British Subversive Propaganda during the Second World War: Germany, National Socialism and the Political Warfare Executive

by Kirk Robert Graham

Overview

This book offers the first in-depth intellectual and cultural history of British subversive propaganda during the Second World War. Focussing on the Political Warfare Executive (PWE), it tells the story of British efforts to undermine German morale and promote resistance against Nazi hegemony. Staffed by civil servants, journalists, academics and anti-fascist European exiles, PWE oversaw the BBC European Service alongside more than forty unique clandestine radio stations; they maintained a prolific outpouring of subversive leaflets and other printed propaganda; and they trained secret agents in psychological warfare. British policy during the occupation of Germany stemmed in part from the wartime insights and experiences of these propagandists.

Rather than analyse military strategy or tactics, British Subversive Propaganda during the Second World War draws on a wealth of archival material from collections in Germany and Britain to develop a critical genealogy of British ideas about Germany and National Socialism. British propagandists invoked discourses around history, morality, psychology, sexuality and religion in order to conceive of an audience susceptible to morale subversion. Revealing much about the contours of mid-century European thought and the origins of our own heavily propagandised world, this book provides unique insights for anyone researching British history, the Second World War, or the fight against fascism.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783030716660
Publisher:	Springer International Publishing
Publication date:	08/12/2021
Series:	Britain and the World
Edition description:	1st ed. 2021
Pages:	308
Product dimensions:	5.83(w) x 8.27(h) x (d)

About the Author

Kirk Robert Graham is a historian of modern Europe living on Jagera and Turrbal land.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1. Introduction: British Propagandists and the German Problem.- Chapter 2. The View from Woburn Abbey: The Political Culture of PWE.- Chapter 3. The Brazen Horde: British Propagandists and the Course of German History.- Chapter 4. Germany on the Couch: The Role of Psychology and the Social Sciences in the Development of Subversive Propaganda.- Chapter 5. No man so lecherous as the German: Nazi Perversion and German Masculinity in British Subversive Propaganda.- Chapter 6. A Rebellion Against the Divinely Appointed Order: Totalitarian Theory, Secular Religions, and Religious Antifascism in British Subversive Propaganda.- Chapter 7. The Logic of Subversive Propaganda.- Chapter 8. Epilogue: Breaking Hearts and Minds.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Kirk Graham’s book is a valuable contribution to the origins and the understanding of British subversive propaganda in Nazi Germany during the Second World War. Focusing on the activities of the Political Warfare Executive, it demonstrates to what extent these efforts were shaped by the British elite’s deep-rooted prejudices about an authoritarian German national character and how these views even informed the first years of British occupation policy in Germany after 1945."

— Daniel Siemens, FRHistS, Professor and Chair of European History, Newcastle University, UK

“This impressive and innovative study explores the activities of the Political Warfare Executive in their attempts to destabilise Nazi Germany during the Second World War. Taking a thematic approach, Graham sheds much light on British subversive propaganda, its functions and form, and the assumptions that underpinned its use. From an overall institutional analysis, Graham moves throughthe various biographical and cultural contexts of the propagandists, via several revealing case-studies; culminating in the intellectual context and ‘logic’ of propaganda. British Subversive Propaganda during the Second World War is a book in which readers will not only find much new analysis, but an authoritative and up-to-date engagement with the scholarly literature. It is a valuable addition to the ‘Britain and the World’ series, as well as the broader scholarship on propaganda.”

— Richard Scully, Associate Dean and Associate Professor in Modern History, University of New England, Australia

"Dr Graham has written a highly readable, well-informed and authoritative account of the largely neglected role played by the Political Warfare Executive and its covert propaganda offensive against Nazi Germany. It represents an outstanding piece of historical scholarship and a major contribution to the growing historiography of propaganda during World War II."

— David Welch, Emeritus Professor and Honorary Director of the Centre for the Study of War, Propaganda and Society, University of Kent, UK