Product Description

'British propoganda brought America to the brink of war, and left it to the Japanese and Hitler to finish the job.' So concludes Nicholas Cull in this absorbing study of how the United States was transformed from isolation to belligerence in the years before the attack on Pearl Harbor.

From the moment it realized that all was lost without American aid, the British Government employed a host pf persuasive tactics to draw the U. S. to its rescue. With the help of talents as varied as those of matinee idol Leslie Howard, Oxford philosopher Isaiah Berlin and society photographer Cecil Beaton, no section of America remained untouched and no method - from Secret Service intrigue to the publication of horrifying pictures of Nazi attrocities - remained untried.

A fascinating story of how a foreign country promoted America's involvement in its greatest war, Selling War will appeal to all those interested in the modern cultural and political history of Britain in the twentieth century and World War II.

The Kirkus Review wrote, 'A valuable study of how British propoganda helped to bring the U. S. into W. W. II...This is a sensible thoughtful, and - in revealing the foibles of many key actors - an often amusing book.'

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #387730 in Books
• Published on: 1996-10-01
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

Synopsis
'British propoganda brought America to the brink of war, and left it to the Japanese and Hitler to finish the job.' So concludes Nicholas Cull in this absorbing study of how the United States was transformed from isolation to belligerence in the years before the attack on Pearl Harbor. From the moment it realized that all was lost without American aid, the British Government employed a host pf persuasive tactics to draw the U. S. to its rescue. With the help of talents as varied as those of matinee idol Leslie Howard, Oxford philosopher Isaiah Berlin and society photographer Cecil Beaton, no section of America remained untouched and no method - from Secret Service intrigue to the publication of horrifying pictures of Nazi attrocities - remained untried. A fascinating story of how a foreign country promoted America's involvement in its greatest war, Selling War will appeal to all those interested in the modern cultural and political history of Britain in the twentieth century and World War II. The Kirkus Review wrote, 'A valuable study of how British propoganda helped to bring the U. S. into W. W. II...This is a sensible thoughtful, and - in revealing the foibles of many key actors - an often amusing book.

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Customer Reviews

How Churchill Lured America into War
Nicholas John Cull has produced a book version of his stirring 1991 PhD dissertation at the University of Leeds, titled "The British Campaign Against American 'Neutrality': Publicity and Propaganda 1939-1941". This important book was published in 1995 by Oxford University Press when Dr Cull was lecturing in history at the University of Birmingham.

To appreciate Dr Cull's original and valuable research into the activities of the British fifth column to America, some background of the historical events is helpful. Basically, Nazi Germany was defeated by the Soviets and the British months before the Yanks arrived in Europe. But it was Germany's eastern front where the Nazis were failing quickly and Britain grew concerned that all of Europe would go Communist. Hence Churchill's plan to get the Yanks back over to Europe for the second half of the world war for which he "dreamed of, aimed at, and worked for" (p3). The Yanks were needed to stop the Soviets, not to stop the Nazis who were already going down. But the propagandists, both British and later American, sold the war to the American public as a war to defeat Hitler and smash his concentration camps.

Still, it was a hard sell to an American public who had said after the first part of the world war - never again! That was why FDR provoked the Japanese to retaliate at Pearl Harbor and why FDR sat on his hands while the Japanese planes flew over the Pacific to bomb U.S. navy ships. The Yanks became "9/11 crazy" after Pearl Harbor was hit and FDR sent the Yanks to Europe to fight the Nazis in order to secretly stop the Soviets. The plan was successful and British empire has been American-powered ever since.

Dr Cull's research uncovers information warfare by the British as well as propaganda employed by the British fifth column in America "to undermine U.S. neutrality and somehow sell Britain and a second world war to a skeptical American public" (p4). British propagandist Isaiah Berlin said "My brief was to drag the Americans into the war" (p127). FDR was trying to figure out how to provoke the Japanese to bring war to America, asking "how we should maneuver them into the position of firing the first shot without too much danger to ourselves" (p185). Churchill, who held both British and American citizenships, told him how. America's foreign policy has been British foreign policy ever since.

As a former lecturer in Modern European History at Bournville College, I cannot recommend this book highly enough - it is that important in helping one to understand what is happening around the world today. In addition to Cull's book, I recommend Philip M. Taylor's "If War Should Come: Preparing the Fifth Arm for Total War, 1935-1939" in the Journal of Contemporary History, 16, (1981): 27-51 and David Ignatius's "Britain's War in America: How Churchill's Agents Secretly Manipulated the U.S. Before Pearl Harbor" in the Washington Post, Sec C, 17 Sep 1989, pp1-2.