# Session 2: Propaganda

## Introduction

This session was written by Vincent Trott.

In this session, you will explore three case studies of First World War propaganda in Britain, Germany and the USA. It begins with a brief overview of the topic, explaining how the term can be defined in the classroom, before discussing the broad purposes and functions of propaganda in wartime. The emphasis here will be on primary source skills, with a focus on how individual examples of propaganda, and especially visual sources, can be analysed.

Figure 1 ‘Save the Wheat and Help the Fleet: Eat Less Bread’. British propaganda poster (1917)

Two hours of study materials

This session contains approximately two hours of study materials as well as additional suggestions of materials to use in the classroom. You’ll be able to put into practice some of the searching and assessing skills you’ve developed in Session 1.

If you have opted to sign up for JSTOR to use six free articles a month then this will help you access some recent publications on this subject (for details see Session 5). There are also suggestions for other sources that are freely available online.

OpenLearn - Teaching the First World War
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