Science of Coercion: Communication Research and Psychological Warfare, 1945-1960 (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Review

"An intriguing picture of the relations between state power and the intellectual community...."--Noam Chomsky, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
"An original and important contribution...."--Science

Product Description

Science of Coercion provides the first thorough examination of the role of the CIA, the Pentagon, and other US security agencies in the evolution of modern communication research, a field in the social sciences which crystallized into a distinct discipline in the early 1950s. Government-funded psychological warfare programs underwrote the academic triumph of preconceptions about communication that persist today in communication studies, advertising research, and in counterinsurgency operations. Christopher Simpson contends that it is unlikely that communication research could have emerged into its present form without regular transfusions of money from U.S military, intelligence, and propaganda agencies during the Cold War. A fascinating case study in the history of science and the sociology of knowledge, Science of Coercion offers valuable insights into the dynamics of ideology and the social psychology of communication.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (March 14, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195102924
• ISBN-13: 978-0195102925
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #373,761 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very important and well-documented book, October 22, 1998

By A Customer

Science of Coercion is an excellent study of how ideas can be shaped by powerful groups. Most revealing is the way in which the researchers themselves allowed this to happen. Many of them were mildly progressive politically, yet they seemed to have no reservations about being involved in military-sponsored projects. Simpson argues that the most important factor in helping the academic researchers to accept the military connection was insulation from the effects of psychological warfare, especially the use of violence.

Simpson provides extensive documentation for his argument: there are only 115 pages of text and more than 60 pages of notes. Given that it is strictly about the US experience, it would be nice to have a comparison with experiences in other countries. His study provides a worrying reminder about the extent to which standard ideas in many fields of research may be shaped to serve the interests of powerful interest groups and elite academics.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Coercion of Communications, February 14, 2007

By	doomsdayer520 (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Science of Coercion: Communication Research and Psychological Warfare, 1945-1960 (Hardcover)

This book will be of great interest to communications majors and social historians with muckraking tendencies. In an intriguing display of investigative research, Christopher Simpson uncovers the darker side of early communications studies. The field was defined as an academic discipline during and after World War II, and much of the early research that built the foundation of modern communications studies was actually a part of American (and occasionally German) war efforts. Government-funded social scientists built the communications knowledge base while researching and developing the tools of propaganda and psychological warfare, and occasionally disinformation techniques that were used on the American people by their own government. Even some of the highly respected founders of communications were involved, including Harold Lasswell and Wilbur Schramm, and many of their influential studies did not have purely academic motives. Simpson compiles valuable insights into how communications and other social sciences have been co-opted by government for nefarious ends, and some fields may have never gotten off the ground were it not for wartime funding. The only problem with this book is that Simpson occasionally ruminates on the darker philosophical ramifications of these trends, but only rarely, so the deeper insights that can be gained by the reader are often held back by research minutiae and occasionally tiresome historical coverage. [~doomsdayer520~]

15 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not what you might think, February 5, 2002

By	"terrythompsonjr" (Atlanta, GA United States) - See all my reviews

This book is primarily a documentation of the extensive influence of government and corporate agendas on the development of communications science. The title is misleading in two ways: the actual book is neither about the science itself nor is it about coercion, which generally involves the use of force. A more accurate title would have been "Propaganda and the Development of Communication Science" or something like that.

Buy this book if you really want to know the details of every government grant that supported the foundation of communication science.

Do not buy this book if you want to understand what those grants--or those foundations--actually were all about.