Knowing your enemy – the power of propaganda

Associated media

Veronica Davies and Myra Cross discover how the superpowers worked to control public opinion in the 20th century and beyond

‘Propaganda: Power and Persuasion’ at the British Library

With the eye-catching detail from Flagg’s ‘Uncle Sam’ First World War recruiting poster on the book cover and poster for ‘Propaganda: Power and Persuasion’, the British Library seems itself to be deploying the techniques of visual propaganda under scrutiny in both book and exhibition. It should be particularly commended for its full and imaginative use of a relatively small exhibition space. The visitor enters ‘Propaganda: Power and Persuasion’ between two rows of dark, faceless, anonymous human figures, inscribed with quotations about the nature of propaganda.    

Like David Welch’s accompanying book, the gallery is divided into themed sections.  Although the exhibition is broadly focused on propaganda in the 20th and 21st centuries, the first section, ‘Origins’, explores the longer history of the ‘techniques of persuasion’ that are now known as ‘propaganda’.  In the book, Welch offers a loose definition of what ‘has never been a static term’: ‘the dissemination of ideas intended to convince people to think and act in a particular way and for a particular persuasive purpose’. This is exemplified in ‘Origins’ by exhibits ranging from a large official oil portrait of Napoleon in ceremonial robes and with all the trappings of empire, to often highly critical ephemera that sought to debunk those with political or religious power.

Moving on to focus more specifically on the last 100 years or so, the next three sections of the exhibition, ‘Nation’, ‘Enemy’ and ‘War’ seem conceptually linked. These are the areas where we most often assume that those in power will use both overt and covert propaganda.  Corresponding sections in the book use slogans as titles: ‘One People, One Nation, One Leader!’, ‘Your Country Needs You’ and ‘Know Your Enemy’.  An early example of nationalistic wartime propaganda aimed at British youth is the Anglo-Boer War board game ‘With “Our Bobs” to Pretoria’ of 1900.  ‘Knowing your enemy’ often invokes the use of stereotypes, as in First World War British imagery of Belgium as a defenceless woman or child exposed to the aggression of the ‘Prussian bully’. Images of 20th-century leaders of totalitarian states, such as Hitler and Stalin, on posters and in magazines (such as those aimed at the Hitler Youth movement) demonstrate how visual propaganda can conflate notions of ‘people, nation and leader’. Welch points out, too, that ‘leader-figures can assume extraordinary and charismatic impact in the history of democratic nations’, citing the examples of Churchill, Kennedy and, more recently, Mandela. 

The introduction to the section of the exhibition on ‘Health’ draws visitors’ attention to the fact that ‘Public health campaigns utilise methods similar to those more readily identified as propaganda’.  We are thus encouraged to question assumptions about the seeming neutrality of many public information campaigns, whether in wartime (‘Dig for Victory’ in the Second World War) or now (‘Change4Life’, a current NHS promotion). 

Altogether, there is a wealth of visual and other material in the book and exhibition, some of it familiar, some very rare and fragile.  The exhibition contains several interesting examples of film propaganda, including an early animation, using ‘lightning sketches’ by Lancelot Speed.  This short film reflects well the tendency of British First World War anti-German propaganda.  Humour is used:  the Kaiser represents Germany, and is depicted with a fine set of moustaches and a Pickelhaube.  The  blame for the War is placed firmly on Germany, with a vampire-like image of the Kaiser seizing and shackling the innocent maiden, Belgium.  Meanwhile John Bull lies sleeping on the beach until awoken by Britannia. 

This film anticipates propaganda images and stereotypes more generally associated with the Second World War, depicting representatives of all classes and regions joining up, and stressing how Britain’s military power is enhanced by its Empire.  Aspirations for peace after a British victory form the final image: gun barrels become factory chimneys and the picture is one of industry, prosperity and happy families.

In contrast, a Second World War German propaganda film, Soldaten von Morgen  also employs humour to mock the British upper class and by implication the military officer class.  The film shows public school boys, in uniform as Cadets, larking about in class, and then smoking and drinking on an evening out, the image morphing into one of British soldiers surrendering in 1940.  This film is juxtaposed with a comic sequence of German troops goose-stepping to The Lambeth Walk.

A later German film, Es geht um den Sieg!, made after the shock defeat at Stalingrad, is based on a speech by  Germany’s propagandist Goebbels calling for ‘total war’. In contrast, an American propaganda film, Prelude to War, sets out to counter such enemy propaganda, blaming the war firmly on the Axis of Germany, Italy and Japan.

But not all the films shown relate to war.  There is fascinating footage of the opening of the Festival of Britain in 1951, a ‘People`s Festival’, contrasted with recent newsreel coverage of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, which in the fly-past of historic aircraft evokes the propaganda heyday of the Second World War.

David Welch’s book is invaluable for providing substantial amounts of historical background about the events that occasioned the propaganda material illustrated, and on display in the exhibition. The book is not an exhibition catalogue: it stands on its own as a valuable contribution to knowledge about the nature of propaganda historically, but also in the present and future as new media offer new possibilities. As Welch asks in the final section of his book, ‘are we all propagandists now?’ The exhibition guide offers visitors a helpful ‘user’s guide to basic techniques’ of propaganda and give many examples of these in practice.  As Welch pertinently states, ‘in the 21st century the once routine forms of state oppression, reinforced by official media, can less often go unwitnessed’. 

Propaganda:  Power and Persuasion by David Welch is published by The British Library, 2013. 216 pp., 115 col illus, £19.99. ISBN 978 0 7123 5700 5. The exhibition continues until 17 September 2013.