Speier, Hans

During his lifetime, Hans Speier was distinguished by two very distinct careers. Speier was a lecturer in political sociology and economics in Germany (1931-1933) before emigrating to the U.S. to accept a position as lecturer and professor of political sociology on the newly formed Graduate Faculty of the New School for Social Research in New York (1933-1942, 1947-1948), lecturing summers at the University of Illinois and the University of Michigan. Speier interrupted his university career for one in government service and research, but returned to teaching in 1969 at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Between 1942 and 1948, Speier served in the Foreign Broadcast Intelligence Service of the Federal Communications Commission (later Chief of the Central European Section), advisor on propaganda policy to the Director of the Overseas Branch, Office of War Information, and eventually became Associate Chief of the State Department's Occupied Areas Division. In 1948, Speier joined the staff of The Rand Corporation, first serving as the Organizer and Head of the Social Science Division, later becoming a member of the Rand Research Council. Speier's research interests focus on the political implications of military affairs and the influence of military power on the behavior of governments in the conduct of his foreign policies. He authored or co-edited numerous books and articles on these subjects, including German Radio Propaganda, Social Order and the Risks of War, West German Leadership and Foreign Policy, German Rearmament and Atomic War, Divided Berlin: The Anatomy of Soviet Political Blackmail, Die Angestellten vor dem Nationalsozialismus (English title: German White Collar Workers and the Rise of Hitler), and Propaganda and Communication in World History. He also published his translation of Grimmelshausen's Courage, the Adventuress and the False Messiah, as well his autobiographical account, From the Ashes of Disgrace: A Journal from Germany 1945-19

From the description of Hans Speier papers, 1922-1989. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 122575113