A Study in American Agitation: J. Edgar Hoover's Symbolic Construction of the Communist Menace

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Issue Date
1992-04-01Author
Gotham, Kevin
Publisher
Department of Sociology, University of Kansas
Type
Article
Rights
Copyright (c) Social Thought and Research. For rights questions please contact Editor, Department of Sociology, Social Thought and Research, Fraser Hall, 1415 Jayhawk Blvd, Lawrence, KS 66045.
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
This study is a content analysis of J. Edgar Hoover's Masters of Deceit, a major non-fiction bestseller published in 1958. By using the theoretical insights of the Frankfurt School, Hoover's anti-communist treatise can be thematically analyzedas a specific type of propaganda dissemination: agitation. This study will isolate and explain five agiuuional themes employed to symbolically construct the Communist Menace: 1. The False Religion; 2. The Apocalyptic End; 3. The Dupes; 4. The Communist Conspiracy; and 5. Trust the FBI. By probing beneath the manifest content of Master;) an effort is made to decipher the latent content and discover the implicit mechanisms used to influence public thought.
Citation
Mid-American Review of Sociology, Volume 16, Number 2 (SPRING, 1992), pp. 57-70 http://dx.doi.org/10.17161/STR.1808.5084
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