Weapons of Democracy: Propaganda, Progressivism, and American Public Opinion

How and why did public opinion—long cherished as a foundation of democratic government—become an increasing source of concern for American Progressives?

Following World War I, political commentator Walter Lippmann worried that citizens increasingly held inaccurate and misinformed beliefs because of the way information was produced, circulated, and received in a mass-mediated society. Lippmann dubbed this manipulative opinion-making process “the manufacture of consent.” A more familiar term f...