The Political Warfare Executive Syllabus Volume I: A Crash Course in Mass Deception

“Time bombs,” “Trojan Horses” and “Dithering Hamlets” were all part of the everyday jargon of the World War II’s ultra-Secretive Political Warfare Executive (PWE). The PWE’s instructors used these terms in the training of the next generation of propagandists and political warriors. The Political Warfare Executive Syllabus reveals for the first time what it took to become a propagandist in what was then the most elite psychological warfare unit in the world. Under the maxim that a good propagandist is trained not born, the lecturers of the PWE Training School at Woburn Abbey and then Brondesbury systematically explored every aspect of how to deliver a lethal dose of propaganda to the enemy and then a purgative and curative dose in the peace that followed.

The views of the PWE’s instructors were controversial. This is significant because they would play an important, if hidden, role in how Europe is developing even today. For example, they held a low opinion of the French in general and considered that they had been reduced to the level of “dithering Hamlets” by the German “Trojan Horses” even before the first German tank had crossed the Belgian frontier. On the dark side of PWE operations, they were not above killing the prostitutes whose brothels served the German U-Boot fleet in order to amplify their propaganda message. Perhaps most significant is that they saw Great Britain as European and espoused a Europe that looks very much like the European Union of the early 21st Century. However, there is one important difference. They saw this Greater Europe as accepting the British way of life and being led by Great Britain and not embracing American culture under German leadership.

This first volume introduces the reader to the history and theory of political warfare as seen through the eyes of the inheritors of Lord Northcliffe’s Crewe House. Drawing on J. F. C. Fuller and his concept of a war fought in the mind without armies, it establishes the theoretical parameters of political warfare.


Erwin J. Warkentin received his PhD in German Language and Literature from the University of Alberta in 1995, having written his dissertation on the author of Draußen vor der Tür [The Man Outside], Wolfgang Borchert. His previous publications include The History of U.S. Information Control in Post-War Germany. The Past Imperfect (2016), and he has written extensively on post-war German literature and culture with his book, Unpublishable Works, being the first English language biography of Borchert, which has helped spark a renewal of interest in this important author and playwright. Since arriving at the Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada, where he is an Associate Professor of both German and Communications and serving as Interim Head of Sociology, he has broadened his scholarly interests to include propaganda and persuasion.

There are currently no reviews for this title. Please do revisit this page again to see if some have been added.

Buy This Book

ISBN: 1-5275-3334-4

ISBN13: 978-1-5275-3334-9

Release Date: 20th May 2019

Pages: 466

Price: £67.99

-
+