First Presidential Communications Agency

Mordecai Lee is Associate Professor of Governmental Affairs at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee.

• List of Illustrations Preface List of Abbreviations 1. Introduction and Overview A Federal Agency Dedicated to Government Reports? Significance of Studying the Office of Government ReportsPublic Reporting in Early-Public-Administration Theory Plan of the Book 2. Origins: The National Emergency Council, 1933-39 Adding Information Activities Field Service United States Information Service United States Government Manual and Other Publications Division of Press Intelligence Radio Division United States Film Service Waiting for Implementation of the Brownlow Committee Report, 1937-39 3. Planning a Presidential Communications Agency, 1936-39 The Brownlow Committee Implementing the Brownlow Committee Report, 1938 Implementing the Brownlow Committee Report, 1939 Reorganization Plan Number 2 Prospective Funding for the New Agency First Steps 4. A Better Idea from the Military? The Industrial Mobilization Plan for a Public Relations Administration, 1931-39 Initial Plan: 1931 Revised Plan: 1933 Revised Plan: 1936 Final Plan: 1939 5. Congress Authorizes a Presidential Communications Agency, 1939-41 Roosevelt Outfoxes WRB and the Military The Public Relations Plan of the War Resources Board The Military Tries Again and Again Seeking Permanent Appropriations Through the Back Door Seeking Authorizing Legislation: House of Representatives Seeking Authorizing Legislation: Senate and Conference Committee 6. In Operation, 1939-41 Mission and Overview Division of Field Operations United States Information Service United States Government Manual Other PublicationsPress Intelligence Division Radio Division Film Posters A Propaganda Agency? Back to Capitol Hill for Fiscal Year 1942 Appropriations 7. High Water Mark, Winter-Spring 1941-42 Lifting the Congressional Spending Cap Expanding in Size and Budget Adding Responsibility for Film 8. Roosevelt Fights to Create the U.S. Information Center, Spring 1942 Genesis Implementation Senate Appropriations Committee Attacks by the Washington Post and Congress Compromises Open for Business Fate of the Building 9. Roosevelt Reluctantly Surrenders, May-June 1942 Fiscal Year 1943 Appropriations: A Hint of Weakness Reorganizing Information Agencies Moment of Truth The Office of Government Reports and Office of War Information 10. Truman's Office of Government Reports, 1946-48 BOB's Government Information Service: OGR by Another Name Facing Congress Other Presidential Communications Activities Reestablishing the Office of Government Reports Office of Government Reports Redux Facing Congress End Game: De Jure Dissolution, de Facto Continuation 11. Since Then, Till Now: Vestiges and Lessons OGR III? Hoover Commission, 1947-49 OGR's Legacy to Contemporary Times White House Office of Communications Explaining Congressional Hostility to the Office of Government Reports The Struggle for Ascendancy: Congress versus the President Public Reporting as a Threat to Congressional Ties with Constituents Public Reporting Equals Public Support? Reporting in the Aftermath of the Office of Government Reports Notes Bibliography Index

"Mordecai Lee deals comprehensively and interestingly with an important subject that has been seriously neglected until now. The book's significance lies in the fact that we now have a government by publicity, and Lee deals with some of the origins of that phenomenon." - Ray E. Hiebert, University of Maryland"