What Harold Lasswell Said About Propaganda in the 20th Century
Is Relevant to Iraq in the 21st  Roundup: Historians' Take
Bruce A. Williams, a professor in the Institute of
Communications Research at the University of Illinois at Urbana-
Champaign, in the Chronicle of Higher Education(April 12, 2004):
With the 2004 presidential-election campaign well under way, the
invasion of Iraq has become a central concern. In debating the
action's merits, we have an important opportunity to reflect on
the impact on democratic politics of how our government
mobilizes Americans for war.  In 1927 Harold D. Lasswell, who
would go on to be one of the most influential political
scientists of the 20th century, published his doctoral
dissertation as a book entitled Propaganda Technique in the
World War. A close study of the propaganda campaigns waged by
both Central and Allied powers during World War I, the book
bears rereading now as charges fly over whether or not
intelligence estimates used to justify invading Iraq were just