War Propaganda, Cultural Stereotypes and Protestant Altruism: British Press and the Russian-Swedish War of 1808-9
War Propaganda, Cultural Stereotypes and Protestant Altruism: British Press and the Russian-Swedish War of 1808-9

Summary/Abstract: This article is a contribution to the recent literature which has examined the Napoleonic Wars (1803-15). The vast majority of this literature has explored the wars from conventional perspectives of political history. This article’s purpose is to widen the scope; it incorporates approaches of cultural, political and media history. The main aim is to investigate British perceptions of the Russians, Swedes and Finns as expressed in war journalism during the Russian-Swedish War of 1808-9. In order to arrive at a balanced view of their central features and importance, attitudes of the press are compared and contrasted with those of travellers, anthropologists and “official Britain”. Although British newspapers primarily covered the main developments and events of the war, news reporting also contained interesting cultural references through which it has been possible to draw attention to the underlying British opinions about the above countries. Attitudes expressed about the Finns and Swedes in newspaper reports were much more positive than those elicited in other types of writing, whereas those about Russia, reflected pan-European negative images of the country and were clearly propagandist. British war-reporting mirrored a multitude of popular contemporary discourses of which anti-Jacobin propaganda was perhaps most visibly present. It also revealed common stereotypical views often expressed in Britain about other countries and peoples. British news-writing, which considered the suffering of Finnish and Swedish civilians, also clearly displayed the essential components of Protestant altruism.

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