Stephen Vaughn. Holding Fast the Inner Lines: Democracy, Nationalism, and the Committee on

Public Information. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1980.

"Democracy is a religion with me, and throughout my whole adult life I have preached America as the hope of the world." George Creel, May 29, 1918.

The word "propaganda" carries a negative connotation in contemporary language, though Oxford American Dictionary defines it as "publicity intended to spread ideas or information that will persuade or convince people." Frequently associated as a tool of repressive, authoritarian governments, propaganda seems antithetical to American ideas of democracy and individualism, and an unlikely tool to be employed by the nation’s government. Yet, during World War I, the Committee on Public Information (CPI) functioned as just such an agency. Chairman George Creel and President Woodrow Wilson envisioned the Committee as a centralized clearinghouse of war information and an educational tool to familiarize Americans with the issues of the country’s first involvement in a European war on the Continent and the efforts "to keep the world safe for democracy." CPI achieved this goal; however, it created problems and also raised new questions, particularly about the involvement of the federal government in the dissemination of information on which public opinion will be based.

Stephen Vaughn, in Holding Fast the Inner Lines: Democracy, Nationalism, and the Committee on Public Information (hereafter referred to as Holding), argues that the achievements of the CPI, in particular its Domestic section, need to be assessed in a much broader context than as a war information agency. He contends that the agency and its work must also be placed in the context of the upheavals and changes of American life in 1917-1918 that seemed to threaten the very foundations of the American social order: immigration, urbanization, industrialization, and the closing of the western frontier that had afforded the nation a safety valve for the preceding 150 years. Creel and the various divisions of the Domestic Section of theCPI faced the enormous challenge of unifying this fragmented, dislocated society behind the war effort, a challenge complicated by enduring sectionalism and a tradition of non-intervention in continental European wars. The men and women of CPI met this challenge successfully, and achieved an even greater goal of focusing national attention upon the progressive reforms. Their pre-war involvement in progressive reform, Vaughn believes, was the key to imbuing their work with greater importance beyond the war and accomplishing a sense of national identity. Vaughn states: "The Committee was above all a nationalizing agent, encouraging American nationalism. It set up an apparatus that allowed the federal government to communicate with virtually every citizen, no matter how isolated; it promoted national ideology, namely, American democracy; it reinforced persons who were convinced that the nation was the best and perhaps only vehicle for the progress of democracy, and even civilization. . . .[t]he CPI reflected their naïve faith in the integrity of the American government and its leaders and in the power of ideas to transform men and society."

Vaughn carefully balances his evaluation of the Committee’s effectiveness, finding both negative and positive aspects to its efforts. CPI posters and movies portrayed blacks and women unfavorably, reinforcing racial stereotypes about the first group and presenting women as one of three groups: victims, holders of traditional, nurturing roles, or as ethereal idealizations of abstract principles. Creel’s virtually unlimited exposure of the American public to the speeches and ideology of Wilson encouraged Americans to think of the office of President as omnipotent, almost to the extent of minimizing the other two branches of government. This conception of the presidency reinforced the notion of the "imperial presidency" perfected by Theodore Roosevelt.

The work of the CPI created even more troubling portents for nationalism, civil rights, and the perception of the American people and their role in the formation of public opinion. Vaughn believes that the emotionally charged, super-patriotism advocated by the more zealous member of the CPI bred a "negative form of nationalism", in which the state superseded the individual, with the need of the state always addressed before the needs of the individual. A great deal of CPI literature equates dissent with the betrayal of America. Furthermore, the carefully controlled information flow did not always reveal the entire truth to the American public. Vaughn points out that Creel and CPI were often "too ready to suspend freedom of speech and the press.", using war as a justification. If these civil rights could be suspended, what others would follow? Most crucially, the CPI forever altered the perception of the American people and public opinion theory, setting a dangerous precedent for later in the twentieth century: "Participation in the World War of 1917-1918 has often been described as a dividing line in American thoughts about the formulation of opinion. Prior to the war, theorists held that one should inform the public; afterwards, they were more inclined to manipulate opinion."

The work of the CPI also had positive aspects that countered those discussed above. The platforms of progressive reform received national and international exposure that would probably never have occurred without the encompassing framework of war and patriotism. Creel and Wilson looked beyond war to consider methods for bringing about lasting peace, and believed that the Committee could launch the underpinnings of this peace. The CPI had the foresight to understand that America’s enemies were both internal and external; they realized that more than just German militarism threatened American democracy and its principles. The social injustices produced by urbanization and industrialization, the displacement of American homogeneity by immigration, and " the ideas (philosophical, literary,social) thought to undermine traditional American values" eroded democratic ideology, as surely did the Kaiser’s atrocities in Belgium. Creel and the CPI addressed these problems vigorously, with missionary zeal. Vaughn concludes: "Ideology was central to the committee’s effort to create national unity and redefine democracy. Promoting the idea of American democracy, or often simply Americanism, vaguely defined as the essence of the American democratic system, the committee sought a spiritual awakening, almost ‘an ideological renaissance’. . . .American democracy, or Americanism, was to be the common denominator, the ideological cement, a secular religion, to unify an increasingly pluralistic society."

Holding presents an exhaustive, thoroughly researched study of the Domestic Section of the CPI.

Vaughn provides extensive endnotes and a thorough bibliography that proffer valuable resources to those who wish to research the CPI and its personnel further. The book is extremely well organized, divided into topical sections that the author ties together with logical, smoothly flowing transitions. Vaughn presents academically sound arguments in a style that would be interesting and appealing to the general reader as well. His clear, succinct prose piques the reader’s curiosity to do further research on the CPI (at least this reader’s curiosity!).

Vaughn correctly argues that the work of the CPI must be considered in a "spiritual aspect", an aspect that transcends its original, mundane purpose. The progressive ideology of Creel and the Committee workers permeated all aspects of their undertakings; these people truly believed that the power of democracy could be constructively applied to change a nation and a world rent asunder by rapid, almost incomprehensible technological and social change and war. They committed their ideals, their emotions, and their considerable energies to their successful battles to withstand enemies from both without and within.

Furthermore, Vaughn points out areas of scholarship on the CPI that were lacking as of 1980, the date of publication. He carefully indicates divisions of the organization for which little or no scholarly work exists, and appraises the reader of the availability of archival materials. His suggestions for further research on the Division of Work with the Foreign Born or the Official Bulletin, "the first official daily newspaper to appear in the United States", proffer tantalizing possibilities for future dissertations and monographs.

Holding does manifest some severe weaknesses that undermine Vaughn’s arguments. At times, the work seems superficial, becoming little more than a list of names and events. When the author spends two or three pages listing this division, and that chairman, the focus upon the ideologies of democracy and nationalism becomes diffused, and difficult to maintain. Vaughn’s definitions of democracy and nationalism could be much more clearly delineated. Though he does an adequate job of describing the American ideas and ideals of democracy in the opening chapters, the ideology of nationalism needs much more discussion. Vaughn never clearly or directly defines nationalism; rather, he expects the reader to glean it from the implications of the CPI’s work. This omission seems odd, particularly since he includes this ideology in the title of the book.

Despite these flaws, Holding presents a thoroughly researched, cogently written historical narrative of a significant agency in World War I American government that sought, at times too successfully, to apply progressive principles to unify the nation against the threats from without and within. Vaughn’s work challenges scholars to further explore the Committee’s work, particularly that of the Foreign Section. The answers to questions of the effects of progressive ideology on American foreign policy and on the information disseminated by the Committee overseas wait in the archives for the scholars who seek them.