Stories Are Weapons: Psychological Warfare and the American Mind

Annalee Newitz — science journalist and author — traces the history of American psychological warfare from its origins in WWI propaganda through Cold War operations, advertising, political messaging, and the contemporary information environment. The central argument is that the United States has both pioneered and been victimised by the weaponisation of narrative — that the same techniques developed by American propagandists to shape foreign populations have been turned, with increasing sophistication, against American citizens themselves.

The book is particularly valuable for its historical depth on American PSYOP doctrine and its evolution into commercial advertising and political communication. Newitz shows how the techniques of psychological warfare became so embedded in American commercial and political culture that distinguishing manipulation from legitimate persuasion became structurally difficult — a vulnerability that foreign and domestic bad actors have exploited. For practitioners working on the American information environment specifically, or more broadly on the relationship between commercial communication and influence operations, this is an important and well-researched contribution to the field.