Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Propaganda appreciation - engaging kids' interest


My 1st grader son loves war "stuff". He plays at shooting, etc. His favorite type of history is military history. If that's the common pattern, it might be best to use war propaganda. It's not hard to find.

Kids find it easiest to relate to other kids, so I can start with this Disney video. It teaches the background in a way I think kids will be able to understand:

To illustrate the above, here's an example from Nazi Germany:

This is similar, except it comes from the USSR and is more defensive in emphasis:

Then, maybe put a US spin on thing by showing how we do propaganda:


  1. This cartoon seems to be the same genre, from Japan.

  2. British material seems to be remarkably tame in comparison. is about as violent as it gets.

  3. Useful historical information at (on animation for propaganda purposes).

  4. There are some clips at , but the animations are all very short clips.