I Am Not Your Enemy, by Reality Winner, Spiegel & Grau, 336 pages, $30

During World War I, the Committee on Public Information—a short-lived agency Smithsonian Magazine would describe in retrospect as "Woodrow Wilson's propaganda machine"—ran an advertisement titled "Spies and Lies."

"German agents are everywhere, eager to gather scraps of news about our men, our ships, our munitions," the ad warned. "But while the enemy is most industrious in trying to collect information…he is not superhuman—indeed he is often very stupid, and would fail to get what he wants were it not deliberately handed to him by the carelessness of loyal Americans." It not only warned Americans against discussing facts (or rumors) about the war effort, but advised them to report anyone who even "spreads pessimistic

See Full Page