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Why America Fights: Patriotism and War Propaganda from the Philippines to Iraq Reprint Edition

by Susan A. Brewer (Author)
4.5 out of 5 stars 17 ratings
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On the evening of September 11, 2002, with the Statue of Liberty shimmering in the background, television cameras captured President George W. Bush as he advocated the charge for war against Iraq. This carefully staged performance, writes Susan Brewer, was the culmination of a long tradition of sophisticated wartime propaganda in America.
In Why America Fights, Brewer offers a fascinating history of how successive presidents have conducted what Donald Rumsfeld calls "perception management," from McKinley's war in the Philippines to Operation Iraqi Freedom. Her intriguing account ranges from analyses of wartime messages to descriptions of the actual operations, from the dissemination of patriotic ads and posters to the management of newspaper, radio, and TV media. When Woodrow Wilson carried the nation into World War I, he created the Committee on Public Information, led by George Creel, who called his job "the world's greatest adventure in advertising." In World War II, Roosevelt's Office of War Information avowed a "strategy of truth," though government propaganda still depicted Japanese soldiers as buck-toothed savages. After examining the ultimately failed struggle to cast the Vietnam War in a favorable light, Brewer shows how the Bush White House drew explicit lessons from that history as it engaged in an unprecedented effort to sell a preemptive war in Iraq. Yet the thrust of its message was not much different from McKinley's pronouncements about America's civilizing mission.
Impressively researched and argued, filled with surprising details, Why America Fights shows how presidents have consistently drummed up support for foreign wars by appealing to what Americans want to believe about themselves.
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  1. ISBN-10
    0199753962
  2. ISBN-13
    978-0199753963
  3. Edition
    Reprint
  4. Publisher
    Oxford University Press
  5. Publication date
    March 9, 2011
  6. Language
    English
  7. Dimensions
    9.1 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
  8. Print length
    342 pages
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Susan Brewer's meticulously researched and engagingly written book is a strong addition
to the burgeoning literature on U.S. propaganda...Why America Fights masterfully distills a huge body of work into a narrative that is approachable and thoughtprovoking. In addition to providing a persuasive analysis of U.S. propaganda, it is a marvelous introduction to key events in the history of U.S. foreign relations."--Journal of Cold War Studies

"A well-researched, provocative, and convincing work that makes an important contribution to our understanding of how the government constructs and disseminates rationales for initiating and sustaining armed conflict."--H-Net Reviews

"This is a stunning book which blows away all the myths about why America goes to war. American fights, the author demonstrates, to remake the world in its own image, for power and for markets. Its propaganda, 'as American as apple pie,' has historically sought to disguise this."--Phillip Knightley, author of The First Casualty

"Marshalling compelling evidence, Susan Brewer documents the rhetorical strategies by which the U.S. government, often with the complicity of the media and key opinion-molding groups, has mobilized popular support for every major U.S. conflict from the Spanish-American war to the invasion of Iraq. Well written and deeply researched, this timely work should be read by all those concerned with issues of war and peace and with how propaganda can coarsen and debase civic discourse on vital public issues."--Paul Boyer, editor of The Oxford Companion to United States History

"Susan Brewer's lively account of wartime propaganda from 1898 to the war in Iraq, Why America Fights, could well be sub-titled, Why America Is Still Fighting. May its account of the mobilization of patriotism for dubious purposes serve as a prophylactic for the future."--Marilyn Young, New York University

"Susan Brewer writes that U.S. war propaganda since the dawn of the twentieth century has been both necessary and misleading. Judiciously argued and well researched, this engaging narrative examines the claims that policymakers advanced in their speeches, newspapers, radio programs, and films to sell America's wars. Brewer's provocative book deserves a wide readership from Americans who so often wonder how their lofty goals in war can end in disillusionment."--Emily S. Rosenberg, author of A Date Which Will Live: Pearl Harbor in American Memory

"In understated prose and meticulous detail...Brewer ably argues that the strategies of presidential persuasion for starting or remaining in wars are little more than watery stews of lies, bluffs and exaggerations or the perfuming of facts to scent the air with what Donald Rumsfeld called 'perception management.'"--Washington Post

"[T]his is an important book. It sheds light on an aspect of U.S. political history that American citizens in general, and members of the press in particular, ought to examine more closely before being taken in again by bellicose state propaganda."--The American Conservative

"A breezy, student-friendly synthesis...a highly readable account of what administrations have done during recent wars." --Presidential Studies Quarterly

"A marvelous work of synthesis and analysis. ...Clearly written, the book is peppered with unforgettable quotations and illuminating anecdotes that are often amusing, ironic, and damning. Very well suited for classroom use." --Diplomatic History

"Brewer skillfully reveals how administrations have flooded the American public with facts, exaggerations, misinformation, and patriotic appeals in attempts to drum up the support for foreign wars...Never has this been any more relevant as it is now, as we approach a decade of war in Iraq and Afghanistan." -- ForeWord

"In this ambitious book Brewer not only details how propaganda messages have evolved she also offers an interpretation of American foreign policy."--Clayton R. Koppes, Journal of American History

"A vitally important book for our times...Concise and insightful...Brewer's study is ideally suited for educated lay readers and university courses."--Gerd Horten, American Historical Review

"An absorbing history of efforts by the American president and his senior staff to gird the nation for war. Combining primary sources from presidential archives and policy memoirs with a thorough review of the secondary literature on wartime media and citizenship, historian Susan Brewer assembled a detailed indictment against overweening executive power."--Damon Coletta, American Review of Politics

"Susan A. Brewer's brilliant and important study of patriotism and war propaganda...reminds us that war is a construct of ideologies, doctrines, beliefs, lies, truths and delusions."--Australian Book Review

Book Description

An engaging and informative history of American war propaganda, from William McKinley to George W. Bush

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Oxford University Press
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ March 9, 2011
  • Edition ‏ : ‎ Reprint
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 342 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0199753962
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0199753963
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.04 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 out of 5 stars 17 ratings

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Susan A. Brewer

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4.5 out of 5 stars
17 global ratings

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Top reviews from the United States

  • Kindle Customer
    5.0 out of 5 stars Great book
    Reviewed in the United States on March 15, 2018
    Verified Purchase
    The best part of the book is that author is clinically detched in her oservation. She is giving facts, not passing judgment. Actions depicted may be ugly and immoral by modern standards but were not taken lightly: there is harsh logic behind each one.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Jose R. Pardinas
    4.0 out of 5 stars A Chronicle of the Stampeding to War of the American Sheeple
    Reviewed in the United States on October 4, 2009
    Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
    Reminds me of something H. L. Mencken once wrote:

    "The great masses of people still follow theologians as they follow politicians, and seem doomed to be bamboozled and squeezed by both for many long ages to come."

    We're once again seeing this as the corporate press and our incomparably venal politicians start beating the drum for yet another costly unnecessary war - this time with Iran.

    This whole cycle will end when the money runs out - which by the look of our economy may not be very far off.
    6 people found this helpful
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  • dj
    5.0 out of 5 stars bought this used
    Reviewed in the United States on March 9, 2013
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    Got for a class used it was really good shape severved its purose now on to the next person to learn from
    Helpful
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  • Sir Furboy
    5.0 out of 5 stars Extremely Interesting and Honest Work
    Reviewed in the United States on October 11, 2011
    Format: Kindle
    This book was a very interesting look at the use of propaganda in the USA to sell wars. The chapter on the colony in the Philippines was very interesting for me, as the only thing I had read on that war previously was by Noam Chomsky. Chomsky provides good information, but his writing style is turgid, and people will complain about the prespective he takes. This book, however, was readable and seemed to go to considerable effort to report the facts without a surfeit of opinion. Conclusions were drawn, of course - but this was a historian drawing conclusions, and not a political commentator. I was left with a feeling of having been honestly informed, and not told what to believe.

    This book was informed, academic and focussed. Whilst there is plenty of information about the wars of the last century and this one, the focus of the book is the propaganda used to manufacture consent. The author shows that the extent to which this has been resented, it seems, ends up being in proportion to the extent the war is later considered, by a majority of the public, to be unjust.
    3 people found this helpful
    Helpful
     Report
  • George R. Adams
    4.0 out of 5 stars What "Patriots" Need To Know
    Reviewed in the United States on April 19, 2010
    Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
    In a bief but fairly extensive survey ofr the conduct of six American wars Brewer shows how the government's manipulation of war propaganda enableb the US to engage in imperialist wars under the guise of "defense" against "anti-democratic" enemies.
    3 people found this helpful
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  • J. Horvitz
    4.0 out of 5 stars Well-written, insightful, important.
    Reviewed in the United States on August 21, 2009
    As I read this book, I keep wondering, 'Why didn't I learn this stuff in school?' In order to understand the history of our country, I think it's important that we have a realistic view of the good and the bad of it. This book has helped to clarify my understanding of our involvement in past events that were previously murky for me: U.S. war with Spain, the Phillipines, Cuba, World War I. How I wish that this book had been part of my high school history curriculum. I might have become a history major in college. This is a terrific book - well researched, well-written. While it makes a point about some themes of U.S. foreign policy, it is both scholarly and accessible.
    10 people found this helpful
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  • doc peterson
    5.0 out of 5 stars As America continues to rationalize war, a critical analysis of how war is marketed
    Reviewed in the United States on January 3, 2020
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    Believe it or not, there is a template for America's choice to wage war. Brewer does an excellent job of teasing out the details of this template and bringing to light the successful strategies politicians and Presidents have used to drum up support for military intervention from the Spanish-American War to our "War on Terror."

    First the idea is floated that America is spreading democracy and freedom rather than expanding US power abroad. Next, the conflict is presented as one between "civilization" (ie. America) and "barbarism" (eg. Philippino insurrectionists, communists, al Quaeda). At home wars are presented as ennobling and just as ALL Americans join together ("support our troops") regardless of race, social class, or region of the country. Of course, those who don't support the war are vilified (remember "freedom fries" rather than "french fries"? How about "liberty cabbage" instead of "sauerkraut"?) in order to either get them in line, or to tamp down resistance to the conflict. Of course, the new needs to be managed - from yellow journalism to Operation Maximum Candor during Vietnam to the "briefings" by CNN during Desert Storm - the way the public consumes the conflict must be controlled. After all, a quick and easy victory is assured. If (when) the official presentation of the war is demonstrated to be contrary to reality, Americans are told to take a "global perspective" on the war - or to "trust" those who have more information than can be shared with the public.

    It was a profoundly disturbing and uncomfortable read. That so many names who were instrumental in packaging and selling the Vietnam war were again part of the Bush administration marketing and selling our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan should not have been suprizing. I am left to wonder when - if - America will every really learn from our past. This book is an excellent tool towards those ends.
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Top reviews from other countries

  • Sir Furboy
    5.0 out of 5 stars Extremely Interesting and Honest Work
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 21, 2010
    Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
    This book was a very interesting look at the use of propaganda in the USA to sell wars. The chapter on the colony in the Philippines was very interesting for me, as the only thing I had read on that war previously was by Noam Chomsky. Chomsky provides good information, but his writing style is turgid, and people will complain about the prespective he takes. This book, however, was readable and seemed to go to considerable effort to report the facts without a surfeit of opinion. Conclusions were drawn, of course - but this was a historian drawing conclusions, and not a political commentator. I was left with a feeling of having been honestly informed, and not told what to believe.

    This book was informed, academic and focussed. Whilst there is plenty of information about the wars of the last century and this one, the focus of the book is the propaganda used to manufacture consent. The author shows that the extent to which this has been resented, it seems, ends up being in proportion to the extent the war is later considered, by a majority of the public, to be unjust.
    Report