CURRENT LITERATURE
PROPAGANDA TECHNIQUE IN THE WORLD WAR By Harold D. Lasswell
This is undoubtedly a suitable time for the reprint of Propaganda Technique in the World War (Kegan Paul, zos. 6d.), on account not only of the general topical interest of the subject, but also, in particular, of the book's treatment of German propaganda in America. Its chief fault during the War was a certain didactic stiffness which prevented it from seizing its opportunities. This fault can scarcely be imputed to the propaganda of the Nazis, and yet the results can scarcely be said to be more satisfactory from the German point of view. This, in turn, lends added point—especially since Professor Lasswell is himself American—to the analysis which he makes of the factors of a permanent nature which render the United States receptive of British and unreceptive of German propaganda. Apart from this source of interest, Professor Lasswell's history of War propaganda makes a number of important points, not a few of them exposing defects in Allied as well as German propaganda methods. And his classification of the three types of propaganda control —the American, with unified control ; the British, with dif- ferent fields of propaganda allotted to separate propaganda departments ; and the German, of departments carrying on propaganda for their own special purpose without co-ordi- nation except by Press conferences—and of the uses and defects of each method. is particularly useful.
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