British subversive propaganda during the Second World War [Elektronische Ressource] Germany, national socialism and the political warfare executive

"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 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. Kirk Robert Graham is a historian of modern Europe living on Jagera and Turrbal land Acknowledgements 7 Praise for British Subversive Propaganda during the Second World War 9 Contents 11 1 Introduction: British Propagandists and the German Problem 12 The View from Woburn Abbey: The Political Culture of PWE 35 The Brazen Horde: British Propagandists and the Course of German History 36 Germany on the Couch: The Role of Psychology and the Social Sciences in the Development of Subversive Propaganda 36 No Man so Lecherous as the German: Nazi Perversion and German Masculinity in British Subversive Propaganda 37 A Rebellion Against the Divinely Appointed Order: Totalitarian Theory, Secular Religions, and Religious Anti-Fascism in British Subversive Propaganda 37 The Logic of Subversive Propaganda 38 2 The View from Woburn Abbey: The Political Culture of PWE 39 Gentleman Amateurs and “the Other Germany” 42 The Significance of Germanophobia 53 Filling the Ranks, Affirming the Orthodoxy 65 Conclusion 73 3 The Brazen Horde: British Propagandists and the Course of German History 76 Hermann Rauschning and the Two Germanies Theory 79 Robert Vansittart and Transatlantic Germanophobia 86 Germanophobic Propaganda and the Limits of Vansittartist History 93 German Anti-Fascists and the Value of Social History 99 A New Europe 108 Conclusion 110 4 Germany on the Couch: The Role of Psychology and the Social Sciences in the Development of Subversive Propaganda 114 Psychological Judo 118 The Push for Pure Psychology 128 J.T. MacCurdy and Henry Dicks 134 The German National Character and the Nazi Mind 141 Conclusion 151 5 No Man so Lecherous as the German: Nazi Perversion and German Masculinity in British Subversive Propaganda 154 Pornography and the German Mind 158 A Gendered Pathology 164 Pigdogs and Englishmen 178 A New Answer to the German Question 184 Conclusion 189 6 A Rebellion Against the Divinely Appointed Order: Totalitarian Theory, Secular Religions, and Religious Anti-Fascism in British Subversive Propaganda 192 Kicking Against the Pricks 197 Ersatzreligion and the Origins of Totalitarian Theory 204 Black Sabbath 217 Towards a Catholic Donauraum 224 Conclusion 232 7 The Logic of Subversive Propaganda 235 A Contested Legacy 240 Winning the Peace 246 Anti-Semitism and the Morality of Resistance 253 Sowing Dissent? 267 Conclusion 283 8 Epilogue: Breaking Hearts and Minds 285 Bibliography 292 Index 310 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.0Rather 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