War propaganda, Welfare values, and political ideologies

Abstract

R. K. White analyzed the values expressed in public speeches made by Hitler and Roosevelt during the prewar years 1935-39. In spite of some basic similarities, Hitler's speeches were significantly different from those of Roosevelt in the following seven ways: higher percent of denunciation, higher percent of strength values, higher percent of moral values, lower percent of economic values, lower percent of meansend relationships, higher percent of disguised aggression, and lower percent of concern for the welfare of others (White, 1949). Assuming Hitler to be more aggressive than Roosevelt during these prewar years, White suggested that these seven characteristics were specific to war propaganda as such. Since these indices were based on a two-case comparison, the purpose of the present study was to test and