claiming
neutrality and helping the Allies
• Messages to Germans that they were
winning the war
– No signs of weaknesses on the warfront
– German people deeply shocked by defeat and
subsequent Versailles Treaty
• This shock will open the door for the blaming of
German leaders
• Will also lead to Hitler’s rise and the people’s
support of the NAZI regime
• Propaganda will be widely used by
Germany in WWII
• Reich Propaganda Leader Josef Goebbels
So what is propaganda?
• Propaganda is a kind of biased
communication designed to influence
people’s thought and actions
– Where have we heard of propaganda being
used before and how was it used?
– How is propaganda used today?
– Can you think of some examples?
America enters the War
• April 1917: America joins WWI on the side
of the Allies
• Need to gain the support of the public and
recruit men to serve in military
– Why do you need to gain the support of the
public?
– How does the public help the war effort during
this time?
– Do we still make sacrifices like this for war?
American Propaganda
• Wilson establishes the Committee on
Public Information
• This is the nation’s first committee solely devoted
to propaganda
• Also known as the Creel committee after the
chairman, George Creel
• Who was George Creel?
• George Creel
• Famous Muckraker before heading the
CPI
– As head of the CPI, he assembled a team of
75,000 public speakers known as “Four
Minute Men” who gave speeches throughout
the country supporting the war effort
• In 1920 he published the book How We
Advertised America about his propaganda
efforts
• Nationwide publicity
campaign
• Used rallies, parades,
posters, pamphlets,
songs, and speeches
to gain support for the
war
CPI
Example of American Propaganda
• Analyzing propaganda
– George M. Cohan’s Over There
• So what did we learn today?
ASSIGNMENT: You are to develop a piece of
propaganda on your own. This needs to be
something that could have been used as
propaganda in World War I. It can be for any of
the countries involved and can be any piece of
media ( a song, a speech, a poster, etc.) This is
to be completed for homework and is due
tomorrow at the beginning of class.