Article
French
ID: <
10670/1.tqjjfz>
Abstract
When the Great War broke out, the art of mass persuasion was nothing new. Nevertheless, since human psychology was still in its very early days at the time, its mechanisms were still largely unknown and therefore not fully mastered. In France, the need to counter German wartime propaganda was seen from the earliest battles. It was clear that the coming struggle would be violent and multifaceted, and that each camp would have to work hard to stimulate the courage of its own nationals and corrupt the soul of the adversary. However, up to mid-August, the general belief of the elites that the war would be short, combined with the lack of official directives on propaganda, left the field open to disorganized initiatives and sometimes debatable results.