How WWI Changed America: Selling the War

Summary

After the United States entered World War I in April 1917, President Woodrow Wilson’s government sought to build public support for the war and mobilize the military. George Creel led this effort through the government’s Committee on Public Information (CPI), which used techniques associated with the growing advertising industry to promote the war effort across American life.

How the campaign worked

The CPI used a wide range of media, including newspapers, movies, posters, children’s toys and games, and other forms of popular culture.

About 75,000 volunteers known as the Four Minute Men gave short speeches in places such as movie theaters and libraries. They encouraged people to support the war, buy Liberty Bonds, conserve food, grow food, and provide labor for farms and war industries.

Creel’s office sent newspapers a daily bulletin of articles that could be printed without charge, making it easy for papers to publish pro-war material.

Artists produced millions of posters featuring striking, sometimes violent imagery. The posters encouraged enlistment and public support, food conservation, service through organizations such as the YMCA, and women’s work in the Land Army. James Montgomery Flagg’s “I Want You” image of Uncle Sam became one of the war’s best-known symbols.

Impact and legacy

The campaign helped build support for the war, but it also drew criticism. Some people opposed the war or refused to fight, and dissent could bring severe consequences, including imprisonment. The period also saw First Amendment rights curtailed.

After the war, Americans worried about propaganda’s power to manipulate opinion and stir fear or hatred. The CPI closed soon after the war ended, but its methods had a lasting influence. The video says Nazi propagandists later studied Creel’s work, while emphasizing a key difference: World War I propaganda generally had an identifiable source, whereas modern messaging may not be recognized as propaganda.

The central lesson is that propaganda can help governments explain what a war is being fought for, but it can also distort information and manipulate emotions.

Speakers and sources featured

• Speakers: The subtitles provide no speaker labels or names. They contain explanatory narration or commentary, but do not identify the individual speakers.
• Historical figures and institutions discussed: Woodrow Wilson, George Creel, the Committee on Public Information (CPI), James Montgomery Flagg, the Four Minute Men, and Nazi propagandists. These are referenced in the account, not identified as speakers.