Description: This book sheds new light on U.S.-Italian relations during World War I by examining in detail one of the most important elements of that diplomatic relationship - the American propaganda campaign in Italy from 1917 to 1919. In revealing how the first U.S. foreign propaganda agency, the Committee on Public Information, helped to implement Woodrow Wilson's version of the «New Diplomacy» in Italy, this study demonstrates that American propaganda made the Wilsonian political program a major factor in Italian politics during that critical period and analyzes the significant impact that the Wilsonian phenomenon had on U.S.-Italian relations, especially at the Paris Peace Conference.
Review Quotes: «Dr. Nigro has very acutely highlighted the success and the vast response in Italy of the new approach - democratic, popular, and idealistic - given to international politics by President Wilson, with its zenith in his triumphal trip to Europe at the beginning of January 1919. I found particularly effective and stimulating the sections titled 'Real Italy vs. Legal Italy' and 'Woodrow Wilson: Prophet for a Year'.» (Ambassador Bruno Bottai, former Italian Ambassador to Great Britain and the Holy See)
«At a time when image and perception increasingly dominate the political process, this account of an early public-relations exercise in the international arena makes for interesting reading. Using a broad selection of manuscript sources, Dr. Nigro describes how the United States, after entering the First World War, chose Italy as the principal target of its 'propaganda-based diplomacy'. The author presents first the administrative machinery and personnel of the exercise, and then evaluates its worth. In addition to being a case study of the post-World War I Wilsonian failure, this study also points to the American usage of public diplomacy in the Cold War after 1945. In short, it has reverberations beyond its immediate subject matter.» (Alan Cassels, Professor Emeritus, Department of History, McMaster University)
«This is the first study of the relationship between Wilson's New Diplomacy and the propaganda apparatus that supported it. Moreover this book illustrates aspects of significant change in Italian political culture and in U.S.-Italian relations.» (Hon. Piero Melograni, Camera dei Deputati)