The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men: Official Narratives and American Meaning-Making in World War II

Abstract

During World War II, the U.S. government attempted to shape how Americans made sense of the war and control how they understood its meaning. Despite the government’s comprehensive efforts and major accomplishments like changing American geographic identity and reinterpreting enduring cultural artifacts, they could not comprehensively define the war. Audiences, then as now, brought their own perspectives to media and propaganda, interpreting governmental messages and narratives in their own ways and according to their preexisting opinions and worldviews. Ultimately, the government could not control or anticipate how their messages were received. And in fact, a great deal of World War II propaganda continues to circulate today in new ways that its creators probably never anticipated, accruing new meanings as changes in context and culture offer new interpretive possibilities.