I usually start by telling you about Patreon and how you can support the podcast by going to

Patreon.com slash W.W.2 Podcast to create a small recurring donation, a dollar or so each month.

But I'm not going to mention it.

For those people with Facebook accounts, why not search for W.W.2 podcast and give the show a like. I regularly post pictures

and links in support of the current episode which hopefully help to illustrate the topic.

But what really is worthwhile is when we create discussion amongst

ourselves. Your comments are worthwhile. So Facebook, give me a like.

Hello and welcome to the World War II podcast.

I'm Angus Wallace.

In this episode, I'm talking to Nicholas O'Shaughnessy.

Nicholas is currently visiting professor at the Center for Strategic Communication at King's

College London in the Department of War Studies. His new book, Selling Hitler, examines the

Nazis use of propaganda and argues that Hitler was one of the few politicians who understood persuasion with everything and was central to creating an all-encompassing strategy.

Nicholas, I wonder if we should start with the term propaganda.

It seems an easy catch-all phrase.

It actually dates from really the time of the counter-reformation, which is the Catholic

Church's attempt to stop the growth of Protestantism in Europe in the 16th century and they created the office of the propaganda and so in

continental terms it was always a neutral word it never had negative connotations

whereas it did in the Anglo-Saxon world. We equate it with misinformation

manipulation cynicism lying it with misinformation, manipulation, cynicism, lying subversion, all of those things.

But actually in other parts of the world, the term is used freely in places like China people don't actually regard it negatively

and this was true of Germany they could use the word propaganda all the time and not be ashamed of it.

...