Bruce Lannes Smith

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Bruce Lannes Smith (born December 11, 1909 in Webster Groves , Missouri , † 1987 ) was an American political and communication scientist who focused on propaganda . He taught u. a. at Michigan State College . After the Second World War he was entrusted with the search and interrogation of Nazi propaganda theorist Franz Six .

Life

Smith was a student of Harold D. Lasswell and earned a Ph.D. in 1933. in Political Science and Economics from the University of Chicago in Illinois. From 1933 to 1936 he was a graduate student and from 1934 to 1936 research assistant at the Department of Political Science there. From 1938 to 1941 he went to New York University as an Instructor of Economics ; from 1942 to 1943 he was a lecturer at the American University in Washington, DC He then worked again in Chicago , where he was a research associate, later an instructor, at the Social Science Division. He took influence u. a. on the future military associate Morris Janowitz , who was one of his undergraduates. From 1939 to 1944 he was also Associate Editor of the Public Opinion Quarterly magazine .

From 1941 to 1944 he worked as an analyst for the Organization and Propaganda Analysis Section of the United States Department of Justice War Division. He was mainly concerned with countermeasures to curb anti-democratic propaganda. In 1943/44 he was Senior Intelligence Officer of the Foreign Economic Administration and, along with other social scientists, Research Analyst at the Research and Analysis Branch of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). Subsequently, he was Attaché and US Political Advisor for the Federal Republic of Germany at the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) in France. In 1945 he was involved in the search for Nazi propaganda theorist Franz Six , whom he interrogated after his capture. From 1946 to 1948 he was Department Chief of the Information Control Division at the Office of Military Government for Germany (US) in Berlin.

After the Second World War he worked as a lecturer again. In 1949/50 he became an Associate Professor at the Foreign Service Institute (FSI) of the State Department in Washington, DC, but had to vacate the post in the McCarthy era due to his supposedly “left-wing liberal” sentiments. From 1950 to 1963 he was then instead of associate professor of political science at Michigan State College in East Lansing. In 1951 he became editor of the journal International Political Science Abstracts (IPSA).

Smith, married, was u. a. Member of the American Political Science Association . He has published in journals such as International Social Science Bulletin , Public Opinion Quarterly , Journalism Quarterly, and Psychological Bulletin . In the 1970s he was the author of an article on propaganda in the Encyclopædia Britannica . His main research interests as a scientist were political parties , public opinion , international relations and political behavior .

Fonts (selection)

  • with Harold D. Lasswell , Ralph D. Casey: Propaganda and Promotional Activities: An Annotated Bibliography . University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis 1935.
  • with Harold D. Lasswell, Ralph D. Case: Propaganda, Communication, and Public Opinion; A Comprehensive Reference Guide . Princeton University Press, Princeton 1946.
  • with Chitra M. Smith: International Communications and Political Opinion: A Guide to the Literature . Princeton University Press, Princeton 1956.
  • Indonesian-American Cooperation in Higher Education . Institute of Research on Overseas Programs, Michigan State University, 1960.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Klaus Merten : Biography of Harold D. Lasswell . In: Christina Holtz-Bacha , Arnulf Kutsch (Hrsg.): Key works for communication science . Westdeutscher Verlag, Wiesbaden 2002, ISBN 3-531-13429-9 , p. 253.
  2. ↑ James Burk : Introduction: A Pragmatic Sociology . In: ders. (Ed.): Morris Jannowitz: On Social Organization and Social Control . University of Chicago Press, Chicago 1991, p. 9.
personal data
SURNAME Smith, Bruce Lannes
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American political and communication scientist
DATE OF BIRTH December 11, 1909
PLACE OF BIRTH Webster Groves , Missouri
DATE OF DEATH 1987