Know Your Enemy: Peter Chalmers Mitchell, British Military Intelligence and the Understanding of German Propaganda in the First World War

This article examines the wartime career of Peter Chalmers Mitchell, who set aside his role as Secretary of the London Zoological Society for a wartime career in the War Office, as part of the larger ‘mobilization of intellect’ undertaken by wartime states. During his time at MI7b, Chalmers Mitchell produced an extensive report on German propaganda, intended to inform officials and propagandists of its content in order to assist Britain's own propaganda efforts. However, his attempt to provide an ‘objective and unbiased . . . presentation of facts’ was undermined by prejudice, complacency, presumption of expertise and the tailoring of discussion towards the tastes of his audience. The article explores Chalmers Mitchell's pre‐war and wartime connections with and writing about Germany before assessing his report and briefly exploring possible connections between it and later British propaganda. It argues that, as a scientist, he was accustomed to producing ‘consensible’ knowledge capable of obtaining scholarly consensus because it followed established conventions. While he traded upon his scientific expertise in earlier public interventions about Germany, this was not highlighted in his report. Instead, because he was writing for officials and workers in a government department, his account was made consensible for its audience by confirming what they already thought. It thus discouraged rather than encouraging more complex British approaches to propaganda in the war's last years.