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Spinning History: Politics and Propaganda in World War II
In this fascinating new book, bestselling author and historian Nathaniel Lande explores the Great War at the heart of the twentieth century through the prism of theater. He presents the war as a drama that evolved and developed as it progressed, a production staged and overseen by four contrasting masters: Roosevelt, Churchill, Hitler, and Stalin.
Each leader used all the tools at his disposal to present his own distinctive vision of the global drama that was the Second World War. Each area of the media was fully exploited. Brilliantly conceived oratory was applied to underscore each vision. Impression management, the art of political spin, was employed to drive the message home with the careful use of black and white propaganda. Each side employed uniforms, meticulously staged events, and broadcast their messages via all media available—motion pictures, radio broadcasts, posters, leaflets, and beyond. Their ambitions were similar, but each leader had his own distinct methods, his own carefully created script for elaborately produced and often wildly successful acts and campaigns of deception to win hearts and minds on the frontlines and the home front.
The result of this investigation is a wholly distinctive and often surprising work of history, a book that manages to cast a fresh light on the most obsessively studied conflict in human history.
Each leader used all the tools at his disposal to present his own distinctive vision of the global drama that was the Second World War. Each area of the media was fully exploited. Brilliantly conceived oratory was applied to underscore each vision. Impression management, the art of political spin, was employed to drive the message home with the careful use of black and white propaganda. Each side employed uniforms, meticulously staged events, and broadcast their messages via all media available—motion pictures, radio broadcasts, posters, leaflets, and beyond. Their ambitions were similar, but each leader had his own distinct methods, his own carefully created script for elaborately produced and often wildly successful acts and campaigns of deception to win hearts and minds on the frontlines and the home front.
The result of this investigation is a wholly distinctive and often surprising work of history, a book that manages to cast a fresh light on the most obsessively studied conflict in human history.
312 pages, Hardcover
First published March 7, 2017
27 people are currently reading
582 people want to read
About the author
Nathaniel Lande
13 books11 followersNathaniel Lande is a journalist, filmmaker, and the author of twelve books, including Cricket and Dispatches from the Front: A History of the American War Correspondent. He was creative director for the Magazine Group at Time, Inc.; director of Time World News Service; director of Time-Life Films, where his documentaries won over ten international awards; and executive producer at CBS and NBC Television. Lande was educated at Oxford University; earned his doctorate at Trinity College Dublin, where he was a Distinguished Scholar; and held appointments as professor of journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He lives in Santa Barbara, California.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
May 25, 2017
There are two reasons why I didn't give this book a 5 star review. One reason was the style in which the author chose to present his story. Perhaps he thought he was being creative, drawing comparisons to war time propaganda with the production of a play. Speaking for myself, I was not impressed, even though I once did have a part in a play. As a matter of fact, I found it quite annoying, even when the author did a magnificent job telling about Leni Riefenstahl's masterpiece "Triumph of the Will" or the magical effect of the nighttime Nazi rallies. The other main reason I will get to in a moment. As I said, being annoyed with the writing style, as well as the repetition of facts in the first few chapters that one can find in many other history books, almost led me to not even finishing the book. But I read on, and was glad that I did.
On the plus side, there was a mountain of information there that was new to me and thus assuring this book a permanent place in my extensive library. Among the things documented was the sneaky way Roosevelt and Churchill conspired to get the US into the war against the Axis powers. Hindsight proved that this had to be, but at the time a lot of people in America didn't feel that way and they had to be forced or persuaded into it. Of course some people had reasons wanting to be isolationists. Except for Warner Brothers, Hollywood courted Nazi favor in order to sell movies in Germany and Chase Bank was happy to freeze Jewish accounts. These are just two examples. And let's not forget Henry Ford who was as much pro-German as Lord Haw-haw.
Even before the shooting started on December 7th, 1941 the US was in a propaganda war with Germany. That is where this book really shines. It explains how the propaganda war was fought behind the scenes and affected the populations of the belligerents in ways they never suspected. Propaganda not only puts out fake news but also suppresses or tells the truth when convenient for the cause. I like the way he explained how they tell the truth at first and lie later. The book is loaded with examples of propaganda warfare as used against the enemy as well as on the Home Front. One example is how we often read how the British kept a stiff upper lip during the height of the Blitz. There were some 60 million address changes in Britain during the war and more civilians were killed than soldiers. What you never heard about was the looters who showed up as soon as the bombs quit falling and ignored the cries for help.
Another thing I found interesting was how propaganda drove the people to work as hard they did in the factories as a way of fighting back. The strange thing was how this work changed many a woman's shape. He didn't elaborate but I kept thinking of Olive Oil and Popeye.
In spite of all the new material the author presented for historians and us armchair generals, I came across something that bothered me so much as to make the author loose a good deal of his credibility, and thus his work. He mentioned how the Germans used their Stukas with the wing-mounted 37mm cannon to hunt British barrage balloons like the balloon busters of World War I. Now anybody who built that Stuka model as a kid could tell you that it was used on the Eastern Front to blow up Russian tanks. Hans-Ulrich Rudel explains in his book "Stuka Pilot" how he shot up some 500 Russian tanks. That book use to be required reading for American A-10 pilots. I guess it just goes to show you that even though you do a lot of research, if you don't know the topic to begin with you can make a stupid mistake.
In closing I think it would have been a plus to point out that these propaganda tactics are still being used today, whether by governments or businesses, which sometimes might be one and the same.
This book is worth reading but don't let this be your only source of new information, unless you are doing a book report!
I would like to thank Skyhorse Publishing for the free copy of this book for which I am providing an honest review.
On the plus side, there was a mountain of information there that was new to me and thus assuring this book a permanent place in my extensive library. Among the things documented was the sneaky way Roosevelt and Churchill conspired to get the US into the war against the Axis powers. Hindsight proved that this had to be, but at the time a lot of people in America didn't feel that way and they had to be forced or persuaded into it. Of course some people had reasons wanting to be isolationists. Except for Warner Brothers, Hollywood courted Nazi favor in order to sell movies in Germany and Chase Bank was happy to freeze Jewish accounts. These are just two examples. And let's not forget Henry Ford who was as much pro-German as Lord Haw-haw.
Even before the shooting started on December 7th, 1941 the US was in a propaganda war with Germany. That is where this book really shines. It explains how the propaganda war was fought behind the scenes and affected the populations of the belligerents in ways they never suspected. Propaganda not only puts out fake news but also suppresses or tells the truth when convenient for the cause. I like the way he explained how they tell the truth at first and lie later. The book is loaded with examples of propaganda warfare as used against the enemy as well as on the Home Front. One example is how we often read how the British kept a stiff upper lip during the height of the Blitz. There were some 60 million address changes in Britain during the war and more civilians were killed than soldiers. What you never heard about was the looters who showed up as soon as the bombs quit falling and ignored the cries for help.
Another thing I found interesting was how propaganda drove the people to work as hard they did in the factories as a way of fighting back. The strange thing was how this work changed many a woman's shape. He didn't elaborate but I kept thinking of Olive Oil and Popeye.
In spite of all the new material the author presented for historians and us armchair generals, I came across something that bothered me so much as to make the author loose a good deal of his credibility, and thus his work. He mentioned how the Germans used their Stukas with the wing-mounted 37mm cannon to hunt British barrage balloons like the balloon busters of World War I. Now anybody who built that Stuka model as a kid could tell you that it was used on the Eastern Front to blow up Russian tanks. Hans-Ulrich Rudel explains in his book "Stuka Pilot" how he shot up some 500 Russian tanks. That book use to be required reading for American A-10 pilots. I guess it just goes to show you that even though you do a lot of research, if you don't know the topic to begin with you can make a stupid mistake.
In closing I think it would have been a plus to point out that these propaganda tactics are still being used today, whether by governments or businesses, which sometimes might be one and the same.
This book is worth reading but don't let this be your only source of new information, unless you are doing a book report!
I would like to thank Skyhorse Publishing for the free copy of this book for which I am providing an honest review.
April 22, 2017
Book received from Edelweiss.
I loved this book on how the various countries used propaganda to their advantage and occasionally disadvantage, yes things did backfire on them sometimes. It shows just how much "spin" has always been a part of politics and the deceptions some politicians willingly use to promote their agenda. I liked how the book was split into sections and focused on each country, only skipping around to show how well the propaganda worked compared to the same event being portrayed differently by another country. I felt it was a great introduction to a part of history that doesn't seem to get discussed often.
I loved this book on how the various countries used propaganda to their advantage and occasionally disadvantage, yes things did backfire on them sometimes. It shows just how much "spin" has always been a part of politics and the deceptions some politicians willingly use to promote their agenda. I liked how the book was split into sections and focused on each country, only skipping around to show how well the propaganda worked compared to the same event being portrayed differently by another country. I felt it was a great introduction to a part of history that doesn't seem to get discussed often.
February 17, 2023
An interesting look at propaganda and how it shaped the WWII era. I feel that this was more of an introduction to the art rather than a full-blown study, but it is a great starting point to look into the act of propaganda further.
April 19, 2017
I can forgive an author for having modest ambitions if he meets or exceeds them, but this author doesn't seem to have any discernible ambition at all, except maybe to compile a bunch of trivia (little of it very interesting) while dismissing the need to attach it to any structure or line of reasoning. What exactly is the point of this book? His persistent use of the theater metaphor for war and politics is moderately interesting in the first few pages, but that gimmick quickly becomes repetitive, and unfortunately it dominates the book. Resoundly defeating my expectations, he devotes less than half his time to illuminating the methods of the war's actual practicing propagandists, instead regurgitating shallow analyses of the motives and actions of the Big Three (+ Hitler), territory that has been covered elsewhere ad nauseam.
To top it off, this has to be one of the choppiest, chunkiest books I've read in a dog's age. He introduces concepts in one paragraph, moves to something else entirely in the next, than develops the first idea in the third paragraph as if the intervening section was never written - this happens repeatedly throughout. This is a book written and then put in a blender on the low setting for a minute or two. It's a short and easy read, but still worth avoiding.
To top it off, this has to be one of the choppiest, chunkiest books I've read in a dog's age. He introduces concepts in one paragraph, moves to something else entirely in the next, than develops the first idea in the third paragraph as if the intervening section was never written - this happens repeatedly throughout. This is a book written and then put in a blender on the low setting for a minute or two. It's a short and easy read, but still worth avoiding.
March 22, 2018
Wow. What an excellent history book on the background of WWII.
Mr. Lande's using the analogy of theater production as a way to show how propaganda was used during WWII to rally the people for Hitler and against him as well was eye opening.
It was of great interest to me that Hitler used theater people to stage his rallies for getting the people to be motivated to get behind him and his goal of taking over the world.
There were several mishaps that Mr. Lande wrote about that were spun to report them as battle casualties when in fact they were just epic fails. The examples continue throughout his book as to how the truth as we see it, was twisted to fit what the powers that be, wanted us to believe.
Very interesting read start to finish.
Thank you Goodreads and Mr. Lande for making this book available.
Mr. Lande's using the analogy of theater production as a way to show how propaganda was used during WWII to rally the people for Hitler and against him as well was eye opening.
It was of great interest to me that Hitler used theater people to stage his rallies for getting the people to be motivated to get behind him and his goal of taking over the world.
There were several mishaps that Mr. Lande wrote about that were spun to report them as battle casualties when in fact they were just epic fails. The examples continue throughout his book as to how the truth as we see it, was twisted to fit what the powers that be, wanted us to believe.
Very interesting read start to finish.
Thank you Goodreads and Mr. Lande for making this book available.
June 30, 2020
Really engaging history of propaganda focused mainly on the UK and the US. I felt like I learned a lot from this and it was written in a readable narrative style. However, I find the lack of footnotes a bit odd. I know this is probably not meant as being too academic, and maybe it's not as important in the US, but to me a history book that just has a bibliography is somehow less trustworthy as you can't check up so easily on original sources. Nevertheless, if you want to learn about the devious art of black propaganda, this is a great place to start.
October 18, 2017
I received this book through Goodreads Giveaways.
A solid history of five men-Hitler, Churchill, Stalin, Roosevelt, and Truman. It shows how they orchestrated WWII.
The imagery of the war as a theatrical production, complete with the metaphoric and literal language to draw the comparisons, might work for some.
I found the book quite readable and story-like.
While I know this was about these men, it did touch on some “lesser” players. One person I wish I had heard much more about was Eleanore Roosevelt. The book only mentioned her in relationship to her husband’s death. I think a deeper look at their relationship would be interesting to read-it would give her words and actions which were depicted here more context.
A solid history of five men-Hitler, Churchill, Stalin, Roosevelt, and Truman. It shows how they orchestrated WWII.
The imagery of the war as a theatrical production, complete with the metaphoric and literal language to draw the comparisons, might work for some.
I found the book quite readable and story-like.
While I know this was about these men, it did touch on some “lesser” players. One person I wish I had heard much more about was Eleanore Roosevelt. The book only mentioned her in relationship to her husband’s death. I think a deeper look at their relationship would be interesting to read-it would give her words and actions which were depicted here more context.
July 2, 2025
Things were going OK until p. 230, when Lande puts his OWN spin on history by declaring Gen. George S. Patton to have been "loyal to Pancho Villa." That would been news to both Gen. Patton and his superior, Gen. Pershing, whom created the expedition to pursue and bring Senor Villa to justice for an armed attack on an American town.
But, so be it, in a modern world, real information can become as garbled as a telephone conversation, and "historical experts" can oft find themselves confused by the sheer proliferation of facts which they must blend, sort, and file.
But, so be it, in a modern world, real information can become as garbled as a telephone conversation, and "historical experts" can oft find themselves confused by the sheer proliferation of facts which they must blend, sort, and file.
August 28, 2021
The book starts out with quite a few details about propaganda usage in WWII. I really loved the first half of the book. By the 2nd half the author seems to have gotten tired of doing extensive research and barely covers the material, jumping from topic to topic. The latter half is still good as a general overview, especially of some of the ally's use of propaganda against Germany towards the end of the war.
Read
November 10, 2022A very interesting view of propaganda and it's use in WWII. The book almost retells the story of WWII from a propaganda perspective and shows how the four major powers in the book did exactly what the title suggests: spun history.
October 21, 2025
Wow
An Interesting take on WWII. It was compelling, well written and I highly recommend it. It kept me engaged and was well researched.
An Interesting take on WWII. It was compelling, well written and I highly recommend it. It kept me engaged and was well researched.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews