American social engineering through children’s educational films (1945-1953)

Abstract

This research analyzes the American educational films aimed at children attending primary and elementary education during the administration of the democrat Harry S. Truman (1945-1953). Of the 11,000 documentaries included in the Educational Film Guide (1953), the author performed a selection of productions available online, which aim to the social education of the young in regard to their behavior and attitudes in school and at home, and to the values and ideologies that were expected of them as U.S. citizens. A content analysis is implemented to quantify the subject matters of the films and the audience they were targeted to; technical resources are considered as well. It also incorporates a textual analysis that takes into account the concept of childhood, gender distinction, and the widespread political, social, and moral teachings. It is concluded that these types of films were an aid in the shaping of an ideology for a country in the postwar period, based on the war propaganda experience itself. The youngsters were indoctrinated in ideas, values and behaviors of conservative and nationalist nature, as a consequence of the concept of childhood during that period and the context in which these films were made: the Cold War