Propaganda and Promotional Activities

An Annotated Bibliography

Authors:

Harold D. Lasswell, Ralph D. Casey, and Bruce Lannes Smith

Propaganda and Promotional Activities: An Annotated Bibliography was first published in 1935. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions.

Every aspect of the subject of propaganda, or the “manipulation of collective responses,” is covered in the forty-five hundred titles listed in this exceptionally useful reference book. Included in the bibliography are books, pamphlets, and articles, many in foreign languages, dealing with the following topics:

1. The aims and methods of propaganda in the fields of politics and government, international relations, business and the professions, public and private finance, labor and agriculture, religion and morals, education, and social reform.

2. The media used in the dissemination of propaganda: the newspaper, the periodical, and the graphic arts; the radio; the press agent, the public relations counselor, and the advertising agency; the stage and screen; the lecture platform, the salon, and the tavern; the public fair, exposition, and museum.

3. The effectiveness of the various propagandist methods.

4. The function and regulation of propaganda in modern society.

The volume opens with an essay by Professor Laswell on “The Study and Practice of Propaganda.” Complete subject and author indexes are also included.

Harold D. Lasswell wrote widely on the theory and technique of propaganda and other methods of managing collective attitudes. His book, Propaganda Technique in the World War is regarded as the definitive study in this field. He is also the author of two other volumes, Psychopathology and Politics and World Politics and Personal Insecurity: A Contribution to Political Psychiatry, and of the article on propaganda in the Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences.

Ralph D. Casey had wide experience in the fields of journalism and publicity. He was for a number of years on the editorial staff – for a time as a political writer – of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and later on the staff of the New York Herald. He taught journalism at the Universities of Montana, Washington, Oregon, and Minnesota. In the field of publicity he served as assistant publicity director of the Seattle Chamber of Commerce and as director of the University of Oregon News Bureau.

Bruce Lannes Smith is author (with Glenn C. Quiett) of Principles of Publicity, and editor of the Journalism Quarterly. He was a former president of the American Association of Schools and Departments of Journalism.

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