Mordecai Lee - Böcker

The history of FDR's Office of Government Reports.This book explores a forgotten chapter in modern U.S. history: the false dawn of the communications age in American politics. The Office of Government Reports (OGR) was created in 1939 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, but after World War II Congress refused President Truman's request to continue funding it. OGR proved to be ahead of its time, a predecessor to the now-permanent White House Office of Communications. Mordecai Lee shows how OGR was only one round in the long battle between the executive and legislative branches to be the alpha branch of government. He illustrates how OGR was in the most important sense an effort to institutionalize public reporting. Given the diminished trust in government in the twenty-first century, the study of OGR could act as a model for reviving public reporting as one way to reinvigorate democracy.

The history of FDR's Office of Government Reports.This book explores a forgotten chapter in modern U.S. history: the false dawn of the communications age in American politics. The Office of Government Reports (OGR) was created in 1939 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, but after World War II Congress refused President Truman's request to continue funding it. OGR proved to be ahead of its time, a predecessor to the now-permanent White House Office of Communications. Mordecai Lee shows how OGR was only one round in the long battle between the executive and legislative branches to be the alpha branch of government. He illustrates how OGR was in the most important sense an effort to institutionalize public reporting. Given the diminished trust in government in the twenty-first century, the study of OGR could act as a model for reviving public reporting as one way to reinvigorate democracy.

Though historians have largely overlooked Robert Horton, his public relations campaigns remain fixed in popular memory of the home front during World War II. Utilizing all media - including the nascent technology of television - to rally civilian support, Horton's work ranged from educational documentary shorts like Pots to Planes, which depicted the transformation of aluminum household items into aircraft, to posters employing scare tactics, such as a German soldier with large eyes staring forward with the tagline ""He's Watching You."" Iconic and calculated, Horton's campaigns raise important questions about the role of public relations in government agencies. When are promotional campaigns acceptable? Does war necessitate persuasive communication? What separates information from propaganda? Promoting the War Effort traces the career of Horton - the first book-length study to do so - and delves into the controversies surrounding federal public relations.A former reporter, Horton headed the public relations department for the U.S. Maritime Commission from 1938 to 1940. Then - until Pearl Harbor in December 1941 - he directed the Division of Information (DOI) in the Executive Office of the President, where he played key roles in promoting the New Deal, President Franklin D. Roosevelt's unprecedented third-term reelection campaign, and the prewar arms-production effort. After Pearl Harbor, Horton's DOI encouraged support for the war, primarily focusing on raising civilian and workforce morale. But the DOI under Horton assumed a different wartime tone than its World War I predecessor, the Committee on Public Information. Rather than whipping up prowar hysteria, Horton focused on developing campaigns for more practical purposes, such as conservation and production. In mid-1942, Roosevelt merged the Division and several other agencies into the Office of War Information. Horton stayed in government, working as the PR director for several agencies. He retired in mid-1946, during the postwar demobilization.Promoting the War Effort recovers this influential figure in American politics and contributes to the ongoing public debate about government public relations during a time when questions about how facts are disseminated - and spun - are of greater relevance than ever before.

A Presidential Civil Service offers a comprehensive and definitive study of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Liaison Office for Personnel Management (LOPM). Established in 1939 following the release of Roosevelt's Brownlow Committee report, LOPM became a key milestone in the evolution of the contemporary executive-focused civil service.  The Progressive Movement of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries comprised groups across the political spectrum with quite different. All, however, agreed on the need for a politically autonomous and independent federal Civil Service Commission (CSC) to eliminate patronage and political favoritism. In A Presidential Civil Service, public administration scholar Mordecai Lee explores two models open to later reformers: continuing a merit-based system isolated from politics or a management-based system subordinated to the executive and grounded in the growing field of managerial science.  Roosevelt's 1937 Brownlow Committee, formally known as the President's Committee on Administrative Management, has been widely studied including its recommendation to disband the CSC and replace it with a presidential personnel director. What has never been documented in detail was Roosevelt's effort to implement that recommendation over the objections of Congress by establishing the LOPM as a nonstatutory agency.  The role and existence of LOPM from 1939 to 1945 has been largely dismissed in the history of public administration. Lee's meticulously researched A Presidential Civil Service, however, persuasively shows that LOPM played a critical role in overseeing personnel policy. It was involved in every major HR initiative before and during World War II. Though small, the agency's deft leadership almost always succeeded at impelling the CSC to follow its lead.  Roosevelt's actions were in fact an artful and creative victory, a move finally vindicated when, in 1978, Congress abolished the CSC and replaced it with an Office of Personnel Management headed by a presidential appointee. A Presidential Civil Service offers a fascinating account and vital reassessment of the enduring legacy of Roosevelt's LOPM.

In addition to traditional management tools, government administrators require a fundamental understanding of the tools available to address the ever-changing context of government communications. Examining the ins and outs of the regulations influencing public information, The Practice of Government Public Relations unveils novel ways to integrate cutting-edge technologies—including Web 2.0 and rapidly emerging social media—to craft and maintain a positive public image.Expert practitioners with extensive government communications experience address key topics of interest and provide an up-to-date overview of best practices. They examine the specifics of government public relations and detail a hands-on approach for the planning, implementation, and evaluation of the wide-ranging aspects of government public relations—including how to respond during a crisis.In addition to the tools provided on the accompanying downloadable resources, most chapters include a Best Practice Checklist to help you successfully utilize the communication strategies outlined in the book. Focusing on the roles of government managers enacting policies adopted by elected officials and politicians, this book is ideal for program managers seeking innovative and inexpensive ways to accomplish their programs’ missions. While no manager can be an expert in all aspects of public administration, this book helps you understand the external communications tools available to advance the mission and results of your agency.

Much maligned in the past as wasteful and self-serving, government public relations provides several distinct services that can be used to advance the substantive mission of an agency in ways that save money, time, and effort. In the same manner as budgeting, HR, strategic planning, and performance assessment, public relations must be included in the contemporary public administrator’s toolbox. Using unorthodox yet cost effective measures, public relations can increase the utilization of governmental goods and services, promote voluntary compliance with new laws, improve media relations, and strengthen the standing of the agency with the public at large. In short, public relations is public administration.Addressing the theory, practice, and context of government public relations, Government Public Relations: A Reader compiles contemporary writings from international sources to provide an understanding of the importance, value, and uses of public relations as tools to advance the goals of government. Each section begins with an introductory overview and short preview of the section topic. The end of each section provides additional reading and a list of discussion questions that can help identify key points. Beginning with an introduction to the general subject, the book focuses on the discrete purposes of public relations to make their benefit and application more tangible. Topics include media relations, public reporting, responsiveness, and outreach, as well as the integral role of PR in crisis management. The book stresses the “publicness” of government public relations as distinct from business PR and examines the increasing use of non-profit agencies to deliver government funded services. The last section summarizes the overall themes along with trends likely to influence the future of the field such as globalization and e-reporting. An extensive appendix consists of an annotated bibliography of the historical literature.

The history of John Dewey's leadership of the progressive People's Lobby.John Dewey (1859–1952) was a preeminent American philosopher who is remembered today as the founder of what is called child-centered or progressive education. In The Philosopher-Lobbyist, Mordecai Lee tells the largely forgotten story of Dewey's effort to influence public opinion and promote democratic citizenship. Based on Dewey's 1927 book The Public and Its Problems, the People's Lobby was a trailblazing nonprofit agency, an early forerunner of the now common public interest lobbying group. It used multiple forms of mass communication, grassroots organizing, and lobbying to counteract the many special interest groups and lobbies that seemed to be dominating policymaking in Congress and in the White House. During the 1930s, Dewey and the People's Lobby criticized the New Deal as too conservative and championed a social democratic alternative, including a more progressive tax system, government ownership of natural monopolies, and state operation of the railroad system. While its impact on historical developments was small, the story of the People's Lobby is an important reminder of a historical road not traveled and a policy agenda that was not adopted, but could have been.

The history of John Dewey's leadership of the progressive People's Lobby.John Dewey (1859–1952) was a preeminent American philosopher who is remembered today as the founder of what is called child-centered or progressive education. In The Philosopher-Lobbyist, Mordecai Lee tells the largely forgotten story of Dewey's effort to influence public opinion and promote democratic citizenship. Based on Dewey's 1927 book The Public and Its Problems, the People's Lobby was a trailblazing nonprofit agency, an early forerunner of the now common public interest lobbying group. It used multiple forms of mass communication, grassroots organizing, and lobbying to counteract the many special interest groups and lobbies that seemed to be dominating policymaking in Congress and in the White House. During the 1930s, Dewey and the People's Lobby criticized the New Deal as too conservative and championed a social democratic alternative, including a more progressive tax system, government ownership of natural monopolies, and state operation of the railroad system. While its impact on historical developments was small, the story of the People's Lobby is an important reminder of a historical road not traveled and a policy agenda that was not adopted, but could have been.

Recounts the forgotten but important work of Wayne Coy, the Office for Emergency Management's Liaison Officer, during the early years of World War II.Shortly after Hitler's armies invaded Western Europe in May of 1940, President Franklin Roosevelt activated a new agency within the Executive Office of the President called the Office for Emergency Management (OEM). The OEM went on to house many prewar and wartime agencies created to manage the country's arms production buildup and economic mobilization. After World War II a consensus by historians quickly gelled that OEM was unimportant, viewing it as a mere administrative holding company and legalistic convenience for the emergency agencies. Similarly they have dismissed the importance of the Liaison Officer for Emergency Management (LOEM), viewing the position as merely a liaison channel between OEM agencies and the White House. Mordecai Lee presents a revisionist history of OEM, focusing mostly on the record of the longest serving LOEM, Wayne Coy. Drawing upon largely unexamined archival sources, including the Roosevelt and Truman Presidential Libraries and the National Archives, Lee gives a precise account of what Coy actually did and, contrary to the conventional wisdom, concludes he was an important senior leader in the Roosevelt White House, engaging in management, policy, and politics.

Recounts the forgotten but important work of Wayne Coy, the Office for Emergency Management's Liaison Officer, during the early years of World War II.Shortly after Hitler's armies invaded Western Europe in May of 1940, President Franklin Roosevelt activated a new agency within the Executive Office of the President called the Office for Emergency Management (OEM). The OEM went on to house many prewar and wartime agencies created to manage the country's arms production buildup and economic mobilization. After World War II a consensus by historians quickly gelled that OEM was unimportant, viewing it as a mere administrative holding company and legalistic convenience for the emergency agencies. Similarly they have dismissed the importance of the Liaison Officer for Emergency Management (LOEM), viewing the position as merely a liaison channel between OEM agencies and the White House. Mordecai Lee presents a revisionist history of OEM, focusing mostly on the record of the longest serving LOEM, Wayne Coy. Drawing upon largely unexamined archival sources, including the Roosevelt and Truman Presidential Libraries and the National Archives, Lee gives a precise account of what Coy actually did and, contrary to the conventional wisdom, concludes he was an important senior leader in the Roosevelt White House, engaging in management, policy, and politics.

The first history of the US Travel Bureau, which set the precedent for federal involvement in promoting tourism and travel, an activity which continues today.Created in 1937 by Interior Secretary Harold Ickes and given formal status by Congress in 1940, the US Travel Bureau played a seminal role by setting the precedent for federal involvement in tourism. Business, otherwise hostile to FDR's New Deal, enthusiastically supported its work and Roosevelt, who significantly expanded the National Park system, saw increased tourism as a means to increase attendance, bolster economic activity, and counteract the Great Depression. The Bureau developed unusually extensive public relations and marketing programs that attempted to persuade citizens to travel more. The Travel Bureau also quietly engaged in vigorous marketing to encourage African Americans to travel, including sponsoring the 1940 and 1941 editions of the Green Book, the travel guide for African Americans facing segregated restaurants and lodging. Eventually, travel promotion was transferred to the Commerce Department by Congress and President Nixon with a federal surtax to fund it and where it continues today.

The first history of the US Travel Bureau, which set the precedent for federal involvement in promoting tourism and travel, an activity which continues today.Created in 1937 by Interior Secretary Harold Ickes and given formal status by Congress in 1940, the US Travel Bureau played a seminal role by setting the precedent for federal involvement in tourism. Business, otherwise hostile to FDR's New Deal, enthusiastically supported its work and Roosevelt, who significantly expanded the National Park system, saw increased tourism as a means to increase attendance, bolster economic activity, and counteract the Great Depression. The Bureau developed unusually extensive public relations and marketing programs that attempted to persuade citizens to travel more. The Travel Bureau also quietly engaged in vigorous marketing to encourage African Americans to travel, including sponsoring the 1940 and 1941 editions of the Green Book, the travel guide for African Americans facing segregated restaurants and lodging. Eventually, travel promotion was transferred to the Commerce Department by Congress and President Nixon with a federal surtax to fund it and where it continues today.

First study of Harold D. Smith, FDR's budget director from 1939 to 1945.In this book, Mordecai Lee provides a long-overdue examination of a key member of FDR's administration. Harold D. Smith was FDR's budget director from 1939 through to Roosevelt's death in 1945. In that capacity, he was also the de facto manager-in-chief of the federal government. During his tenure, he reformed and expanded the Bureau of the Budget (now Office of Management and Budget) into an elite cadre of apolitical experts dedicated to serving the institutionalized presidency. He pursued management reforms, reorganization, policymaking, economic planning, public relations, and a pinch of politics. In addition, Smith was a leader in professionalizing the emerging field of public administration, cofounding the American Society for Public Administration in 1939 and serving as its second president. A major figure in his time, he appeared on the cover of Time magazine in 1943, and FDR considered him irreplaceable. In response to Smith's offer to resign in 1944, Roosevelt lightheartedly replied, "I would no more accept your resignation than fly by jumping off a roof. You are essentially persona grata and doing a grand job. If you talk any more about resigning, I will act. A Marine Guard from Quantico will be stationed at your side during every minute of every twenty-four hours."

First study of Harold D. Smith, FDR's budget director from 1939 to 1945.In this book, Mordecai Lee provides a long-overdue examination of a key member of FDR's administration. Harold D. Smith was FDR's budget director from 1939 through to Roosevelt's death in 1945. In that capacity, he was also the de facto manager-in-chief of the federal government. During his tenure, he reformed and expanded the Bureau of the Budget (now Office of Management and Budget) into an elite cadre of apolitical experts dedicated to serving the institutionalized presidency. He pursued management reforms, reorganization, policymaking, economic planning, public relations, and a pinch of politics. In addition, Smith was a leader in professionalizing the emerging field of public administration, cofounding the American Society for Public Administration in 1939 and serving as its second president. A major figure in his time, he appeared on the cover of Time magazine in 1943, and FDR considered him irreplaceable. In response to Smith's offer to resign in 1944, Roosevelt lightheartedly replied, "I would no more accept your resignation than fly by jumping off a roof. You are essentially persona grata and doing a grand job. If you talk any more about resigning, I will act. A Marine Guard from Quantico will be stationed at your side during every minute of every twenty-four hours."