# Despotism

Content warning: This film contains stock sequences of a Ku Klux Klan rally including a staged dramatization of a lynching presented in silhouette and also a Nazi rally with Adolf Hitler. Classic pro-democracy educational title dating to the end of World War II, when the interests of the U.S., expressed by the U.S.-owned Encyclopaedia Britannica, aimed to educate its people about how despotic governmental systems such as Nazi Germany take hold in societies. With a wide array of examples of pre-despotic conditions that exist in the U.S. including housing insecurity, economic insecurity, racism, and voting fraud. Featuring graphics and animated sequences with a moving needle expressing points on a continuum between democracy and despotism. Can notes: "New York University Film Library / Despotism #2 / No. 326 / 253". The #2 refers to NYU's internal print number.

- Kind: Film
- Year: 1945
- By: Encyclopaedia Britannica Films
- Genres: War, Industrial and advertising
- Archive: [Internet Archive](https://archive.org/details/204540_Despotism)
- Licence or status: none stated by the archive
- Who can watch: Adult profiles and older (the archive gives no rating; placed by Invisible Network from its collection and subjects)

[Watch now](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/watch/archive/ia/204540_Despotism?play=1)