Introduction: Occupied!

American journalists have rarely experienced enemy occupation, in large measure because most American wars have occurred across oceans and in other hemispheres. Only twice in the country’s history—during the Revolutionary War and during the Civil War—has the opportunity arisen for American journalists to try to operate newspapers under long-term enemy occupation. Other studies have examined how the press has covered military occupations, but these studies do not deal directly with how that occupation affected the press. Consequently, the literature on this topic is relatively thin. Most of what exists deals with how the United States military dealt with the press in countries it occupied in the 20th century or the use of newspapers as propaganda devices during occupation.