PUBLIC OPINION AND PROPAGANDA,

by Leonard W. Doob '29. Henry Holt &Co., New York, 1948, 600 pp. $5.00.

Professor Doob's contention, and the basic thesis of his book is that: "public opinion and propaganda are intimately related because they both involve phases of human behavior."

Around this obviously uncontestable fact he has industriously and competently marshalled and organized an enormous amount of contemporary knowledge about public opinion, propaganda, and human behavior, intending to arouse in the reader an awareness of the tremendous forces that constantly play upon his personality, and at the same time equip him with an understanding of these forces.

The book falls easily into two parts. Almost half of it is devoted to the study of public opinion; the rest, to that of propaganda. The section on public opinion, besides some sharp definitions of the various forms public opinion may assume at different times, contains an excellent description and analysis of the nature and relative reliability of the techniques devised for public opinion measurement. Here the author is at his best, and the reader, whether an opinion pollster or just a layman, would find this section most rewarding.

The section on propaganda is an attempt to acquaint the reader with the nature of propaganda, the devices propagandists use, the impact of propaganda on the individual in terms of such psychological processes as perception and learning, its influence on his actions, and finally the relation of the channels of communication—newspapers, radio, motion pictures, etc.—to propaganda.

The book has its weaknesses, and some of them are serious. Significantly, the major drawbacks of the book all spring from the same source: the author's initial decision to look at "human behavior" in terms of the individual. "In almost every paragraph," he admits, "an attempt is made to phrase the discussion in terms of human beings." Peering at public opinion through such a lens, it is no wonder that he discovers internal as well as external public opinion; latent as well as actual; enduring as well as momentary. Shifting over to the field of propaganda and using the same lens, he comes up a blind alley when in pursuit of the driving force behind propaganda. We will never be able to understand fully the German propaganda of World War 11, we are told, because Goebbels, "that astute propagandist committed suicide before a complete analysis of his personality had been made."

Such criticism, however, should not detract from the general excellence of the book. Viewed as a whole, this volume is a reflection of the author's great diligence and competence in a field which is both difficult and elusive.