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John Maxwell Hamilton
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Manipulating the Masses: Woodrow Wilson and the Birth of American Propaganda Kindle Edition

by John Maxwell Hamilton (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.8 out of 5 stars 67 ratings

Winner of the Goldsmith Book Prize
Winner of the AEJMC History Division Book Award
Winner of the AJHA Book of the Year
Winner of the Culbert Family Book Prize

Manipulating the Masses tells the story of the enduring threat to American democracy that arose out of World War I: the establishment of pervasive, systematic propaganda as an instrument of the state. During the Great War, the federal government exercised unprecedented power to shape the views and attitudes of American citizens. Its agent for this was the Committee on Public Information (CPI), established by President Woodrow Wilson one week after the United States entered the war in April 1917.

Driven by its fiery chief, George Creel, the CPI reached every crevice of the nation, every day, and extended widely abroad. It established the first national newspaper, made prepackaged news a quotidian aspect of governing, and pioneered the concept of public diplomacy. It spread the Wilson administration’s messages through articles, cartoons, books, and advertisements in newspapers and magazines; through feature films and volunteer Four Minute Men who spoke during intermission; through posters plastered on buildings and along highways; and through pamphlets distributed by the millions. It enlisted the nation’s leading progressive journalists, advertising executives, and artists. It harnessed American universities and their professors to create propaganda and add legitimacy to its mission.

Even as Creel insisted that the CPI was a conduit for reliable, fact-based information, the office regularly sanitized news, distorted facts, and played on emotions. Creel extolled transparency but established front organizations. Overseas, the CPI secretly subsidized news organs and bribed journalists. At home, it challenged the loyalty of those who occasionally questioned its tactics. Working closely with federal intelligence agencies eager to sniff out subversives and stifle dissent, the CPI was an accomplice to the Wilson administration’s trampling of civil liberties.

Until now, the full story of the CPI has never been told. John Maxwell Hamilton consulted over 150 archival collections in the United States and Europe to write this revealing history, which shows the shortcuts to open, honest debate that even well-meaning propagandists take to bend others to their views. Every element of contemporary government propaganda has antecedents in the CPI. It is the ideal vehicle for understanding the rise of propaganda, its methods of operation, and the threat it poses to democracy.

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  1. Print length
    943 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    LSU Press
  4. Accessibility
    Learn more
  5. Publication date
    October 21, 2020
  6. File size
    7.7 MB
  7. Page Flip
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  8. Word Wise
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  9. Enhanced typesetting
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Both fascinating and troubling, this thoughtful history reveals the roots of the official spin that dominates much of today’s news. The blunt title and alarming cover illustration―a 1918 war-bond poster depicting a direct German attack on New York City―make clear the heavy-duty nature of Manipulating the Masses, John Maxwell Hamilton’s important history of the establishment during World War I of systematic propaganda as an instrument of American government.” -- New York Journal of Books

“An instant classic. This stunning history of the origins of American propaganda and the information state unveils the threat to self-government that’s been with us since World War I. If you care about democracy, this book belongs at the top of your reading list.” -- Thomas E. Patterson, Bradlee Professor of Government & the Press, Harvard University

“There are fewer more important obligations of government in a democracy to keep citizens informed and to tell the truth. That standard, sadly, has failed at crucial moments in our history and John Maxwell Hamilton’s volume recalls the history of a seminal failure. It should open our eyes to shortcomings in what we get as ‘public information’ and ask us all to demand better from our nation’s leaders.” -- Mike McCurry, Former White House and State Department spokesman; Professor and Director, Public Theology at Wesley Theological Seminary

“George Creel and his Committee on Public Information, directed by President Woodrow Wilson, represented a massive and successful effort during WWI to mold opinion in favor of American involvement in the war. Hamilton’s book demonstrates that distorted propaganda such as what we saw during the Vietnam War and from today’s White House, is nothing new. His story is a mirror into our own times.” -- Ambassador Theodore Sedgwick, Commissioner, World War I Centennial Commission

“John Hamilton has written an outstanding, timely new book. A century ago, President Woodrow Wilson’s Ministry of Public Information was America’s first and only propagandistic Ministry of Information. Today, we have deteriorated to darker, diminished discourse with phrases such as ‘fake news’ by a President who has made tens of thousands of false or misleading public statements since his Inauguration. All of this can be traced to the story Hamilton tells.” -- Charles Lewis, Founder of the Center for Public Integrity and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists

“In this excellent book, John Maxwell Hamilton examines the darker side of US president Woodrow Wilson’s administration during the First World War. . . . Hamilton provides a detailed account of the CPI’s (Committee on Public Information) operations, ranging from propaganda to censorship both at home and abroad. . . . Wilson’s legacy was mixed, as Hamilton convincingly demonstrates in this outstanding book.” -- H-Net Reviews

“A fascinating study into the origins of targeted misinformation and fake news, and the creators who unleashed them on our world out of misguided patriotism.” -- David Callaway, Former Editor-in-Chief, USA Today

“This highly-readable, meticulously researched book examines the origins of modern U.S. propaganda, as refined in the Twentieth Century. These practices, well-intended at first, have ended up harming this nation by undermining its democratic principles. Professor Hamilton rings a warning bell that all should hear about the dangers that propaganda, whether from abroad or within our own land, continues to hold for the future of America’s open society.” -- Loch Johnson, Regents Professor Emeritus of International Affairs, University of Georgia

“Manipulating the Masses brilliantly tells the story of President Woodrow Wilson’s 1916 re-election campaign and how Wilson used the same techniques to shape public opinion when he took the country into World War I and created the Committee on Public Information. Every public affairs office in government today as well as the private sector’s public relations industry owe their birth to Wilson’s CPI and what was done there. It’s quite a story.” -- Charlie Cook, Editor and Publisher, The Cook Political Report

“Some history books make exceptional contributions. Like long-needed highways or bridges, they act as public utilities. Some even do the job with elegance. John Maxwell Hamilton’s Manipulating the Masses: Woodrow Wilson and the Birth of American Propaganda is such a book: history as public service, delivered with grace and advancing our progress on the vital road to understanding the relationship between government and media in America and, by extension, in the wider world.
Hamilton draws on a wide array of archival sources in many countries to tell a simple story: how the United States government used mass communications to advance its foreign policy at home and abroad during World War I. In the past, the subject has been tackled only partially, most prominently by writers with a personal connection to the events in question and to the story’s central government agency, the Committee on Public Information (CPI). Moreover, this story has been overshadowed by the memoir of the man who ran the campaign, George Creel.
Creel was the modern U.S. government’s first great propagandist, with a role so novel that promulgating government propaganda was once known as ‘Creeling.’ Creel’s own account of the process was―no surprise―self-serving.
Hamilton’s book is a more-than-overdue audit of Creel and his agency. More than that, it illuminates the original sin in the U.S. government’s relationship with the media, a foundational mix of spin and distortion that echoes down the decades to our own era of presidential tweets and weaponized media. ‘Every element’ of today’s ‘information state,’ says Hamilton, ‘had antecedents in the CPI.’”

-- American Purpose

About the Author

John Maxwell Hamilton, a former journalist and government official, is the Hopkins P. Breazeale LSU Foundation Professor of Journalism in the Manship School of Mass Communication at LSU and a global fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC. He has authored or edited many books, including Journalism’s Roving Eye and Manipulating the Masses, both of which won the Goldsmith Book Prize.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B08745KRYH
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ LSU Press
  • Accessibility ‏ : ‎ Learn more
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 21, 2020
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 7.7 MB
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 943 pages
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0807174180
  • Page Flip ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.8 out of 5 stars 67 ratings

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Top reviews from the United States

  • Eric Hobart
    5.0 out of 5 stars The "Birth" of American Propaganda
    Reviewed in the United States on April 27, 2022
    Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
    This book is an extensive study of American propaganda during the World War I era, with a centralized focus on the Committee on Public Information (CPI) led by George Creel.

    John Hamilton argues that it was the WWI era - when concerns about appealing to the masses joined forces with modern communications - when propaganda truly became important.

    There was, of course, propaganda before WWI, the Civil War era is rife with such morsels as the racial taunts of the Democratic party being for the "white man" while the Republican party stood for the "Negro". However, Hamilton argues, it was 50 years later that we saw George Creel utilize the newly created CPI to propagandize the war around the world in ways never before seen.

    Various activities, from the "four minute men", who would give 4 minute long public addresses during intermissions at the movies, to censorship & suppression, were undertaken by the CPI during this period.

    Hamilton does a masterful job of explaining how the propaganda impacted not only Americans, but also the Allies in Europe and the efforts that were taken to demoralize the Central powers.

    This is a great book and a remarkable work - checking in at just under 500 pages, it isn't a short read, but the reader will be well rewarded with loads of intriguing information about Woodrow Wilson, George Creel, and the effort to improve America's image during the WWI period.
    5 people found this helpful
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  • drohan00
    5.0 out of 5 stars A great academic study
    Reviewed in the United States on June 30, 2021
    Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
    Supposedly America has a free press. What you find out in this engaging work of scholarship is that the control of the media by the governmental and cultural elite of this country is not 'free' per se. This book provides a new look at the attempt to sell the public on a war it did not want to enter.

    This book plus "Holding Fast the inner lines" are highly recommended.
    6 people found this helpful
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  • James
    5.0 out of 5 stars Before Obama's transparency, there was Wilson's. Both were opaque. Both were corrupt.
    Reviewed in the United States on November 11, 2021
    Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
    Names name, dates, places and deeds. Explains how the world at large and America in particular were uninformed, misinformed and deliberately disinformed by the "Progressive" government that proclaimed more and loder than any previous to be completely open and transparent. Exposes the totalitarianism practised instead. Think of it as Obama 1.0.
    14 people found this helpful
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  • anomymous
    4.0 out of 5 stars Extremely well researched
    Reviewed in the United States on February 25, 2025
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    This was a clear, detailed book about the propaganda machine created by the Wilson administration to promote the war effort and sadly to suppress dissenting views. The tactics were creative, multifaceted and above all ruthless. A timely book for our times.

    My only comment is that the book can be a bit dry in places due to the level of detail.

    Overall, an excellent read. A keeper on my shelf.
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  • Brian Brotschi
    5.0 out of 5 stars Exceptional treatment of a complex topic
    Reviewed in the United States on December 31, 2021
    Format: KindleVerified Purchase
    I highly recommend this book to those seeking to obtain and understanding of how public opinion is influenced by propaganda with real world examples beginning with WW 1
    7 people found this helpful
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  • mary g
    5.0 out of 5 stars Exhaustive history of propaganda, winner of Harvard Kennedy School Goldsmith Book Prize
    Reviewed in the United States on April 13, 2021
    Format: Kindle
    The Goldsmith book prize is well deserved--this is the most extensive history of American propaganda to date. Hamilton covers virtually every aspect of the Committee on Public Information, from how it enlisted the motion picture industry and advertising associations to create propaganda; the creation of "public diplomacy" or programs overseas, and how it used propaganda on the war front; and its use of front organizations to reach domestic foreign populations. More importantly, Manipulating the Masses provides a blueprint for the current Information State, and is a cautionary tale of how governments can subvert democratic ideals in the pursuit of persuading public opinion. 10/10 must read.
    13 people found this helpful
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  • Mark in B'more
    5.0 out of 5 stars Thumbs down on Woody
    Reviewed in the United States on June 17, 2021
    Format: Hardcover
    I have not bought this book yet but as someone who considers Woodrow Wilson one of the absolute worst presidents in US history I certainly intend to, despite the ignorant comments above by Charles Lewis. America should never have entered WW1. The 20th century would have been very different.
    10 people found this helpful
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  • EricTheHalfABee
    4.0 out of 5 stars A thorough documentation
    Reviewed in the United States on June 13, 2024
    Format: KindleVerified Purchase
    Mr. Hamilton offers a thorough documentation of propaganda around the first world war. He clearly outlines many peripheral events leading to and resulting from that propaganda.
    He describes the fundamental elements of propaganda such as publication of stories you want disseminated without regard to their veracity, suppression of stories you do not want disseminated, and punishment including threats and incarceration of those who defy your power.
    He further doesn't shy away from pointing out those who were enthusiastic supporters of Wilson's propaganda, specifically including "academics" at most notably Columbia University as well as the Universities of Minnesota and Chicago (oh U of C, what have you done?). Other notable supporters including many in the media who both actively worked creating propaganda and those who found it easier and safer to publish the approved stories remind one of Germany in the 1920s and 1930s, as described by Shirer in Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. Finally, Mr. Hamilton is courageous enough to include the distinct relationship between Progressives (they capitalized the word often at that time) and the war as well as the propaganda machine. One can see throughout the book the line of ideologically possessed Progressives as well as the gullible and self-assured operatives for whom the end always justified the means, again reminding one of Germany in the 1930s.
    Where the book fails, in my opinion, is losing the big picture in the details. One sees no reference to the fruits of Wilson's propaganda in the 1940s, much less today. Most distressing for me however, are the many statements throughout the book indicating that Mr. Hamilton is more concerned with the shoddy implementation of Wilson's propaganda department than the propaganda itself. Wilson ran for president as being opposed to America joining the deeply unpopular great war, while he was preparing not only to join the war, but also to manipulate American public opinion in order to justify his decision to involve America in the war if he could, and bully or incarcerate the public who were vocal in their opposition if he could not.
    3 people found this helpful
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