Propaganda In An Open Society: The Roosevelt Administration And The Media, 1933-1941

?Steele (San Diego State University) traces the relationship between the Roosevelt administration and the media from the heady early days of the New Deal to the interventionist crisis of 1940-41. FDR's honeymoon with the press, Steele suggests, soon turned wary and sometimes openly hostile. By contrast, the administration enjoyed a close relationship with top radio executives and powerful Hollywood figures who generally shaped broadcasts and movies in ways supportive of New Deal policies.... FDR's obsessive preoccupation with the media emerges with stark clarity. The general contours of substantial parts of Steele's account should be familiar to scholars versed in Steele's published work. But here he has drawn the study together in concise, judicious, and readable fashion... Steele's work provides a useful historical perspective. For readers interested in the New Deal, political science, journalism, and mass communication.?-Choice