Hans Speier papers,
- Author:
- Speier, Hans.
- Call Number:
- MSS GER-084 local
- Abstract:
- The Hans Speier papers primarily focus on Speier's career in the U.S. after his emigration. The collection includes correspondence with colleagues and leading scholars of the day, including Max Ascoli, Reinhard Bendix, Arvid Brodersen, Lewis A. Coser, Alexander George, Herbert Goldhammer, Joseph Goldsen, Fred C. Iklé, Alvin Johnson, Paul Kecskemeti, Henry J. Kellermann, Ernst Kris, Nathan Leites, M. Rainer Lepsius, Hans Staudinger and Leo Strauss. Also represented in the collection is a lengthy correspondence with co-editors of Propaganda and Communication in World History, Harold Lasswell and Daniel Lerner, and individual contributors. The RAND Corporation materials document Speier's career as organizer and Head of the Social Science Division of the RAND Corporation and a member of the RAND Research Council. During those years he wrote and directed numerous studies for RAND and the texts of many of the position papers, memoranda, lecture texts and essays are present in the collection. Included in the Nazi and anti-Nazi propaganda materials is a collection of rare leaflets prepared by the Psychological Warfare Branch of the U.S. Army and disseminated to enemy troops in Italy in 1943-1944. The collection also contains numerous texts of essays, as well as typescript and manuscript versions of books.
- Historical Note:
- During his lifetime Hans Speier was distinguished by two very distinct careers. Speier was a lecturer in political sociology and economics in Germany (1931-1933) before emigrating to the U.S. to accept a position as lecturer and professor of political sociology on the newly formed Graduate Faculty of the New School for Social Research in New York (1933-1942, 1947-1948), lecturing summers at the University of Illinois and the University of Michigan. Speier interrupted his university career for one in government service and research, but returned to teaching in 1969 at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Between 1942 and 1948, Speier served in the Foreign Broadcast Intelligence Service of the Federal Communications Commission (later Chief of the Central European Section), advisor on propaganda policy to the Director of the Overseas Branch, Office of War Information, and eventually became Associate Chief of the State Department's Occupied Areas Division. In 1948, Speier joined the staff of The Rand Corporation, first serving as the Organizer and Head of the Social Science Division, later becoming a member of the Rand Research Council. Speier's research interests focus on the political implications of military affairs and the influence of military power on the behavior of governments in the conduct of his foreign policies. He authored or co-edited numerous books and articles on these subjects, including German Radio Propaganda, Social Order and the Risks of War, West German Leadership and Foreign Policy, German Rearmament and Atomic War, Divided Berlin: The Anatomy of Soviet Political Blackmail, Die Angestellten vor dem Nationalsozialismus (English title: German White Collar Workers and the Rise of Hitler), and Propaganda and Communication in World History. He also published his translation of Grimmelshausen's Courage, the Adventuress and the False Messiah, as well his autobiographical account, From the Ashes of Disgrace: A Journal from Germany 1945-19.
- Physical Description:
- 16.5 cu. ft
- Access Terms:
- Access to the collection is unrestricted.
- Notes:
- Part of the German and Jewish Intellectual E´migre´ Collection. local
- Subjects:
- Germans United States, Sociologists United States, Sociologists Germany, World War, 1939-1945 Propaganda, World War, 1939-1945 Psychological aspects, World War, 1939-1945 Campaigns, World War, 1939-1945 German Americans, Psychological warfare, Propaganda, German, Propaganda, Anti-German, Propaganda, American, German Americans, Germans, Military campaigns, Politics and government, Propaganda, Propaganda, American, Propaganda, Anti-German, Propaganda, German, Psychological aspects, Psychological warfare, and Sociologists
- Genres/Forms:
- Correspondence. ftamc, Memoranda. ftamc, Memorabilia. ftamc, and Interviews. ftamc
- Names:
- Speier, Hans, Ascoli, Max, 1898-1978, Bendix, Reinhard, Brodersen, Arvid, 1904-1996, Coser, Lewis A., 1913-2003, Goldhammer, Herbert, Goldsen, Joseph M, Iklé, Fred Charles, Johnson, Alvin, Kecskemeti, Paul, Kellermann, Henry J, Kris, Ernst, 1900-1957, Lasswell, Harold D. (Harold Dwight), 1902-1978, Leites, Nathan, 1912-1987, Lepsius, Richard, 1810-1884, Lerner, Daniel, Staudinger, Hans, 1889-1980, Strauss, Leo, Ascoli, Max, 1898-1978, Bendix, Reinhard, Brodersen, Arvid, 1904-1996, Coser, Lewis A., 1913-2003, Iklé, Fred Charles, Johnson, Alvin, Kellermann, Henry J, Kris, Ernst, 1900-1957, Lasswell, Harold D. (Harold Dwight), 1902-1978, Leites, Nathan, 1912-1987, Lepsius, Richard, 1810-1884, Lerner, Daniel, Speier, Hans, Staudinger, Hans, 1889-1980, and Strauss, Leo
- Corporate Names:
- New School for Social Research (New York, N.Y. : 1919-1997), Rand Corporation. Social Sciences Division, and New School for Social Research (New York, N.Y. : 1919-1997)
- Chronological Terms:
- 1939-1990 fast
- Geographic Terms:
- Germany Politics and government 1945-1990, Germany, and United States
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