BRITISH AND ITALIAN PROPAGANDA DURING THE FIRST WORLD WAR: A COMPARATIVE STUDY (1914-1918)

The Great War transformed the world in a myriad of ways. As the illusion of a short conflict and rapid victory collapsed in the face of mass casualties and a military stalemate, World War I forced the mobilization of all state resources – military, economic and psychological. Victory at that time appeared to depend on winning on two fronts: the battlefield and the hearts and minds of ordinary people. In this context, propaganda became an essential and systematic weapon working to favorably or negatively influence domestic and foreign public opinion on the reason, necessity and justice of the conflict. While propaganda addressing the home and the war fronts has been extensively studied, this paper intends to examine in a comparative approach, common themes, methods and instruments used to win international public opinion, especially among the Allied themselves. In this context, the Italian case study – because of its alliance switch – is emblematic both for the propaganda delivered in the country by the British government and for the activities carried out by Italians in the United Kingdom, a specific aspect of Italian propaganda not comprehensively studied yet.