Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes

Year 1962
Type Book
Genre cultural criticism
Tradition Reformed
Original language French

For For readers interested in how propaganda works in modern mass society, including democracies; not for a reader wanting a history of particular campaigns.

Should I read this?

For the general reader: 3 of 5 worth your time
For the researcher: 5 of 5 essential
Difficulty: 4 of 5 hard

His classic study of propaganda as a necessity of technological society, democracies included. Widely read and still cited.

How it proceeds

Philosophic 4 of 5
Scriptural 0 of 5
Experiential 0 of 5
Sociological 5 of 5
Historical 3 of 5

Independent intensities, 0–5 — what the work is made of, not how good it is.

Ellul's sociological study of propaganda, published by Armand Colin in 1962 and translated by Konrad Kellen and Jean Lerner as Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes (Knopf, 1965). It treats propaganda not as the lying of particular regimes but as a necessary feature of technological society, demanded by the mass individual as much as imposed by the state. Ellul distinguishes kinds of propaganda (political and sociological, agitation and integration, vertical and horizontal), argues that modern democracies depend on it as much as dictatorships do, and examines its effects on the person who receives it. It is a companion to La Technique and L'Illusion politique and one of his most widely read books.

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Catalog IDW.JMDY5F.8

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